Working for a Tuner shop and/or race team

[Papadirty]

Long story short. I live sleep and breath cars, all the time. I'm working on becoming a mechanic but I've made the decision that that isn't enough. I don't want to be changing oil on family cars, I want to be working on high end race built cars, making things go fast and push the limits kinda thing.

So I've come to the motor sports section to see if anyone who works/know someone who works in this line of work. I understand it would be extremly hard to even find a job let alone get a job, but I know once I found the job I'd love work each and every day. I spend probably 80% of my time off in the shop now as is, so I'd love to be working in one as well.

[archaeic_bloke]

hey,

Im not a certified mechanic, I was a university student who owned a GTR for one year when I went to a local tuner shop and begged them to let me come by the shop, and help them work on cars and engines so that I could learn more about it.

the owner of the shop explained that he was only doing basic work on cars and that he thought my passion would be wasted there, so he gave me a phone number of another guy to contact and talk to.

I called and this new guy "Mark" up and he invited me over, he explained that his race-designs company was essentially only him, but if I wanted to come by and help out, I would surely learn a thing or 2.

being in school full time I ended up going twice a week from 6am to 4pm for a period of 3 months. we put in a lot of hours together, his main operation was rebuilding coil-overs, you may know the brand "DMS Suspension"....

Most of what he does is centered around rally racing, most of what we did was as support to the subaru rally Canadian race team, so we were always rebuilding sets of shocks for them. we also did a lot of Evo's too.

First he taught me how to rebuild the shocks to each customers spec, its Effing stressful properly depressurizing shock tubes... I recall one that was bent at 30 degrees, taking the valve assembly out of a bent tube is SUPER dangerous, the gas piston let go and flew across the shop. they always make a loud BANG and scared the crap outta me lol.

then we did some design work, and started to assemble rear subframes for WRX's using Alloy tubes, so he was teaching me angle grinding, cutting, welding etc...

It was a fantastic time in my life, he paid me what ever he thought was fair and always bought me lunch for the day, while I learned immense amounts of knowledge.


If you're serious (which it sounds like you are) first figure out what kind of racing you want to be involved in. Next get out to an event, and see who's there competing, go and speak to them AFTER the race and tell them you wanna come by and help out. at first they'll probably make you carry tires and tools, but they'll get you twisting a wrench soon enough, these guys ALWAYS need an extra hand.

good luck man, and if u happen to meet someone who's rude and doesn't want you there, just move on and find someone else,.... there will be someone Im sure.

[bellis_GTR]

This is something I always thought about as well. I never really get a straight answer. I'd love to hear other peoples opinions!

[Rblove26]

sounds exactly like me. I am currently an apprentice mechanic right now and am aiming for a license near the end of this year (fall/winter). My goals so far have always been racing/ working for racing team. I have looked into a few racing schools (bondurant, bridgestone etc) and always hope to end up racing (even if only leisurely). First off however has always been getting my license and always having something to fall back on. Working on everyday vehicles the past few years at the dealership (Ford) have started to turn me off of cars, but every now and again when a mustang comes in it makes me realize why i love cars and why i do what i do. I can spend all day just tinkering with my R33 and not loose interest. I spend all my lunches as it is now either fixing/cleaning/modifying my daily or bringing parts in from my car and working on them (currently re-polishing and painting my strut tower braces i just got from Adam).

There's just something about nice cars that can motivate me and keep me focused for hours without a break. (something like browsing this site lol) Once my car is up to a higher standard in my mind and closer to what all the members rides are, i am looking forward to attending some meets and possibly tracking at any open lap days.

Hope you do find a way in to what your looking for (if you do put a good word in for me lol)
I know realistically i wont ever be part of a racing team, but it will always be the dream/goal. gotta have something to look forward to

good luck

[Black BNR32]

ugh, I am 100% in the same boat. Being in SK does NOT help!

I have been searching job boards for automotive-based jobs although nothing in motorsports has come up. It seems the way to get in is to just send resumes randomly!

