OBSESSIONS Where do they build the fastest car in the world? Detroit? Stuttgart? Milan?
It may be on tiny Tracy Street, off Monticello in East Dallas, where 48-year-old BOB NORWOOD will show you the prototype for his 300-mph Norwood A-12. Every part on the A-12-from engine and transmission to body, instruments, and interior-is original. Five have been sold, and you can have first dibs on number six just by plunking down $450,000. A hundred grand less will bring you a Norwood Ferrari P4, the builder’s replica of the 1967 world championship racer now worth $10 million-$15 million. Norwood’s P4s (he”s sold six and has three under construction) can be raced at 250 mph.
After a 1972 motorcycle accident in California cost Norwood a kidney and two broken legs, a friend invited him to Texas to recuperate. In 1977, he opened a sports car shop in Crum, near Denton. In 1979, local Ferrari enthusiasts convinced him to move to his present location, where he rebuilds, restores, and maintains the finest performance cars, including some from as far away as Australia. Norwood, who came up with the idea of an engine capable of 3,000 horsepower with turbo, has set world land-speed records at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.
The A-12 is a byproduct of Norwood’s plan to break the world land-speed record of 409 mph (excluding jets, which he disparages as “airplanes without wings”) in a 30-foot long “needle” that measures only 18 inches in width. Step two: Using the same engine, Norwood plans to build the first street-legal car that will break the 300 mph barrier. Voila! The Norwood A-12! Body of carbon fiber and glass composite. Windshield manufactured in Peru and treated optically in Germany (a touch of a button turns the entire roof from clear glass to smoky). Rear vision is by LCD rearview monitor. Lost your owner’s manual? Just call it up on the computer screen.
Norwood sold his first five A-12s from drawings and engine specifications- a clear vote of confidence from buyers.
“My customers know that if I say I’m going to build an Eiffel Tower in Texas, they better clear off a piece of land.” he says.
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