Having had a hand in several of the vehicles in the performance division of General Motors, Heinricy is leaving behind a legacy that will be hard to match. Not only a decorated engineer, but also a world class driver, Heinricy ends his career with GM after 40 years. Perhaps he wanted to call it quits before GM went belly up, who knows. He will be sadly missed.

John Heinricy, the man behing General Motors Performance Division, has announced that he will be retiring from GM. Heinricy started with GM almost 40 years ago and has had a hand in some of the automaker’s most exciting and important vehicles.

Even if you don’t know Heinricy by name, you know his creations. He was responsible for the original Cadillac CTS and the new CTS-V, the Corvette Z06 and ZR1, and the Chevy Cobalt SS, among others.

In addition to his duties as an engineer, Heinricy was also one of GM’s most decorated drivers. Heinricy recently took home an SCCA title behind the wheel of a Cobalt SS and holds the Nurburgring lap record for a stock sedan – 7 minutes and 59 seconds — accomplished in the new CTS-V.

Heinricy will be greatly missed at GM and we only hope that his passion will be carried out in future GM products.