On July 1, 2024, Tony Roma took over what we colloquially call the “Corvette chief engineer” position following Tadge Juechter’s retirement. The complexities and immense scope of all that job entails is reflected by Roma’s official title, which is “executive chief engineer for global Corvette and performance cars team.” In this article we’ll look at what Roma’s responsibilities are, explain the amazing journey that brought him here, and learn how much his gorgeous, Sunfire Yellow 1966 coupe means to him.
Way back when Corvette was in its infancy, it didn’t have a devoted chief engineer, but over time Zora Duntov grew into and helped define that role. In addition to doing a lot of the hands-on engineering, such as development work for the “Duntov Camshaft” that came to market in 1956, and the Rochester Products fuel injection system first offered in 1957, Duntov supervised other engineers working on Corvette and advocated for the car with GM’s upper leadership. By the time Dave McLellan took over as chief engineer in 1975, the role had morphed into overall administration of Corvette, including supervision of all engineering, collaboration with GM Design, and management of the financial side of the brand. Since then, the job has expanded even further, in part due to the exponentially increased complexity of Corvettes, and in part because of the larger role the executive chief engineer plays in business administration.
As his lengthy title implies, Roma is doing all of this for Corvette as well as the other performance cars that GM manufactures. While this intuitively feels like way too much for any one person to handle, it’s likely there’s no one better qualified, or more in love with the many challenges the role presents, than Roma.
Like most of us, Roma’s infatuation with cars began in early childhood. “My father is not a racer, hot rodder, or wrencher,” he recalls, “but he loves cars, has an eye for style, and owned a lot of interesting cars over the years. When I was really young my parents drove an Austin Healey Mk II, and I rode in the back where the convertible top stowed. Even when they got more practical, they still drove cool cars, including a 1966 Chevelle and a big-block station wagon.”
Because his parents didn’t work on their own cars or compete with them in any way, Roma wasn’t initially exposed to the mechanical, engineering, or performance-enhancing aspects of the hobby. Even as a young child, however, he developed a deep appreciation for the power of interesting cars to bring people together.
“The cars were always more than just transportation to us,” he says, “and even to this day my mom still plays the game by challenging me with, ‘What car is that, Tony?’”
The first of several arbitrary occurrences that charted Roma’s career path took place when he was 14 years old. One of his uncles owned several Domino’s Pizza franchises and was complaining how ridiculously expensive the signs placed on his delivery cars were. When Roma’s dad was told how much the signs cost, he was shocked and said he could surely make them for a lot less. Mind you, the man was a salesman, helping stock pharmacies and convenience stores with greeting cards and general merchandise, and he had no training in manufacturing signs or anything even remotely similar. But he possessed a spirit of adventure and enough self-confidence to take necessary risks.
“This was at a time when Michigan was full of all kinds of manufacturing,” Tony Roma explains. “My father and I worked out the design for a sign, including the electrical components so it lit up, and we got them made. My uncle and some of the other franchisees immediately bought 100 signs, and then my dad started selling them directly to Domino’s. Suddenly we were in the sign business.
“My mother said to me, ‘You enjoy solving problems, so you should be an engineer.’ I didn’t know what an engineer does, but [her] words inspired me to look into it. I’m not crazy about math or theoretical science, but I love applied science and learned that engineering is all about applying science to solve problems.”
Because he found solving problems so intensely satisfying, Roma chose to pursue a mechanical engineering degree at Lawrence Technological University in Detroit. It was there, during his freshman year, that he got his first whiff of automotive competition.
“The SCCA’s Detroit Region organized an autocross event, and after witnessing that I was like a fish on a hook. That started my path in motorsports, and every weekend I was burning the tires off my Volkswagen GTI. I competed with the SCCA and with a Detroit-area Corvette club. The Corvette-club events were better because those courses were set up for larger, more powerful cars, while the SCCA courses were configured for small, underpowered British sports cars.”
Besides providing endless fun, autocrossing accelerated Roma’s understanding of overall vehicular performance, especially suspension dynamics. It also led him to get involved with Formula SAE competition, and that in turn set him on a quest to one day be a chief engineer.
