In 1978, during his junior year in high school, Mike Norcia bought an 11-year-old Camaro, which has remained in his possession since.
Today, the car is rebuilt in the style of a Pro Street machine, or perhaps more accurately a Pro Mod Street. Endowed with a 572-cu.-in. power unit, GM’s biggest crate engine and rated at 620 bhp/650 tq the car is fast – operating in the high 9-second range over the quarter mile.
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Mike’s affection for race cars and hot rods was awakened at an early age – undoubtedly transmitted by his father, John, who had formed the noted competition clutch company in the early 1970s.
“At the time I bought the car for $1200,” Norcia says, “I got a clean body with 34,000 miles of use, a Muncie M22 transmission, a Dana rear end and enlarged rear wheel wells, which indicated that the car had probably seen competition use. In the engine bay, it sported a nice 327-cu.-in. power unit – split down both sides of the block!” Abandoned in a barn over several winters and with a cooling system filled with water without antifreeze, crankcase destruction was inevitable.“ I suspected the only tools the previous owner used to work on this car were a dead-blow hammer and a blow torch!” Norcia says.
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The engine was replaced with a fairly radical 350 and the car was pressed into action for another year until one evening when setting the valves, oil issued from the exhaust and up the garage door behind. This was the result of multiple valve-seal failures on one side, following some spirited driving the night before.
The next engine combo was an LT-1 from a 1970 Corvette. “Around this same time,” says Norcia, “and with the help of a friend we stripped the car and repainted it. We chose Corvette Dark Red and incorporated Silver Blue flames coming off the front rally stripe. Being a typical 17-year-old, I didn’t do as good a job as I could have with the paintwork. But it certainly was an attention-getter!”
Then out of the blue in 1994, he towed the car to Stroupe Race Cars in Kings Mountain, North Carolnia, for a complete 12-point roll cage and back-half job – rebuilding the car from the firewall to the back end. The intention was to develop it as a Pro Street car.
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