Catching up with John Heinricy: Cadillac Racing, SCCA Championships, and the Evolution of Fuel Injection Systems
In Wheel Time Podcast: Your Go-To Automotive Talk Show
Catching up with John Heinricy: Cadillac Racing, SCCA Championships, and the Evolution of Fuel Injection Systems
In Wheel Time Podcast: Your Go-To Automotive Talk Show · Jul 9, 2023
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Well, that's all right, anyway.
So I understand, according to Mr Mars, that we have Mr Heinrich See.
Now we do not have his video audio, but we do have his audio and so we can hear him.
Johnny, you with us, i am here with you.
Well, we're so glad that you're here with us and we are very privileged to have you on the air with us, john Heinrich see, with Cadillac racing the SCCA national championship and a Cadillac CT 4V black wing.
And you know, i have with us on the dais here.
Mr.
Jeff Zekin, and he is a huge Cadillac fan.
You can't see him, but I can tell you that he's wearing his Cadillac racing shirt and he brought his Cadillac hat, and he's the one that's going to interview you today.
No, I'm just an awe.
No, well, you've got to be able to speak as well.
Well, I'm going to mumble through it.
I can see you.
And in a picture of the information Mike sent, there's five people standing in front of the car that you're missing, a person which is me standing in that photo.
Just Clarkston, michigan.
I'm a Michigander born and raised Detroit area.
Just good to know that there's still some good, honest things going on with Cadillac in Michigan.
Yeah, they're still having a lot of fun.
There's a lot of my friends at GM that are still working on the Cadillac guys and girls that I worked with when I was working at GM.
I worked there for almost 40 years and spent a good portion of the last 10 years working on Cadillac performance vehicles with the V's, so I've still got a lot of blood going on there and the guys are really working hard to get Cadillac where it needs to be in the marketplace.
So what exactly are you doing to the V to incorporate it into the SCCA?
Well, primarily it's changing or adding all the safety requirements.
We've got the cage in it and safety seats, racing seats and that kind of stuff, fire system of course, and the interior is pretty much gutted out.
So I've got racing seats, no interior seats.
The door panels are gone, front windows door windows are gone.
They're replaced by nets that are required by SCCA.
But pretty much I'm running the stock twin turbo V6 in the car with the automatic 10 speed And all of the technical nannies that come along with that are all still part of the car And SCCA has required that the car run with the stock engine control because it is making quite a bit of power and it's probably making as much or more power than a lot of the cars that I'm competing with.
So they're making the car stay with the stock powertrain, that's that stock exhaust.
I'm running with catalytic converters and the whole thing there.
Wow.
So one off, or you're going to build multiples.
Well, this is the first one, so we're running this year and next year for sure, and We'll see if we're building more.
We obviously want to want to prove the capability of the car first Before being able to sell more, but that's our intent.
The competition is very, very tough.
We're running against 991 Porsches and BMW M2's.
There are Mustang Camaro's, there's even a viper and there are some C5 Corvettes and C6 Corvettes that are running in this same touring two class.
So the competition is pretty tough.
What kind of horsepower does that turbo six make?
It's 474 horsepower In a v6.
That's, that's, that's, and you're able to keep the thing together.
Yeah, yeah, it's, it's doing really well, running really good and and I assume that this is an engine that Cadillac builds or GM builds Well, this car was a production car, so it came with that engine right from GM.
Wow, but did it come with the turbo?
Yeah, yes, twin turbos.
Wow, black wings, nice.
And you've got a pretty long history with Cadillac.
I know I I I worked for GM for 21 years as, or 25 years, as a field engineer and had a chance to kind of not follow you but Kind of watch you over your time as you move through a few different brands.
But I also know you've put a few hours in the Nürburgring as well, some of it to Cadillac's benefit.
Yeah, we, we took the the first V's over there, so this would be back in the 2003 for range.
With the first CTS We did a lot of the development work for the chassis on the ring, and then with the second version of the V for 2008-9, with the supercharged 6.2
liter engine, we spent a lot of time over at the ring fine-tuning that car and since then the folks working on the Upgraded V's from then to the black wings have also spent a lot of time there.
