Race Engineering as a Major?

  • Thread starter Thread starter hawkeye122
  • 11 comments
  • 4,773 views
Messages
3,915
United States
California
Messages
gdwest1
Now, I know for certain that such a thing exists, but a cursory google search came up surprisingly empty. Can someone provide so insight as to where or what some of the engineering schools are?
I know there's one in (North?) Carolina, but it seems to be heavily geared toward NASCAR. Not that NASCAR is bad, but I'd really like engineering something different.

Help? Someone?
 
I'm going out on a limb here.. but Georgian College in Barrie, Ontario has an "Automotive and Business Management Program". I've heard rumors that a "race engineer" is one of the courses, but those are just rumors and to tell you the truth I'm not really sure.. It might be worth giving them a call or checking out their website. Are you in your final year of high school?
 
I'm going out on a limb here.. but Georgian College in Barrie, Ontario has an "Automotive and Business Management Program". I've heard rumors that a "race engineer" is one of the courses, but those are just rumors and to tell you the truth I'm not really sure.. It might be worth giving them a call or checking out their website. Are you in your final year of high school?

Yeah, I am. I plan to get 2 degrees, my first being in Maritime Transport at Cal Maritime so I can get a job in that field, and then pursue some type of engineering degree.
I feel like I hear about a ton of them in England...
 
CEME, in London, if you don't mind studying there, have a motorsport engineering BTEC.
 
Yeah, I am. I plan to get 2 degrees, my first being in Maritime Transport at Cal Maritime so I can get a job in that field, and then pursue some type of engineering degree.
I feel like I hear about a ton of them in England...

Why BSMT? Go straight to BSME, instead, since it's closer to what you want.
 
^As above, pretty much what I intend to do, I'm on a Mechanical Engineering course at the moment with an option of doing a masters at the end.

The reason I didn't specialise in something such as Motorsport Engineering is that there appears to be a feeling that whilst yes you do get a specialisation in what you want to do it can also miss out the somewhat ground level knowledge.

What I mean by this is that there's a great deal of 'formulas' out there and from what I've noticed a great deal of complacency in just accepting that 'it does it because the formula says so' rather than actually thinking about it from the ground up.

To relate this back to my initial point, a Mechanical Engineering course (or similar) will give you the baseline knowledge from which you'll always be able to work from and you can then specialise further from there at your own will. Other courses will miss out the baseline knowledge so you'll potentially be left wondering why something works without the background knowledge to actually understand/figure out why.

Please don't take this as me talking down other courses (I'm sure they're very good) but I'd say you'd be better doing Mechanical Engineering or Aerodynamics first before then moving to a more specialised role later on.
 
There's one in Ohio where the whole campus is automotive based. I can't remember it's full name but the acronym is UNOH.
 
Why BSMT? Go straight to BSME, instead, since it's closer to what you want.

Because the BSMT program is 4 years regardless of the fact that I have 1.5 years worth of General Ed already done. This gives me the chance to start on my BSME while I'm in the MT program.

I'd love to just be a mechanical engineer, but I want to have more options. The BSMT basically gives me a job whenever I need one, while I finish my MSME and look for a job in that field.

Don't get me wrong, I like the MT program, I just don't want to do that forever, ya know? Being away from home for months on end may get to be slightly tiresome with a family
 
Last edited:
You might be better off just doing a general course like Mechanical or Automotive Engineering at a university which has a well renowned Formula SAE program (Or Formula Student if you are in the UK). Your career options won't be as limited because your course will cover more areas of study, but the experience from working as part of a FSAE team will give you the knowledge and experience you need to get into the career you want.

I think the university of Hertfordshire has some course similar to what you are looking for.

Yep :) Fifth Gear did a piece on their simulator before. They also have one of the top formula student teams in the UK. At Silverstone last year they had Formula 2 driver Ramon Pineiro driving for them (The same guy who destroyed my GT5 laptime at the Nissan stand...)
 
Last edited:
You might be better off just doing a general course like Mechanical or Automotive Engineering at a university which has a well renowned Formula SAE program. Your career options won't be as limited because your course will cover more areas, but the experience from working as part of a FSAE team will give you the knowledge and experience you need to get into motorsport.

I've also looked at that. I could finish of my ME at whichever school has the SAE program. Cal Maritime has an SAE Baja team, in the meantime
 
Back