This paper describes a postdoctoral research aiming at improving the design of high-performance automotive systems through automation by model transformations. The main goal of this research is to enable early timing verification and feedback loops between verification and design of high-performance automotive systems. The research described in this paper is framed within the Swedish research project Automation in High-performance Cyber Physical Systems Development. More information about the project can be found at the following link: http://www.es.mdh.se/projects/520-Automation_ in_High_performance_Cyber_Physical_Systems_Development