So I'm reaping the benefits of that on the CT for a black wing race car that we built.
John, how does it work with you and Cadillac?
Do you say, look, you know, it's just not going into the corner the right way?
Do they change parts for you, that they develop new Technology for you to race this car?
No, i'm pretty much running the car the way it came.
So I've got stock springs and shock absorbers and on the car It's stabilizer bars.
That's all has to remain stock on this car According to SCCA's rules.
So I'm running pretty sock.
Now Do I get some advice from them?
Yes, i have a contact engineer that I can talk to and if I've got any Issues or or need some advice on on which way to go, then I've got somebody there who can help me with the technology.
Because, boy, i tell you, this car has a lot of technology in it.
With the.
It's got the active MR shock absorbers And the electronic control differential as well as an automatic transmission.
So there's there's a lot there that Needs to work right for me to get it everything I can out of it on the track.
I do help there with the setup.
Is there a GM representative there at the races with you?
No, i haven't had somebody at the races, but it's kind of like I refer to to the Want to be a millionaire show where you've got a phone, a friend, kind of thing.
So All those phone numbers 40 years If I get any issues.
I've got a couple of contacts there that I can Just to give you an example of some of the issues With the, with all the electronics on the car.
If you change the wrong thing on the car it's going to shut you down and You know you aren't going to be able to get the most out of it.
Even something as simple as taking the park brakes off the car because I don't need the extra calipers on the rear Suspension, the.
You know it's extra weight and potentially Some extra heat back there.
So if you take those off, the car doesn't like it.
So you have to have a way to get around that and that's where I really pass it.
Yeah, some of those things Airbags and things like that.
So all of that I have to have a way to get around that so that I can run it on the track.
Where are we seeing you in the first race?
well, i've run so far down in Florida at homestead and Sebring, and then I ran road Atlanta In March and I ran Watkins Glen early in June.
So I've been through those weekends and Next up I'll be doing some testing because I've done all the races now that I need to do to qualify for the Championships at the end of the year, which is the end of September, and so now it'll just be testing and preparation of the car, getting ready for the big, big weekend and that's.
That's the race He needs me at.
Yeah.
Are you guys?
is Kota on your schedule?
We looked at Kota for this year running in in February and we just couldn't make it with a turnaround.
Was too tight between Homestead and Sebring getting the car ready for another weekend.
But I definitely plan on running Kota next to next spring.
Actually to be wintertime in February, oh, cool.
We'd love to find you there, the, but we I just from my point of view.
I know that some of your input from the race car does get turned around into Production, because I remember that first gen CTSV Had a real wheel hop issue And it was something about the indexing on one of the rear control arm mounts.
And the second I think it was the second year it came out that indexing of that rear control arm mount changed and I always assumed that the, the, the guys at the ring, were the ones who kind of had that, brought that to the attention of the engineers to make that change.
So, yeah, we had.
you know, it's always been the case at GM.
We've always worked really hard, especially, especially in the grass roots area of racing, where the people who are racing the GM cars are running Very much the car that you produce, and so that's a really good Test, grounds You for getting information back into the engineering organization and helping to improve the breed for the next versions or improvements on the current vehicle.
So that's always been the case there and it does work very well that way.
Are you working full-time on this car year-round?
Well, i'm working part-time on that.
There's a shop in Phoenixville, pennsylvania, it's called Phoenix Performance that helps with the prep of the car, so a lot of the actual prep work gets on there, although I spent last week in my own shop here in Michigan with the car all week working on it, getting it just kind of going through everything from front to rear So doing that.
But also I spend a lot of my time working with Hennessey down in Texas and Sealy.
So I've been working on the Venom F5 for the last several years and I just got back from there last night as a matter of fact, test driving one of the cars.
So that's been another part of what I'm doing in my retirement.
Well, i guess that something happened, because that plane ticket that you had here to the Inwheel Time car talk show must have just gone away and just went right back home.
Yeah, the Uber driver did.
There's a place in Dearborn Heights called Livernoy I think it's off of Beach Daily or Cherry Hill that has tuners and hot rods and things.