“I enjoyed engineering immensely, but found that supervising a group of engineers working together as a team was even more satisfying.”
After earning his mechanical engineering degree in 1992, Roma went to work for a consulting company and was paired with a mathematician for a project that would ultimately lead to his employment with GM. The newly minted engineer and math boffin set out to pioneer a one-dimensional computational fluid-dynamics model for torque-converter operation that could accurately predict torque ratio and efficiency.
One day Roma was at his brother in law’s house when another completely random occurrence changed his career path.
“My wife’s brother, Tim, got a phone call from a headhunter trying to hire him as a transmission calibrator. He wasn’t interested, so the headhunter asked if he knew anyone who might be, and he said no. He was about to hang up when I stopped him. I overheard enough of the conversation to get the gist of it and said, ‘Wait, I’m interested!’ I spoke with the guy, and though he didn’t reveal what company the job was with, it turned out to be General Motors, and that’s how I got started with GM.”
Roma was hired as a transmission calibrator for six-cylinder G vans, gas-powered pickups, and naturally aspirated, full-size diesel pickups. It wasn’t the sexiest job in the world, but it led to bigger and better things pretty quickly.
“I was asked to drive a group of engineers in one of our vans to Bowling Green, where they would do an evaluation drive with 1995 Corvettes. [Development engineer] Jim Ingle offered me the opportunity to participate in the Corvette drive, and though my boss advised me to stay away from the Corvette group, I jumped at the opportunity.”
After all the engineers, including Roma, drove each version of the following year’s Corvette, a meeting was held to discuss everyone’s impressions.
“I was blown away by the whole process,” recalls Roma. “Each car had a book with each driver’s comments, and at the meeting someone summarized the content of each book. As a junior guy I was responsible for summarizing one of the books. Listening to the leader, who was Dave Hill, and the input from all of the key people on the team, was fascinating.
“Until then, it didn’t occur to me that ultimately someone has to make all the decisions that shape the outcome. The whole process included engineering, physics, science, finance, and a host of other considerations. I fell in love with this and realized it’s what I wanted to work toward doing one day.”
Over time Roma never wavered from his desire to lead the team that determines what Corvette is and will be in the future. To that end, he thought about what steps he could take to increase the likelihood of achieving his goal, and he was fortunate to have some wise mentors to help guide his decisions. These included Jim Minneker and John Heinricy, who were both successful racers and talented engineering leaders at GM.
“John has an incredibly broad understanding of every aspect of a car’s performance and pays attention to even the smallest details,” Roma says. “Jim is equally skilled as an engineer and a leader. Both were very supportive, and both advised me to do different things at GM and learn as much as I could.”
The learning process included going back to school to earn a master’s degree in general engineering while still working full time.
“I completed that in 1997, at Purdue University,” Roma recounts. “I loved the experience because the subject matter was so broad. I studied various aspects of internal-combustion engines, environmental engineering, the value stream of products, and a lot more.”
In 1995, while working toward his master’s, Roma became a transmission calibrator for the Corvette group. To broaden his experience, he accepted a job doing engine development at the GM Tech Center in Warren, Michigan. There, he was fortunate to work alongside and learn from some legends in the industry, whose experience with a wide variety of different engines went back decades.
In just a few years Roma became one of only a handful of engineers at GM with both transmission- and engine-calibration experience. This led to him becoming a vehicle-system engineer responsible for the entire powertrain. By 2001 he was part of an elite group of engineers working under the leadership of Heinricy at GM’s High-Performance Vehicle Operations (HPVO). Roma initially worked on the production Cadillac CTS-V, but that expanded to include race engineering the CTS-V.R that Cadillac competed with in World Challenge beginning in 2003.
Even after joining HPVO, Roma continued in his role as the vehicle-systems engineer for Corvette, Camaro, and Firebird, so he effectively had two full-time jobs. As Cadillac’s V-Series vehicle lineup expanded, however, it became impossible to do both, so he gave up the work with Corvette and the F-body cars to devote his full attention to HPVO and Cadillac. By 2006 he’d been promoted to senior manager of the group.
