GM performance guru John Heinricy retires

The Nürburgring record-setting Cadillac CTS-V

Over the past two decades, John Heinricy has probably done more to enhance the performance image of General Motors than any other single individual. From the perspective of a petrol-head, Heinricy has for many years held what is probably the coolest job at GM as the director of the Performance division and top-dog test driver. We found out today that Heinricy is retiring after 38 years as an engineer and test driver for GM. In his off time, Heinricy has raced a wide variety of cars at many different levels and captured 11 SCCA national titles. Much of his best known work has been at the wheel of the last several generations of Corvettes along with the Cadillac CTS, but this year he got the most attention for his exploits in the new CTS-V. Specifically, he became the first driver to record a sub-eight minute lap time at the Nurburgring in a production four-door sedan with the new Cadillac CTS-V. When we attended the first track preview of the CTS-V a few months ago, Heinricy was on hand with the record setting car to talk about the big lap. You can check out video of Heinricy's chat and the record lap after the jump.

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[Source: Cadillac Driver's Log]

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John Heinricy explains his 7:59:38 'Ring time in t

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