In 1949, Saul Winstein observed that 2-exo-norbornyl brosylate (p-bromobenzenesulfonate) and 2-endo-norbornyl tosylate (p-toluenesulfonate) gave a racemic mixture of the same product, 2-exo-norbornyl acetate, upon acetolysis (see Figure 6). Since tosylates and brosylates work equally well as leaving groups, he concluded that both the 2-endo and 2-exo substituted norbornane must be going through a common cationic intermediate with a dominant exo reactivity. He reported that this intermediate was most likely a symmetric, delocalized 2-norbornyl cation. It was later shown via vapor phase chromatography that the amount of the endo epimer of product produced was less than 0.02%, proving the high stereoselectivity of the reaction.
When a single enantiomer of 2-exo-norbornyl brosylate undergoes acetolysis, no optical activity is seen in the resulting 2-exo-norbornyl acetate (see Figure 7). Under the non-classical description of the 2-norbornyl cation, the plane of symmetry present (running through carbons 4, 5, and 6) allow equal access to both enantiomers of the product, resulting in the observed racemic mixture.
It was also observed that the 2-exo-substituted norbornanes reacted 350 times faster than the corresponding endo isomers. Anchimeric assistance of the sigma bond between carbons 1 and 6 was rationalized as the explanation for this kinetic effect. Importantly, the invoked anchimeric assistance led many chemists to postulate that the energetic stability of the 2-norbornyl cation was directly due to the symmetric, bridged structure invoked in the non-classical explanation. However, some other authors offered alternative explanations for the high stability without invoking a non-classical structure.
In 1951, it was first suggested that the 2-norbornyl cation could actually be better described when viewed as a nortricyclonium ion. It has been shown that the major product formed from an elimination reaction of the 2-norbornyl cation is nortricyclene (not norbornene), but this has been claimed to support both non-classical ion postulates.