Roma then became the performance variance manager for Camaro, focusing on the supercharged ZL1 model that came to market in 2012. Following that he was promoted to his first chief engineering position, overseeing Cadillac’s third-generation CTS that launched in 2014. That led to heading up Celestiq, Cadillac’s ultra-luxury, hand-built flagship vehicle.
In April 2024, while in Ohio on a validation drive with Celestiq, Roma learned that Tadge Juechter, Corvette’s Executive Chief Engineer since 2006, was retiring. Thirty years after deciding that he would one day love to chart Corvette’s destiny, the opportunity presented itself, and Roma was more than ready. He applied for the job and went through the rigorous process GM has in place for such important positions, including interviews with the company’s senior-most leaders. In June, while vacationing in Switzerland with wife Jennifer following his participation in the Nürburgring 24 Hours race (in which he earned a class win), he learned that he had been selected for the job.
Many years of training and decades of diverse experience made Roma the perfect choice for the position. He tells us he could not have been more grateful for the opportunity, and now, more than a year in, his enthusiasm has not waned one bit. “I was focused on getting this job for so long,” he says, “and now that I have it people have asked me if it is everything that I expected it to be, and the answer is absolutely, yes.”
Roma derives intense satisfaction from working with the entire team of people responsible for Corvette and GM’s other performance cars as together, they define what these vehicles are and will be in the future. Leading the Corvette group is particularly satisfying because he fell in love with America’s Sports Car even before he set his sights on one day becoming its chief engineer.
“When I was about five years old,” he recalls, “my aunt’s boyfriend, whom she later married, bought a 1971 big-block. I went for a ride, sitting on my aunt’s lap, and when he got on it, and I heard the roar of the engine and felt the acceleration, I fell in love. From that moment on I wanted a Corvette.”
Corvettes Galore
Roma bought his first Corvette, a red ’75 coupe with a transplanted 400-ci engine and a four-speed transmission, soon after he began working for GM. Then, in 1996, he bought his uncle’s ’71—the very same big-block car he’d ridden in some 20 years prior. In 2015 he purchased a C6 Z06 and then a C6 ZR1 “because everyone needs an LS7 and an LS9 in their life.” Today he has a ’23 70th Anniversary Z06 Coupe; a ’91 ZR1 that his dad bought new; a company car, which as of this writing is a ’26 ZR1X; and his most recent acquisition, the ’66 big-block coupe featured here.
“The C2 is gorgeous,” he reflects. “I’ve always wanted one, but I had to wait a long time to find the one that checked all my boxes. It had to be a big-block in the right color, with side pipes and knock-offs, and it had to be nice, but not so nice that I’d be concerned about driving it and parking it anywhere. If it wasn’t exactly what I wanted it wouldn’t work for me.
“I presently have a Roswell Green ZR1X, so for me to walk past that and actually want to occasionally drive anything else it has to truly be special. This ’66 fits the bill, and I love driving it. I sometimes bring it to work, and Jennifer and I take it to dinner, to the movies, or to wherever we’re going. It’s beautiful, it sounds cool, and it’s an absolute pleasure to drive.”
That’s unsurprising, given that the car boasts the invigorating drivetrain pairing of a big-block engine and a manual trans. But while the powerplant does an excellent imitation of the L72 427 with which it was first equipped, it is in fact a 454 kitted out with original and original-look parts like a Winters/GM aluminum intake and Holley carb. The gearbox, meanwhile, is a five-speed unit from Tremec, and the interior features a Vintage Air HVAC system and a Vintage Auto Radio Bluetooth stereo, both of which recreate the appearance of the OEM parts. In all, the car neatly reflects both its owner’s respect for the Corvette’s rich legacy and his passion for the brand’s promising future.
Looking ahead, Roma plans to make several changes to the ’66 to further improve its drivability and reliability as he and Jennifer continue to enjoy using it. And of course, moving forward he will continue to cherish every moment in his dream job, leading the immensely talented group of men and women responsible for creating the best production sports cars in the world.
