Working for a Tuner shop and/or race team

[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

[Black BNR32]

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

agreed...it seemed more like a class i would take on my free time out of personal interest, rather than a training course required to 'get in' the industry.

[Opus]

http://www.race2000.com/courses/mtp


Could be working the Macao Grand prix within the year if you're good. No BS.