On a similar note, I had a chance to tour Hennesey Performance Engineering in Houston, TX. They offer a 'Tuner School' for guys like us and it seems neat.

http://www.tunerschool.com/

[Rblove26]

Wow, just had a quick read over that link, looks pretty impressive. That is one thing i find lacking big time here in canada are racing/tuning and specialty shops. Where i am there are no tune/race shops. Its hard enough sometime to find a decent machine shop period. Looking forward to moving elsewhere once i've got my license.

[Papadirty]

Thanks a lot, some very useful posts already. And I feel the same way, here in Newfoundland I'm finding a huge lack in tuner and race shops. I only found a handful so far. I'm hoping to move to Montreal if/when my gf gets into McGill for med school.

[TwilightGTR]

sounds like afew of us have the same goals i am 2o years old and am a 1st year apprentice(would be higher but finding a job in ontarios hard especially in automotive repair field) like many i eat sleep breathe cars which was why my grades were always lowin school lol always had a car mag open on my desk always had ideas filtering around my head for diff tuning ideas. i know some people who drive and work on dirt track cars but thats not the area i want to go into i want to be working on high end drift and circuit cars

[Skym]

Most people who build, tune fast cars have done uni degrees (Bachelor, Masters, etc) in the subject. They then get to work in F1, V8 supercars, Top Fuel mechanic, etc. Once they have built up enough experience, they start their own shop and build fast cars. Some I know of that have done this have tuned cars to break world records.

Some of them have done advanced tuning courses at EFI university -

http://www.efi101.com/

[esh]

EFI university....why didn't I see this when I was applying for schools

[Skym]

It's only for learning to tune factory, aftermarket ECU's. Most have learnt how to tune a ECU at Uni and then go to above place to do advanced ECU tuning (hands on tuning).

[fast316]

Kind of unrealistic IMO. who is going to let someone that isn't even a mechanic work on their high end expensive race car? Especially in Canada, where there isn't exactly a huge amount of racing going on for half the year. IMO you need to at least be a mechanic, becoming one will expose you to the trade, let you see if you really like turning wrenches, it teaches you the basics, things you will need to know, like how electrical, hydraulic, pneumatic systems operate, what's involved in their maintenance and repair, from their you can start branching out into the high performance, which is a very niche market in the automotive world. You know changing oil isn't so bad, it's low stress and it pays the bills so you can go do what you want in your free time and put the parts you want in your car.

[Skym]

You have a good point there. Forgot to mention that most of them have been playing with cars since they were young.

For example, here's one person (tuner of the fastest Skyline GTR in the world) -

http://www.speedtechnz.com/About/history.html

He's tuned a few world record cars, even tuning a late model EVO to take a world record from AMS in USA.

[Black BNR32]

Kind of unrealistic IMO. who is going to let someone that isn't even a mechanic work on their high end expensive race car? Especially in Canada, where there isn't exactly a huge amount of racing going on for half the year. IMO you need to at least be a mechanic, becoming one will expose you to the trade, let you see if you really like turning wrenches, it teaches you the basics, things you will need to know, like how electrical, hydraulic, pneumatic systems operate, what's involved in their maintenance and repair, from their you can start branching out into the high performance, which is a very niche market in the automotive world. You know changing oil isn't so bad, it's low stress and it pays the bills so you can go do what you want in your free time and put the parts you want in your car.

and what about the other parts of the industry such as engineering, sales and management? the wrench turners might be the minority.

[m_melen]

ugh, I am 100% in the same boat. Being in SK does NOT help!

I have been searching job boards for automotive-based jobs although nothing in motorsports has come up. It seems the way to get in is to just send resumes randomly!

On a similar note, I had a chance to tour Hennesey Performance Engineering in Houston, TX. They offer a 'Tuner School' for guys like us and it seems neat.

http://www.tunerschool.com/

I live in Houston, and I had originally gone by HPE when I first moved here, they gave me the tour. The impression they gave me was that their school is basically a tech school, with a few elements of tuning laced in. They make sure you can change a piston, and have you set up a dyno, but they seem to be in their early stages and still not completely organized (even the guy giving me the tour admitted this). So if you haven't gone to tech school this may be an option, but if you've got your auto knowledge already it probably ain't the best idea