General Motors Inaugurates New Performance And Racing Center

General Motors has finished putting part of its $200 million investment into Pontiac, Michigan to good use. General Motors has officially opened its new performance and racing center.

The new, 111,420-square-foot facility is connected to GM’s Global Powertrain Engineering Center and brings GM’s entire team of nearly 100 engine builders, engineers and other support staff under one roof.

The goal of the new performance and racing center is to leverage resources in a more efficient fashion and integrate technology between GM’s racing programs even faster. The center is responsible for the automaker’s NASCAR, NHRA, IndyCar, IMSA and other racing series’ engines.

“We race to win and learn,” said Dan Nicholson, vice president, General Motors Global Powertrain. “This new facility offers unprecedented opportunities to connect our racing engineers and powertrain engineers, integrating their knowledge to give our racers an edge on the track and our customers better vehicles on the road.”

The racing engines under responsibility at the new center include:

• NASCAR “R07” – a unique 358-cubic-inch V-8 engine designed and developed exclusively for NASCAR Sprint Cup racing
• IndyCar 2.2L Twin-Turbo V-6 – a technical marvel that uses a pair of high-boost-producing turbochargers to help extract about 700 horsepower from the small-displacement, direct-injected V-6
• NHRA COPO Camaro V-8 engines – racers competing with a new 2016 COPO Camaro in NHRA’s Stock and Super Stock eliminator classes can select from supercharged and naturally aspirated LS- and LT-family engines
• Corvette Racing 5.5L V-8 – Based on the production LT engine family, the naturally aspirated and all-aluminum 5.5L V-8 engine is used by the Corvette Racing C7.R team
• Cadillac ATSV.R Twin Turbo – A racing engine based on the production model’s 3.6L twin-turbo engine.

The facility houses all of the necessary equipment to continue building world class powertrains and includes machining, assembly, testing and calibration equipment.

In addition to all of the engineering going on at the new facility, a new interactive lobby and meeting space to accommodate up to 125 individuals.