Doug Hele
| Doug Hele | |
|---|---|
Hele in 1967
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|
| Born |
13 July 1919 King's Norton, Birmingham |
| Died | 2 November 2001 (aged 82) Hagley |
| Residence | Worcestershire, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Motorcycle engineer |
Douglas Lionel "Doug" Hele (13 July 1919 – 2 November 2001) was a pioneering British motorcycle engineer with Triumph and other firms: BSA, Douglas and Norton. He was born in Birmingham in 1919 and died in Hagley, Worcestershire on 2 November 2001.
Described as an 'outstanding student' at King's Norton Secondary School. Hele started his career in engineering as an apprentice with the Austin Motor Company at the Longbridge factory in Birmingham where he worked throughout the Second World War. He moved on to Douglas Motorcycles in Bristol in 1945 where he worked as a draughtsman in the motorcycle design team under former Norton chief designer Walter Moore. Moore encouraged him to go to the Norton factory, where he helped Polish engineer Leo Kusmicki design and develop the Featherbed framed Manx Norton single-cylinder racing models that won world championships in the early 1950s.
After a short time at BSA where he worked on the 250cc single-cylinder racer with BSA chief designer Bert Hopwood he returned to Norton to continue development of the "Manx" and it is his 1961 version that is the most sought after by collectors today.
His next project was the development of the 500 cc Norton Dominator into a racing motorcycle. Hele's prototype "Domiracer" came third in the 1961 Isle of Man TT averaging over 100 mph but the project was abandoned when parent-company Associated Motor Cycles ended racing-development at Norton to cut costs. The factory race shop's larger capacity 650 Domiracer also showed promise, so Hele was encouraged and developed the 650 cc road bike which went on to win the Thruxton 500 production-class race for three years in a row giving Norton much needed publicity.
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