The 2014 North American International Auto Show just wrapped up Sunday, January 26. The gate on the show's last day was 102,153, which brought the total ticketed attendance of the 2014 show to 803,451. The last time the show broke 800,000 was in 2003 when it reached 838,066. All in all, along with some major new vehicle announcements and a big international media presence in Detroit, NAIS 2014 was a great success for the industry and for the city.
With that as backdrop, we thought we'd reconnect with a Notre Dame Prep alum who already has had a major impact on the auto industry even though he's still relatively a rookie within the business. Tom Durkin graduated from Notre Dame Prep in 2000. He was featured in the spring 2010 edition of IRISH magazine, Notre Dame's main alumni publication. In the article, he talked about the time he—as an engineer for General Motors—had put in during the development of Chevrolet's innovative electric hybrid vehicle, the Volt.
At the time that article was written, Durkin was traveling with his GM team of specialists to the northern parts of Canada, completing a cold-weather test on the Volt. He already had traveled around the country testing the car in mountain ranges (Pikes Peak) and hot-weather areas (Nevada). Needless to say, the work he and his team put into the development of the Volt has paid off for the company, since the car put GM in the forefront among the Detroit 3 in electric-vehicle technology.
Catching up with Durkin this past weekend, we asked him a few questions about what he's been up to since the 2010 IRISH article. He had been on the Notre Dame campus Saturday to watch his brothers play basketball against Catholic Central (Andrew, JV, Matthew and James, varsity). "I really enjoy watching my little brothers play sports on the same grounds I did while I was in high school 14 years ago," Durkin said. "It is amazing how far the sports programs have come since I went to NDP!"
Are you still involved with the Chevy Volt program and if you are, can you give a short update on specifics?
I actually moved on from the Chevrolet Volt in January 2011, having worked on both the model year 2011 and 2012 calibrations, so I didn't work on it much after the article was published. As you've probably seen, the Volt was launched successfully with very high quality and it received a number of awards including the Motor Trend Car of the Year for 2011. I was able to attend the event and get my picture taken with the car and the award.
If you are working on something else, could you describe what?
I am still working for GM Powertrain. Following the Volt, I worked for a short time as a calibrator on the 2.0L Turbo 4-cylinder engines that go into vehicles such as the Buick Regal, Buick Regal GS, and Cadillac ATS. I did this for about four months before moving from Milford to Pontiac as a total validation engineer for the recently launched small block Gen5 engine. This is the engine family that is in the brand new 2014 Chevrolet Corvette and Chevrolet Silverado/GMC Sierra pick-up trucks. These two vehicles won the North American Car and Truck of the Year at the auto show. Also, the Corvette engine, RPO LT1, was named to the Ward's 10 Best Engines for 2013. My job as the TVE was to put the engine through the numerous grueling dynomometer durability tests in order to ensure the engines would be able to withstand customer abuse for hundreds of thousands of miles. The dynamometer laboratory where I worked is a few miles east of the NDP campus off of Joslyn Ave. In October 2013, I moved onto a position in the GM Powertrain Advanced Engineering organization as an engine strategist for future engine architectures.
Do you get to the auto show yourself?
I did not get to the auto show this year, but I get the opportunity to do a lot of benchmarking in my current job, which allows me to understand what GM's competition is currently doing.
Any other news, professional or personal, you'd like to share?
I was married on November 23, 2013! My wife's name is Lauren and she is a high school English teacher, teaching 10th and 12th graders currently. She is a great complement to me as an engineer! We live in Oxford currently and enjoy traveling and planning our future endeavors.
Follow Notre Dame at @NDPMA.
About Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. The school's upper division enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame's middle and lower divisions enroll students in jr. kindergarten through grade eight. All three divisions are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDPMA is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, visit the school's home page at www.ndpma.org.