What is the story behind Ferrari and Norwood?

The Man, The Myth, The Legend and Bob Norwood have been manufacturing, racing, restoring and servicing vintage / racing Ferraris and other vehicles for over 50 years. He is known for incorporating innovative developments into high-performance automotive design.

His passion for cars began at an early age. At the age of 13, he drove the 1946 Ford Coupe in his first competitive drag race. He continued drag racing in high school, driving a 6-cylinder GMC G-Gas Coupe and later the A-Sports Corvette. In 1971 he raced with Superstock Hemicouda and finished second in the world’s A / FC point rankings.

Norwood participated in the Cam AM race by purchasing a 1979 Citi-Corp Championship car from Carl Hass in 1982. He ran SCCA A-Sports with driver Phil Compton and continued in 1983 with the addition of a second Roller 333 driven by Microw. The Norwood team partnered with Don Walker in late 1983 to purchase Team VDS and win Cam AM in 1984. At one point, he was the proud owner of the Guinness Book of Records’ 137 list of automobile world records.

In the mid-1980s, Bob’s modified Ferrari 308 QV was the first to feature programmable fuel injection and set two classes of speed records at the Bonneville Salt Flats, one of which was used for 26 years.

His Ferrari 288 GTO body holds the record for being the fastest Ferrari in the world, with the intercooler twin-turbo Ferrari Testarossa winning the Road & Track Magazine shootout.

In the late 80’s, Norwood equipped Ferrari’s 12-cylinder boxer engine with a locomotive-powered supercharger. Featuring a lightweight flywheel and knife-edged crank, it was able to spin from the engine’s 1200 RPM idle to the 9,000 RPM red line in just over a tenth of a second. The Superflow 901 Engine Dino has been certified to generate 1,400 horsepower with 120 octane gasoline with a 60psi boost.

The short stroke 3.2 inch bore engine has been upgraded with billet crocodile rank shafts, extra long crower rods and custom forged pistons. It was managed by the Haltech F3 EFI controller and the Firepower Direct-Fire 12 coil ignition system. Fast-forwarding for today, he builds a custom 5.0-liter 4-cylinder engine from scratch that produces over 3,000 horsepower (including engine blocks and heads)!

Taking advantage of his racing background and passion for Ferrari, Norwood’s first Ferrari restoration project was a 330 2 + 2 road car and a boano club racer. He then built the first Ferrari replica, the 59 / TR (Testarossa), and four more. Since then, he has produced numerous Ferrari replicas, including the 330 / P4. After building a P4 replica, a GTO rebody, and a 250 Testrossa 59 over the years, he decided to build a rebodyed Ferrari 250 GT SWB spider (these and his 330 P / 4 details). Scroll down for more information).

In addition to his own projects, he builds racing and street motors for several racing teams and is one of the leading service and repair providers for Ferrari owners / collectors around the world.