If you could have any car/motorsport job...

[G.Irish]

I was just browsing one of the F1 forums and came across a thread about the newly founded Super Aguri F1 Honda team doing some large scale hiring. That reminded me of the ads I saw for aerospace engineers for Renault F1, and the various ads for car and bike racing I see from time to time.

Sooo, if you could work anywhere in the automotive world, where would you work and why? Do you think you could be happy the rest of your life doing that? So what are you doing not pursuing that career?

[Ryan T]

CEO of Toyota

[ScottyB]

obviously being a race driver would be awesome (touring cars especially), but being a test driver would be fun, or working in some kind of developmental role.

i've also seriously been thinking about how to get into designing racing graphics or anything related to the way race cars look. again...no idea how to get there or the time to research how right now.

[NTIman]

as pathetic as it is,i'd be happy with being a pit crew member on a nascar team. i could still have a regular job during the week for the most part, then get paid $1000 a weekend to fly out and change a couple sets of tires,all while getting my food,plane tickets,and hotel stay paid for.

other than that,me and my friend are looking into working at a porsche/infiniti/nissan/acura auto mall in hilton head SC. they are looking for techs who know some electronic stuff,and are also going to need someone compitent in running a chassis dyno. that would be fun too

so basically as long as i am working on cars with a little power,i'm happy

[WRXtranceformed]

Owning / running a tuning / performance shop would be pretty cool.

[CaptainHenreh]

CEO of Toyota

And damn it, thayer, they need you!

Here's hoping that Fuji Heavy Truck can design toyota a car worth a crap (to me).

[white_2kgt]

Crew Chief for Dale Jarrett

[JohnC]

Umbrella Girl

[Kaan]

Head of Rule Breaking... aka Motor Developement.

[Feersty]

Attempting to answer all (edit)4 questions.

I would love to head the R&D division for a hybrid and alternative fuels for a major car company. Or something environment related within said company. I have a strong interest in hybrid cars and alternative fuels, and I think it would be a great way to feed my car knowledge as well. I think I would be very happy doing it. Why am I not pursuing it now? I don't know if I have the engineering and mechancial knowledge to go into that field, but I think I have a strong background on the fuel aspect. Always wanted to take a mechanics course at NOVA...Would anyone be down to do that as well?

Also thought about starting a sportbike shop in Springfield.

How about you G? Seems like you could segway very easily into motorsport with all the knowledge you have and your sweet contacts with people in the scene.

[Andy]

Umbrella Girl

You'd be hot :!:


It would be great to own a small fabrication shop making little things in big demand. I swear you could live off of just making adapter brackets for big brake swaps.

edited per G's request.

I could be happy with a car shop but who knows. I eventually would like to open up a shop. I can't work for someone the rest of my life but as like all things, I need money. Being an F1 monkey would be awesome, I think I could be happy for a long ass time doing that.

[G.Irish]

*ahem* Rob is the only one who answered more than one of the questions. There are 4 in there, more explanation!

I will post my answer in a bit because I've thought a lot about it...

[Rex4life]

aerospace engineers for Renault F1

research and development
yes
[fingers crossed] come on tech grad school application

[G.Irish]

Well, if I could work for a company there are a few that are at the top of my list.

For smaller companies I'd say Prodrive or McLaren. Both of them have defined excellence in motorsport for many, many years running. McLaren, having won Formula 1 championships with Honda in the late eighties, early nineties has always been a strong technical organization and of course gave birth to the greatest supercar of all time. Today, they are partnered with Mercedes which is a company I don't particularly like but I can still appreciate what McLaren stands for.

Prodrive is a scrappy and highly successful outfit that was really responsible for building the performance aspect of the Subaru brand today and they are largely responsible for turning around the fortunes of the BAR Honda F1 team. Even after the arrogant, pompous ass that is Luca di Montezemolo told Prodrive that they would not support the Prodrive 550 Le Mans program because Prodrive was not an Italian company, Prodrive still managed to develop and a successful racecar (they had to buy used street 550's). I'd love to be involved in an organization that has a winning attitude like that.

Lastly, as large companies go, the only one I'd want to work for is Honda. I've got to make a whole post about that...

[LorenaBeana]

I have always wanted to testdrive cars for a car magazine and write up my analysis. On the other hand, it would also be sweet to do the same thing for that AutoWeek show (based out of MD I think?). Some day if I have overflowing money, I intend to finance ya'lls racing careers maybe, or have a garage akin to Jay Leno.

Why? um, because I'm opinionated, and want the world to think like me? So if they read my interpretation of a car, they'll have my bias, and thus no one will ever drive a hyundai/kia/many American cars/VW/Saturn ever again!

Would I be happy doing that stuff? Well, obvously, but then my degrees would kinda be a waste.

What am I doing about it? Well, HPDE next year to learn how to drive (performance, legal driving). And I've already been published in a national car magazine (GRM) soo...I guess technically that life goal is done. Now to become the next Pantene girl....

[BLINGMW]

I don't know. I've thought about it and I don't know. That's why I'm not headed towards it. And I don't think I'd be happy doing any one thing for the rest of my life.

hmm....test driver for a magazine or show (the stig :wink: or even the guy on Victory by Design) is about the best I can come up with. But to do that, I need to be an accomplished racer. So that's first. So ok, I guess I am working SLOWLY towards that! yay! :o

but... the alternative fuels research, pretty much exactly what Feersty's talking about would be great too. And I don't gain any ground on it for the same reasons too. :?

Of course, I want to start a race series too....

Honestly, I'm a jack of all trades, master of none guy. I hope that works out for me. But when you focus on nothing, well, read my first lines again.

[Dave]

heh, an interesting topic. To be honest, I'd love to be a test driver of prototypes of all sorts. More importantly though, I'd want to be involved in the development of the cars other than just beating the hell out of them trying to break them.
As for the other question, I've actually looked into this some. My eventual goal (hopefully within 10 years) is to open a shop that will focus on building up race cars of a spec variety (ex: spec miata) and rent them out for HPDE and race groups. I've talked to Steven Marcus some, but haven't yet made it out to his facility or had a real big brain-picking session, as I've been too involved with my own shit. I have thought about it a lot though and have started some mental plans for my business formula.
I've actually made steps toward this goal too, since I'm saving up money right now and investing it so that it can earn more while I develop my business plan. I see different shops every day delivering to wholesale accounts for Toyota, and I look to see what they have that I think would be beneficial to my application. I think I could be happy with this job since it would have so many facets available to work with, it would allow me to have my own schedule (as long as customers are happy and work is getting done), develop my own team to work with me (not under me), it has tons of expansion potential (nationwide rental domination!!!) and afford me the ability to pursue my own hobbies while still making a living.

[bassmangrammy]

Director of Design for Ferrari or Pagini.

[G.Irish]

If I could work for any car company it would be Honda.

One of the main reasons is that Honda always has a race program going at one time or another that I could be involved with. From the Baja 1000, to Formula 1, to IRL, to racing downhill mountain bikes, or powerboats, racing (and winning) is fundamental to Honda's culture. Even the current president went through the GP500 program and was president of HRC at one time.

Then there's all of the alternative fuels research and development they do, and the advanced robotics and aerospace programs they've launch in recent years. There's enough variety there that I almost couldn't get bored.

Of course, there are some things about that I don't like, mostly the fact that they are sometimes overconservative when it comes to their production products. But at the end of the day I think I could be happy there for a long time.

But, there's a major drawback there, and that's working for "the man". I'd like to have the freedom to fly as far and as high as I want. Which leads to my ultimate-master-ultra-extremely-evil plan...

[Evan]

the Driver. duh