By Sarah Handy, Staff Writer
General Motors has announced it will open a new technical center in Charlotte focused on performance and racing within the Charlotte region.
The new facility will expand not only GM’s performance but its racing capabilities. It will have a focus on transferring knowledge as well as resources from racing programs to core vehicle engineering.
Furthermore, the 75,000-square-foot facility will be located in Concord, North Carolina, less than 10 miles from Charlotte Motor Speedway. It’s expected to open by mid-2020.
“We’re thrilled to expand GM’s U.S. footprint by establishing a greater presence in Charlotte, a community that has become a racing and engineering mecca,” said Jim Campbell, Chevrolet U.S. vice president of Performance and Motorsports.
“The new facility will be close to a number of key Chevrolet and Cadillac racing partners, teams and suppliers. This will allow for improved collaboration as well as access to some of the industry’s best talent.”
With the new technical center, it will provide an opportunity to recruit potential GM employees from the large, growing pool of technical talent located in the Charlotte area.
Additionally, the new technical center will also provide GM with the opportunity to expand and enhance its support for the Chevrolet NASCAR race teams, in addition to other GM racing teams.
It’s important to note that the facility will offer Driver-in-the-Loop simulators, vehicle simulation, aero development, and other practices to advance racing and also production capabilities.
“Chevrolet and Cadillac Racing are two of the winningest brands in motorsports. This new facility will build upon their legacies and hopefully lead to even more success on the track,” said Campbell. “Racing helps us accelerate the development, performance and popularity of our cars and trucks across the world.”
The next generation of NASCAR Cup car will be a big challenge for the lesser-funded teams, especially when the hybrid system integration requirement comes to fruition. Whether the approach GM is taking to create the closer collaboration by physical co-location between teams and GM’s engineering R&D resources to give them a leg up remains to be seen. Same goes for the IMSA teams in the transition that series will have to deal with, probably with less funding vs their competitors compared to the NASCAR program. Having GM resources residing locally would seem to be a smart move. Time & travel costs alone make it a common sense move. Mr Hendrick’s donations to GM causes in Detroit may be paying off….and I can just imagine that Alba Colon is happy to have more of her GM colleagues join her in NC.