The F1 is a road-going sports

Sport bike

A sport bike, also written as sportbike, is a motorcycle optimized for speed, acceleration, braking, and cornering on paved roads, typically at the expense of comfort and fuel economy in comparison to less specialized motorcycles...

 model that Norton

Norton (motorcycle)

Norton is a British motorcycle marque, originally from Birmingham, founded in 1898 as a manufacturer of "fittings and parts for the two-wheel trade". By 1902, they had begun manufacturing motorcycles with bought-in engines. In 1908, a Norton-built engine was added to the range...

 based on its RCW588 racing motorcycle. The F1 was offered in only one livery: black with gold decals and grey and gold stripes, to reflect John Player's sponsorship of Norton's race team. It was distinctive for using a 588 cc liquid-cooled

Radiator (engine cooling)

Radiators are used for cooling internal combustion engines, mainly in automobiles but also in piston-engined aircraft, railway locomotives, motorcycles, stationary generating plant or any similar use of such an engine....

 twin-rotor Wankel engine

Wankel engine

The Wankel engine is a type of internal combustion engine using an eccentric rotary design to convert pressure into a rotating motion instead of using reciprocating pistons. Its four-stroke cycle takes place in a space between the inside of an oval-like epitrochoid-shaped housing and a rotor that...

. This unit was developed from the motor in the Norton Commander

Norton Commander (motorcycle)

The Commander was a Norton motorcycle with a Wankel rotary engine.The first Norton Wankel motorcycle was the 1987 air-cooled Classic, built as a special edition of just 100 machines. It was followed by the air-cooled Interpol 2 model. The Commander was a liquid-cooled successor to the Interpol...

.