Hey all,
I got a chance to meet GM Performance Division Head Engineer John Heinricy at the racetrack on Saturday. My Dad and I went up to Pocono Raceway to visit my Uncle, who races SCCA. We got there about around 12 noon, as the first race was going on. They had about 8 total races that day, each a different class.
We were able to get into the raceway without an issue since we were considered "crew" , all we had to do was sign a waiver, no fees or anything. Once we got in, we went right to the garage area to meet up with my uncle, who was working on his Camaro with his crew. He was having problems with the clutch, which was making shifting difficult without double clutching every shift.
My Uncle is friends with John, so they had garage bays next to each other. John's car (Firebird) was all set up already, so he wasn't around when we first got there. My Uncle began telling us how John had driven to the track all the way from Michigan, and in no vehicle other than a
2006 Corvette Z06. I really couldn't believe it, he actually drove a $70,000 semi-exotic accross the country, and he didn't even own it!! He just picked it off the lot for the weekend, and had already put well over 500 miles on it, not to mention some road grime and a couple knicks and scratches.
So after some time he pulls up in the Z06, Victory red with Black leather seats embriodered with red "Z06" logos. Beautiful car, thats the only way to describe it. You'd never even hear him pull up, thats how quiet these things are. At idle, its no louder than a Honda Civic. We were in the confines of the garage area, so I never really heard him open it up, but I'm sure it sounded awesome. This car was also a production model, not some testing prototype or mule that will be crushed after testing. They said that when he brings it back, it will probably be detailed and sold at a discounted price.
I wasn't there the whole time, but apparently he was also talking quite a bit about the Cobalt SS, and he was referring to it as the "240HP Cobalt" - which I assume is the actual flywheel HP number, as many on Cobalt SS owners have already figured out . He also mentioned working on the development of the GM upgrades, but I didn't get any specific details on that unfortunately.
Heres a pic of him with the Cobalt SS, some of you may have seen him before from this pic:
Overall it was a great time, and it was awesome to see the Z06 being driven around in person.
My CarDomain Page
or maybe he means next years models (07) will have 240 hp.
That's cool man! I've been lucky enough to get around him about 3 times but I could tell he was irritated with the same old questions! Back when I was so inspired to be an engineer my mom got me the chance to meet the guy on a couple occasions and he was a pretty intresting character. Seemed like me just older haha! Cool to hear you got around to meeting him though!
P.s- Did you ask him for a job as did I numerous times?
N2O + Bolt-ons
= 220Hp/
250Tq
Coming Soon:HpTunersPro, EagleConnectingRods, WiescoPistons, 13sec2200
My dad is taking the C6 to pocono next weekend. Ill be up there watching on sunday.
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