Photos courtesy of Dick Winkles. Above, Winkles with Jay Leno in 1991.
If someone had asked the young Dick Winkles what he wanted to be when he grew up, the answer would have been a GM engineer. That’s probably because his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had all worked for Chevrolet. But after working for GM briefly out of school, Dick realized he needed an engineering degree from GMI to open doors.
Better opportunities existed at Chrysler. Winkles oversaw development of the 2.2-liter turbocharged engines of the early 1980s. He worked for the Shelby race team before leaving for Lamborghini in 1988 as part of a technical exchange program.
That’s where he joined fellow Chrysler engineer Lee Carducci. Carducci had worked with Winkles in Highland Park prior to being assigned to Maserati and later Lamborghini to work with the Formula One engine development team in Modena. Later, Carducci left Chrysler in 1999 to, among other things, head up McLaren Engines and then strike out on his own and purchase Arrow Racing Engines in 2008 from founder Bill Hancock. Carducci recruited Winkles to join him at Arrow as chief engineer after his retirement in 2015.
Winkles returned to the US to work on the 1989 Viper. He oversaw engine development, staying with the team until 1993, when he transferred to small engines, working on the Neon program until 1996. After contributing to Dodge’s winning race team for the North American Touring Car Championship, he returned to Viper, this time as program manager for GTS-R—which won class awards for three consecutive years in American LeMans and the overall prize at Daytona in 2000.
When the SRT Viper Team got out of racing, Winkles was reassigned as the car’s engine design and development supervisor. Two years later he became the chief powertrain engineer: the position he held until retiring at the end of 2015.
Winkles with Carroll Shelby
Life After SRT
With racing in his blood, Winkles wasn’t ready for traditional retirement after leaving the corporate world. He joined Arrow Racing Engines in early March, five days after retiring from SRT. “What sets Arrow apart from other tuners is that our approach is more OEM-like” explained Winkles. “We are the only Approved Powertrain Calibration Modifier (APCM) in the FCA system. Every engine built at the Viper Conner Avenue Assembly Plant is first run-in and checked at Arrow prior to installation into a new Viper. So we know Viper engines!”
The dynamometer at Arrow Racing Engines.
Although Arrow still rebuilds engines its focus has shifted to tuning, with two stage kits for fourth and fifth generation cars. Stage I is a computer reflash that provides more aggressive spark and fuel-mapping. Stage II replaces the stock cam with a more aggressive one, ports cylinder heads, and adds a larger intake, headers, and high-flow exhaust. The package boosts horsepower by 140 and 100 hp for the fourth and fifth generation cars respectively.
Development of the Stage II kit involved extensive road testing to make sure the package would function as promised in temperature and altitude extremes. “I drove a car from Houston where it was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit to Colorado Springs and the top of Pikes Peak at 14,000 feet, where the temperature was 30 degrees with snow on the ground and made many calibration changes as a result,” said Winkles.
Cross-country Road Trip
When I asked Winkles about his most memorable Viper experiences, he recalled a road trip from Florida to Los Angeles with SRT CEO Ralph Gilles. The two were taking the Viper to Jay Leno’s garage for use on his Internet show. The route was across I-10: a fast interstate located far enough to the south to avoid winter weather.
“We got caught in a freak snow storm outside of Dallas, Texas,” Winkles recalls. “We managed to make it through with summer tires and we were pretty proud of that. What we weren’t counting on was the highway patrol closing the road down in Van Horn, Texas.”
Winkles and Gilles found Van Horn’s only open beds in a Christian homeless shelter. Driving at warp speed through New Mexico and Arizona the following day, they made it to LA in time to meet Leno’s deadline.
Thirty-five years after starting his career at Chrysler, Dick Winkles enjoys the best of both worlds, maintaining his lifelong friendships with fellow SRT engineers and Viper enthusiasts while doing custom tuning for what is arguably his favorite car. A daily dose of venom might just be the secret to eternal youth.
