GM Racing Profile: Norman Peralta, GM Powertrain

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FOR RELEASE: 2005-06-14 GM Racing Profile: Norman Peralta, GM Powertrain



After a stint in Great Britain developing Indy Racing League engines for Chevrolet, Norman Peralta is now a motivating force behind Grand American road racing efforts by Pontiac – which expands soon with the arrival of the GTO.R race car, debuting in the GT class of the Rolex Series in late June.



Recently named engine project manager for Pontiac’s Grand American V-8s, Peralta has an involved history with General Motors starting with his college internships for GM.



Peralta hails from Detroit, and in his words, “it was always a dream for me to take part in helping the Motor City regain its competitiveness.”



A hand-me-down GMC S-15 Jimmy (his first car) helped teach him the hands-on aspect of the automotive world, and Peralta put some of that knowledge to use at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering. It was at that time he landed his internships with GM.



“I started working as an engineering intern; I was basically a summer student at what used to be the Midsize Car Division. I spent two summers there; the first year working with wishbone suspensions. The second year I worked with Pontiac Grand Prix door hinges which, believe it or not, are incredibly complex. So I’ve had some good experience working with multiple aspects of a vehicle, but I specialize in engines.”



Peralta learned all about engines at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at Cambridge, where he was a research assistant in the Sloan Automotive Laboratory. Named after Alfred Sloan, an early president of GM under whom it grew tremendously, the Sloan laboratory was an aptly named site for Peralta to work on his research. His GM-funded studies there led him to his thesis on hydrocarbon transfer in engine oil, and he graduated in 1997 with a Master’s of Science degree in mechanical engineering.



Peralta then went to work for GM Powertrain in Pontiac, where he worked on a multitude of projects. He tested the combustion performance of competitor’s engines and assessed their technology relative to GM products. Later, he joined the Advanced Power Generation group, which focused on projects that were brought directly from concept to working prototype form. Nearly every six months, a new show or demo car would be produced containing cutting-edge Powertrain technology.



Elements of the Advanced Power Generation group evolved into what is now GM Powertrain Racing, and that is how Peralta became involved with racing. After three years in the Detroit area and a three-month period overseas with Opel, he went to England to develop race motors for Chevrolet’s IRL cars.



“The one thing that’s been unique about working within the racing group is the access to different people—within GM and our partners as well. There is so much knowledge you can leverage. It’s kind of like a jigsaw puzzle how everyone fits together. Especially in racing, we’ve got one of the best pools of talent to pick from.”



Peralta’s work with IRL engines gave him the experience he needed to spearhead the Pontiac racing engine program. His persistence toward developing a durable race engine was rewarded before he left England, as he proudly displays a trophy presented to him by his former co-workers.



“They mounted a broken piston and gave it to me,” said Peralta. “It reads ‘To Norman: from the build shop. Thanks for keeping us busy.’ It goes to show that in the shop we will push the hardware to the limits in order for us not to have any failures on the track. And we really pushed that engine until its piston finally broke.”



In addition to developing engines for GM, Peralta still loves to work on cars at home and owns a 1963 Chevrolet Impala that is his project car.



“My father-in-law gave it to me as a Christmas present,” he said. “It needs some work, but I’m restoring it. It has a 283 ci V-8 with a Powerglide transmission. It’s a 15 footer, which means from 15 feet away, it’s a sweet car. But up close you can see a few flaws. It’s actually my dream to give that car back to my father-in-law, all fixed up.”



Peralta is excited to be working on a production-based racing engine program, and plans to maintain the level of success Pontiac has attained with its Daytona Prototype program in the Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series.



“From a durability standpoint our long term goal for the program is to become the benchmark of durability for the 24 Hours of Daytona while winning it. Personally, I would like to do everything I can to keep GM competitive in this tough marketplace.”
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