Marv’s Garage: Salt horses
We all know the jokes about Italian cars, Russian steel and body rot. So who in their right mind would race a fragile mega-dollar Italian sports car on a salt flat?! Bob Norwood is one such fella.
Mr B. Norwood-esquire is a controversial figure in the world of Ferraris, particularly classic and racing models. He's had a wild life, full of drag and circuit racing, starting as a 13 year old in the 1940s. The American also caused rage and gnashing of teeth when photos of his salt racing Ferraris first circulated on the Internet many years ago, sitting on the salt at Bonneville.
But it was a bit late to get outraged, as Norwood’s Ferrari had first run way back in 1985! Starting with a damaged 308 QV he upgraded the engine, removed the alternator, lowered it, fitted Volvo wheels and packed the luggage area with ice. He broke both F/GT and F/Modified Sports classes at 170mph, but his next Bonneville project turned the outrage up to 11ty.
Turning a 308 into a 288 GTO clone raises hackles but one fitted with a Can-Am series V8? Bobby McPrancinghorse had run in the Can-Am series in the early 1980s so he had the spares there, and it made more sense than trying to squeeze the small Ferrari V8 that hard.
As a road car the 288 GTO replica went to the salt in 1988 and ran 199.997mph at Bonneville, before it copped a twin-turbo 512ci Chev big-block in 1990. The next owner of the GTO, Dr Bill Gordon, developed the packag pushing it to an AA/BMS class record of 245mph in the early 00s.
Steve Trafton of Black Horse Racing bought the 288 GTO, now known as Cavallo Volante, in 2007. He repowered it with a twin-turbo 590ci Chevy V8 making an estimated 2500hp and has gone over 275mph in that car, setting an AA/BFMS class record.
Interestingly, Norwood also built a front-engined 308 dragster powered by a 1400hp Ferrari flat-12 using an Aussie Haltech F3 ECU and a train turbo (making 60psi) which ran 7.0@170mph. In 1989 the car was taken to the salt, but the meeting was rained out.
Amir Rosenbaum made his money founding Spectre Performance and selling air intakes. He had a long history racing his Ferrari Testarossa and 512TR before he stepped up and bought the cheapest F40 he could find. After some years of success in road rallies and hillclimbs Amir sent the F40 to Pete Chapouris at the So-Cal Speed Shop and kitted out with SCTA safety gear so he could run it at Bonneville. With basically standard power mods were done to the roll cage, 15x6in steel wheels and custom hubs were fitted and so, at Speed Week 2006, Amir ran 221 mph.
However, while the F40 claimed to be the first production car to top 200mph the experience of driving one at 221mph frightened Amir so much he bought a streamliner to do Big Speed in. Amir has said the wheelbase and wheel track dimensions, coupled with the downforce it was making, meant Ferrari's final supercar to receive Enzo's personal approval wanted to turn on its axis the whole time on the salt.
A few years later another pinnacle Prancing Horse was thundering down the hallowed 5mile course near Wendover. Richard Losee had demolished his Enzo at 200mph on a road rally and during his recovery he rebuilt the car as a salt racer by adding twin-turbos. He took it to Speed Week 2010 and, after spinning at 195mph, Losee eventually recorded a peak of 237mph.
It was a long way from the Ferrari 400 Superamerica that ran on the salt mere weeks after debuting at the 1962 Geneva Motor Show. The most expensive Ferrari at that time, owner RJ Stallings took it to over 145mph which was apparently much faster than the 4.5-litre Ferrari he ran there in 1959 and 60. This car sold in 2015 for over $7.6mil.
