Santos and Doucet established Norma in 1984 with a focus on the French Hillclimbing Championship. Success in that arena prompted the pair to broaden their ambitions, leading to construction of more ambitious machinery capable of competing at international endurance events.
Norma's first foray into major endurance racing came with the Norma M6, a Group C car fitted with an experimental MGN W12 engine developed by Guy Nègre. The M6 was entered at the 1990 24 Hours of Le Mans with Daniel Boccard, Norbert Santos, and Noël del Bello sharing driving duties, but it failed to qualify. A second Le Mans effort in 1995 saw the Buick-powered Norma M14 prequalify twenty-third overall without making the race grid. The M14 returned in 1999 at the 24 Hours of Daytona, qualifying twenty-sixth overall before retiring with exhaust failure.
Between 1997 and 1999 Norma also participated in the French Formula Renault Championship as a team entry rather than as a constructor, fielding cars for drivers Renaud Malinconi (1997) and Stéphane Gautré (1999). Malinconi finished eighth in the standings and collected two podiums; Gautré scored one win and four podiums to end the season fourth.
A more competitive prototype arrived in 2000 with the Norma M2000, developed alongside a new collaborator, Edouard Sézionale. The M2000 was raced exclusively by the Sezio Florida Racing Team from 2000 through 2003, competing in the Rolex Sports Car Series in 2001 and 2002 and recording a best finish of third. After four attempts to qualify for Le Mans, the team succeeded in 2003, starting thirty-sixth overall before retiring due to engine failure eight hours and thirty-nine minutes into the race.
Following the Le Mans programme, Norma shifted attention to Group CN prototypes beginning with the Norma M20. Some thirty M20 cars were produced in 2003 and 2004, and the model continued to evolve. The current-generation Norma M20 FC competes in the V de V series and Speed EuroSeries among other sportscar championships. Norma cars won the V de V Prototype Endurance Challenge in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012.
A second Le Mans attempt in the prototype era came in 2010 when Pegasus Racing entered a Norma M200P, though the car did not finish. Extreme Limite subsequently ran the M200P in the Le Mans Series and at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2011 and 2012, with a best result of fifth at the 6 Hours of Estoril in 2011.
Norma also attracted SCCA National Championship Runoffs competitors in the United States. Starting in 2014, Jim Devenport drove an M20FC with a Honda K20 engine to third place at Laguna Seca in the Prototype 1 class, followed by second at the Daytona Runoffs in 2015 and an outright class victory at Mid-Ohio in 2016, giving Norma its first Runoffs win.
Norma developed a purpose-built hillclimb specification of the M20 for Pikes Peak. In 2014, Romain Dumas drove the Norma M20 RD Limited to victory in the Unlimited class, completing the course in 9:05.801. Dumas returned in 2016 with an updated specification and improved that mark to 8:51.445, winning the event for a second time.
From 2014 onward Norma became a dominant force in the FIA European Hill Climb Championship. Italian driver Simone Faggioli, competing with direct factory support in a Norma M20 FC Zytec fitted with a three-litre naturally-aspirated V8 engine, won the Category 2 title in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2019. Faggioli and Norma set numerous track records across the championship during this period, establishing the marque as the benchmark for open prototype hillclimb machinery in Europe.
From its origins as a small French hillclimb specialist, Norma Auto Concept developed into an internationally recognised constructor with victories spanning club endurance racing, American sportscar competition, and the two most prestigious hillclimb events in the world — Pikes Peak and the FIA European Hill Climb Championship. The M20 platform's longevity and adaptability across multiple series reflects the design's fundamental soundness, and the partnership with Simone Faggioli produced one of the most sustained periods of success the European hillclimb title has seen.