Do you ever work with those folks?
Yeah, I'm very aware of those guys.
Oh, that's like my backyard.
Yeah, oh, good.
Well, and if I remember correctly, weren't you one of the drivers that were setting all the speed records on the toll roads here before they opened up?
Well, I wasn't actually the driver.
I was helping a little bit with the setup for the cars with Hennessey, but not the driver down there.
But I have been doing almost all the test driving on the Venom F5 for Hennessey.
We've been to the NASA landing strip in Florida with it and numerous places.
Yeah, i think you guys were out at the Navy Base in Hanford, california, as well, as they were trying to set some speed records Out to LeMore, yeah to LeMore, yeah, yeah, that was with the previous Venom GT, with Hennessey back then.
Yes, i was out there a couple of times.
John, it's always great to talk to you.
We all want to be you, i do.
Jeff wants to be you as well.
Well, we hope to get to shake your hand one of these days soon and get to meet you and bring you back on the show again.
Okay, that'd be great.
Really fun talking to you guys.
Where are you located?
Where is the studio?
Well, the studio is in Houston.
We're a suburb of Houston out in Sugarland.
Okay, we're right where that is.
Yeah, next time you're in town, give us a ring and we'll have you on the show.
Take me for a ride.
Yeah, I spend a lot of time down there.
Well, good, I hope that while you're here one day, especially out there in the Katie area, that you go right down the freeway and visit our friend John Hovis and the Hemi Hideout.
I know it's not your brand, but it's quite a facility and any guy any He would appreciate it.
Yeah, he would definitely appreciate it.
It's a bucket list place for an automotive enthusiast to visit.
Yeah.
Well, Hennessy knows of them very well because he does an awful lot of work on the Hemi's and Ram's.
Yep, very good, john, thanks again.
We appreciate you Have a great weekend.
We'll hope to talk to you again soon.
Okay, thanks a lot.
You bet John Heinrichs Interesting.
Oh, I so want to be here.
Racer and engineer.
All right?
Well, unfortunately we have to move on because the show is running out of time.
Time now for Conrad's car clinic.
Do you have that?
Yes, i do, right here.
So again.
You know, over the last couple of weeks I've done exhaust manifolds and intake manifolds.
This time we're going to do something on fuel injection.
So if you kind of remember, the Corvette fuel injection system called the Ramjet was back in 1957.
Go back up one, i can't You hit it.
The Ramjet of 1957 was on the Bel Air and available on the Corvettes and stuff.
Well, this is the intake manifold from a Ramjet.
Here we showed you what the tunnel Ram looked like on the race cars.
Yes, well, they basically had a tunnel Ram on the Corvette fuel injection system back in the 50s and 60s.
So you know they were again bringing the racetrack to production cars And you know that was 10, 15 pounds of pressure of fuel.
And then they changed to in the 80s.
They changed to a throttle body injection.
It worked but not as effectively as it could have.
So this throttle body injection was on all kinds of four cylinders, v6s and V8 engines through the mid early to mid 80s.
And then they went from throttle body they went to port fuel injection And there was kind of two generations of port fuel injections that were out there.
Injector looked very much the same between the two of them.
One was called a multi-port injection.
So on the V8s, all eight injectors sprayed at the same time And then they went to sequential port injection where each injector sprayed just before the intake manifold opened, which is kind of where they are today, which makes more sense in the fuel economy world.
So the original generation of multi-port injection was fuel injection but wasn't the most efficient of the fuel injection systems that were out there.
And the multi-port and the port fuel injection systems both ran about 60 psi of fuel pressure, this being a sequential port fuel injection system, again firing each cylinder individually on the vehicle, and this would be more of a gasoline direct injected system where you're talking about fuel pressures up to 25,000 psi.
The fuel pump on these now run off of a mechanical fuel pump that's driven by the camshaft.
And if you go back in time back to the 50s and 60s, they had a mechanical diaphragm fuel pump that ran off of the camshaft as well.
So the reason they go to such high pressures they want to have real precise control of it.
