Notre Dame Prep alum Tom Durkin (’00) is holding the trophy from the Ward’s Auto 10 Best Engine event held in 2014.
Automotive reporters and editors from as far away as Cambodia and Montenegro joined the more than 5,000 journalists, who were on hand to see what the industry has to offer to the world in 2015.
Organizers say that last year’s credentialed media count of 5,169 should be easily met or exceeded when the final count comes in.
But for many in the auto industry who are actually designing, engineering and building the cars and trucks of tomorrow, this week will be just another week of very hard work.
One such hard worker is Notre Dame Prep alum Tom Durkin. A 2000 graduate of NDP, Durkin has been working at General Motors as an engineer since he graduated from the University of Notre Dame. He was featured in the an earlier edition of IRISH magazine, Notre Dame's main alumni publication. In that article, he talked about the time he put in during the development of Chevrolet's innovative electric hybrid vehicle, the Volt.
Now, Durkin says, he’s extremely busy on the next generation of engine and powertrains for the GM cars of tomorrow.
The year 2014 began for Durkin with him sharing in the accolades of a team responsible for one of the top 10 engines in North America as bestowed by Ward’s AutoWorld magazine—the small block LT1 engine for the Chevy Corvette.
“I worked on the team that validated that engine for production, so the Ward's award was a very rewarding honor,” he said. “It actually won for the second year in a row for 2015, which is a testament to how great the engine performs.”
After his work on the LT1 engine, Durkin moved to GM’s advanced engineering group, where he was a strategist for parts of the company’s future engine portfolio. “This was a new experience for me and exposed me to many new technologies that are going to be introduced in the near future,” he said.
That position then evolved into yet another new job for Durkin. He is now working as a design system engineer on GM’s “High Feature” V6 engines.
“This is the engine that goes into nearly every Cadillac vehicle, many Chevrolet cars and trucks, GMC Acadia and Terrain, and Buick Lacrosse,” he said. “This includes the twin-turbo V6 engines that power the CTS VSport, XTS VSport as well as the recently announced ATS-V.”
While no longer involved with GM’s electric car programs, Durkin still keeps an eye on them, including the Chevy Bolt EV concept-vehicle program introduced this week at the NAIAS. “That is a pretty neat car,” he said.
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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.