The gulf Norton started out as a Triumph twin engine machine. It was first constructed by Dennis Manning in 1971. The bike featured motors that were bored out to 750cc, before 750cc twins were being produced by Triumph. As a triumph the machine made 13 runs at Bonneville, some of them over the speed of the current record. However, these runs were all single passes. The team was unable to back the runs up with a second pass.  

In 1974 Norton Villers Triumph Ltd. unveiled their plan to go after the land speed record using Norton power plants. The twin engine Triumph was transformed into a twin 850cc motor Norton streamliner. The project was in part sponsored by Gulf. Once again Manning was planning to go after the record with British machinery. The motors were prepared by the most skilled Norton tuners in the world, with Norton Villers supplying them with all the necessary parts and technology.

The Norton performed similarly to the Triumph on the salt at Bonneville. It completed very promising one way runs at speeds of nearly 280mph. As before, it failed to complete a two way pass to back up the record. At this time Norton was sinking financially, and begun to cut costs. The first place they looked to reduce cost from was racing research and development, and the streamliner project was pulled. Not long after making the runs at Bonneville, Norton went under and ceased to manufacture motorcycles.

Dennis Manning continued to work on land speed record projects, and still does to this day. The Gulf Norton was sent back to England where it was disassembled, with the rolling chassis being sold to a famous Dutch racer by the name of Henk Vink.

Henk had intentions of running the chassis with Kawasaki motors.  After one test ride he decided piloting a streamliner at high rates of speed was something he did not want to do. When Henk passed away, the streamliner was sold to the NSU museum in Germany. The Museum did not feature the machine, since it was not NSU powered. Instead, the streamliner was placed on loan to a smaller German transportation museum, where it sat for many years.

In 2004, Big D Cycle went searching for the Gulf Norton and found it in a small town in south Germany. Over many months negotiations were made to have the bike shipped to Texas, so that work on the restoration could begin.