The Classical 2‐Norbornyl Cation Rigorously Defined Ab Initio

Not a minimum, but a transition state–-this result for the “classical” structure 1 of the 2-norbornyl cation has now been shown rigorously by ab initio computations. Classical 1 is 13.6 kcal mol−1 less stable than the symmetrically bridged nonclassical minimum, and the computed NMR chemical shifts for it do not conform to the experimental data.