About

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History

Bob Norwood founded Norwood Autocraft in Dallas in the late 70s’. Bob’s primary focus was on vintage Ferrari restoration, service, and (re) building vintage Ferrari race cars. By the early 80s’ Bob was heavily involved in the Can-Am racing series with his partner Don Walker; as well as gaining a reputation as a builder of modified high performance Ferrari’s.  By the mid 80s’ Bob’s Ferrari service had grown significantly and he was developing a national reputation in the Ferrari world as a quality Ferrari tuner. By this time the Can-Am series had dissolved so Bob shifted his interest to running a Ferrari at the Bonneville Salt Flats and in 1985 he set two records that stood for more than 25 years.

In the early 90s’ Norwood Autocraft was contracted by General Motors to restore and upgrade the Oldsmobile Aero-Tech to make an attempt at the 25km land speed record. That effort was successful, usurping the mark set by Mercedes Benz . Throughout this period, Norwood Autocraft continued to thrive but Bob was personally shifting his focus to racing. In 1999 he sold the road car service to his long time employee, James Patterson.

With the purchase of Norwood Autocraft’s Ferrari service business was renamed Norwood Performance which focused on Ferrari road car service, maintenance and restoration. Through the early 2000’s Norwood Performance also built custom turned and turbocharged Ferrari’s through 2008 when the last car was completed.  Thereafter the shop was exclusively focused on maintaining and restoring all of the Italian sports car marquees including also Lamborghini, Maserati, Lancia and Alf Romeo .

In 2010 Challenge Car Racing offered a competitive opportunity to race retired Ferrari Challenge cars and Norwood Performance was engaged by several customers to prepare and provide track support for clients looking for a classic Ferrari racing experience without the pressure and risk of the commercial Ferrari Challenge series.

In 2014, Norwood Performance moved from its former home on Burbank St. adjoining Love Field to a much more substantial and better equipped shop on Commander Drive in Carrolton.  With this substantial investment in space, equipment and an increase in staffing, we changed our name to reflect our vision to become Norwood Auto Italia.

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Terms & Conditions

TERMS: CASH UNLESS PRIOR ARRANGEMENTS MADE. Client hereby authorizes the above repair work to be done along with necessary materials. Norwood employees may operate above vehicle for purposes of testing, inspecting or delivery at client’s risk. An express mechanic’s lien is acknowledged on above vehicle to secure the amount of repairs thereto. Norwood will not be held responsible for loss or damage to vehicle or articles left in case of fire, theft, accident or any other cause beyond Norwood’s control. WARRANTY: Service & repair items @ 3 months or 3,000 miles; Parts as per manufacturer’s warranty; 25% handling charge on all returned items; Performance/engine parts & labor are warranteed at Norwood Auto Italia’s discretion. NO RETURNS ON ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS OR SPECIAL ORDERS. NO RETURNS AFTER 30 DAYS!

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Supply Chain

We source parts from all over the world to match the need, use, and pocket book of our customers.  Sometimes the factory part is the “best” way to go irrespective of cost but we will always discus these options with our clients so they can understand the implications of the decision.  As cars age, the supply of parts for them diminishes to the point that new items have become so rare that they acquire their own definition as NOS or New-Old Stock.  This material is increasingly more difficult to find and sometimes we have to go to the lengths of having parts made or reconfigured to fit.

Its also a fact of life that the manufacturers of the vehicles we support have by and large fallen on hard times and during this time have either lost the original drawings or disposed of the tooling for parts.  This makes them increasingly disinterested during their recovery phase in supporting vehicles whose volume is by definition going to decline.  This means that we (and others) have become increasingly more adept at research and retrieval than at any time previously.  Thanks in large part to the Internet this is no longer as costly and time absorbing as it once was but the parts we often have to find are usually not the sort that have been listed in electronic databases.  Accordingly the moniker of “NLA” or No Longer Available is increasingly found at dealers and factory sponsored Italian Automobile manufacturers as it relates to out-of-production vehicles.

However this is where our experience comes into play as we have spent much of our 70 plus years of experience researching with others the best way to find, modify, adapt or make the parts needed to keep your wonderful Italian beauty healthy.  So give us a chance to to make this experience work for you.