So these new GDI injectors that are out there at 25,000 psi, instead of just spraying one spray just before the intake valve opens, they do what's called a stutter spray.
So it may, you know it may have five, six, seven injection actions each compression stroke.
So and that's trying to use the least amount of fuel with the most amount of power.
The thing about gasoline direct injection, and why the pressure is so much higher, is they've moved the injector from behind the intake valve to down into the combustion chamber, so it has to be able to overcome the combustion pressure.
I have a question So with direct injection, does it matter the octane of the fuel, when you said it like a stutter versus a stream, does it matter which you get with a higher octane fuel?
The?
no, it doesn't.
It doesn't run, it doesn't compensate for the fuel octane unless you have a spark knock problem.
You know you can run a low enough fuel octane to get a spark knock problem.
Then it'll change the fuel system on it and the spark system algorithms on it.
But the other thing about a gasoline direct injected engine, as you can see on this one it doesn't just have one cone of fuel spray, it has multiple cones of fuel spray.
If you remember when we did pistons, i showed you the bathtub at the top of a piston.
So what it's trying to do is it's trying to hit that bathtub in the top of the piston and get all of that fuel to roll up so you get a ball of good air fuel mixture right at the tip of the spark plug To get the yeah.
And then the spark plug ignites to push the piston down.
So that's some information about how fuel injection works today and the evolution over the years, and I will tell you that I've had very little experience with the original Corvette fuel injection back in the early days in the 50s when they came out with that.
Was it the 50s?
Yeah, 57.
And I will tell you that that mechanical fuel injection system was a beast to work on And I knew one guy that knew that thing backwards and forwards and it took him hours to get it right, the tunes per ya, but once he did it was sweet for the time period It was only available on the Bel Air for one year and then on the Corvettes it was available from 57 all the way through 65.
Time now for a quick break here on the Inwheel Time car talk show.
We'll wrap up today's show right after this.
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About this episode
John Heinricy, a veteran of Cadillac racing and former GM engineer, shares insights on his experiences with the Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing in SCCA competitions. He discusses the modifications made for racing, including safety features and the stock twin-turbo V6 engine's impressive 474 horsepower. The conversation also touches on his long history with Cadillac, the evolution of performance vehicles, and the importance of grassroots racing in influencing production car development. Additionally, the episode features a segment on the evolution of fuel injection systems, highlighting advancements from the 1950s to modern direct injection technology.
Original notes
Join us for our one on one with John Heinricy, a contender in the SCCA national championship and driver of the Cadillac CT 4V black wing. We learn about his journey with Cadillac, his strategy to incorporate the V into the SCCA, and the uphill battle he's fighting against 991 Porsches and BMW M2's. Amidst the adrenaline, John also unveils that he has kept the stock twin turbo V6 and the automatic 10 speed - exactly what came off the showroom floor.
In this weeks Car Clinic, we delve into the evolution of fuel injection systems. From the Corvette fuel injection system to port fuel injection systems and even gasoline direct injection systems, we've got it all covered.
The team, Don Armstrong, Jeff Dziekan, Mike Marrs, and King Konrad DeLong also jump into the conversation, sharing updates about our upcoming car talk show, “The Best of Show" on 7/15/2023.
Speed, strategy, technology, and camaraderie on this episode of In Wheel Time Car Talk, so be sure to check it out.
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In this weeks Car Clinic, we delve into the evolution of fuel injection systems. From the Corvette fuel injection system to port fuel injection systems and even gasoline direct injection systems, we've got it all covered.
The team, Don Armstrong, Jeff Dziekan, Mike Marrs, and King Konrad DeLong also jump into the conversation, sharing updates about our upcoming car talk show, “The Best of Show" on 7/15/2023.
Speed, strategy, technology, and camaraderie on this episode of In Wheel Time Car Talk, so be sure to check it out.
Be sure to subscribe for more In Wheel Time Car Talk!
Gulf Coast Auto ShieldPaint protection, tint, and more!
The Lupe' Tortilla Restaurants
Lupe Tortilla in Katy, Texas
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
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In Wheel Time Podcast: Your Go-To Automotive Talk Show
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