Im in 8th Grade 13y , next year I have to pick my subjects and right now i was wondering if motorsport engineering is realistic or not, i manage a sim racing team in H1GP, and i started it to understand how the cars work and setups n stuff, i started learning CAD and Python, and will take part in stem racing. I want to study in Oxford brookes University or politicno di torino, and will be visiting formula student for the upcoming years in my country to ask the students about how they make decisions with their car and general questions, and I do all of this genuinely because of how interesting it is, but working in motorsport in the future sounds risky so idk

Hi everyone,
I’m 16 years old and I’ll turn 17 this August.
Today was my first time ever driving a go-kart.
Before today, I had no real racing experience. The only racing-related things I’ve done were:
playing Real Racing on my phone,
trying a sim racing setup a couple of times.
That’s all.
I am in good physical shape, though. I’ve been involved in sports since I was a kid:
7 years of football,
4 years of boxing,
and now I regularly go to the gym, mainly focusing on building muscle.
Today I went to a karting track in Kuala Lumpur. The track has three different kart classes, and I drove the Stage 2 (10 hp) karts. They also have faster karts, so the overall track record may have been set in a different class.
Here are my results:
Session 1
5th out of 10
Best lap: 1:44.642
Session 2 (later the same evening)
1st out of 13
Best lap: 1:38.877
So I improved by 5.765 seconds in one evening.
Some of the other drivers looked experienced:
they had their own helmets and gloves,
they already knew how to use the kart’s lap timer/tracker,
they seemed like regulars at the track.
I’m attaching screenshots of both sessions.
I’m not trying to claim that I’m naturally talented or that I’ll become a professional driver because of two sessions. I know that’s impossible to judge from one day.
I’m simply wondering what people with real karting or motorsport experience think.
Is this amount of improvement normal for a complete beginner?
Do these results suggest it’s worth taking karting seriously?
If you were coaching someone with this background, what would you recommend as the next step?
Is starting at 16 almost 17 already too late to realistically pursue motorsport?
I’d really appreciate honest opinions, whether positive or negative.
Thanks!

Opinion:

I think motorsport is more interesting when more drivers start to battle eachother instead of when a driver shows how fast is he, for example in qualifying.

Some 4 car wheel racing series doesn't usually see a lot of battles that last for a lot of laps and most of the overtakes seems to be very short and almost identical. So I thought: could be the track the problem? What if the track was wider, like 2 times more wider than the original measure.

Imo I think the drivers are limited to the possibilities and to the moves they can do based on the track and not only from the car, for example why do so many corners not allow 2 cars or even 3 to go side by side, it would be crazy and the battle would being much more into attention the driver and less the car, lowering the gap between the performance of the machines.

A wide track and especially a Wide corner would allow many more attempts and we would see many more battles and many more driving styles from the drivers.

I'm always amazed by the variety of play style football allows, so I wondered why motorsport couldn't do that more often.

I'd like to learn about their day-to-day work, career path, and get a better understanding of what the profession is really like.

I've tried reaching out on LinkedIn through connection requests, direct messages, and comments on posts. I've also asked questions here on Reddit, but it's been very difficult to get responses.

I know that during race weekends, media members with official accreditation sometimes have opportunities to speak with engineers, but for someone outside the industry, it feels almost impossible to make that first connection.

For those of you who have managed to build relationships with race engineers or other motorsport engineers, how did you do it? Are there specific events, championships, paddocks, networking opportunities, or communities where engineers are more open to talking ?

I'd really appreciate any advice from people who have been through this.

Thanks in advance !

Hey there, I've been looking for SVG files for the Spa-Francorshamps (with the endurance pit lane), Monza, Imola and Mount Panorama (Bathurst) tracks, with the sector marks, but can't find the files for any of these tracks.

I want these files, to make custom race track frames for my setup, in which the track itself will be made out of colored acrylic, and lit up, with a background print with the corner names and other information like circuit length and corner amount.

If you know where I can get these files, please tell me where to find them, preferably for free. I'll also need to create a 3D model from each of those files, if you know any website or way of getting those 3D models, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks everyone in advance.

I'm trying to figure out how to get into motosports.

I know I didn't really have a lot of experience. I just know how to turn wrenches and am very enthusiastic about engines.

I'm in the northern part of MO and just looking for somewhere to start.

Hello and apologies for potentially posting in the wrong sub, direct me to the correct sub and I will post there. Obviously understand if this deleted by mods. I couldn't find the right niche sub for this question.

My father was a land speed record holder who recently passed. I am his daughter and want to clean up his helmets (and trophies) for the services. The helmets have been idle for a while, as his health has been challenging for a while and did not allow him to continue his dream--they are very dusty and dirty and have been sitting on a shelf in his workshop.

Google searches suggest a helmet polish after dish soap and microfiber. I can handle the microfiber and dishsoap it is the helmet polish. I am sure something like this exists in his workshop already, but there is...a lot going on in there. I am not sure I have time to have this ordered and arrive in time as I need to do this today, tomorrow at the latest. I just don't want to fuck it up as I would like to gift many of these things to his friends and helpers, but I want someone special to him to have these helmets (they were hot rodders together back in the 70s and lifelong friends).

I am the stereotypical daughter of a gearhead, more interested in books and ballet and still, to do this day, cannot really change a tire (he did everything for me) and I just want to get this right without damaging the surface, especially because his name and whatnots have been applied to each helmet. Thank you so much, I am so appreciative.

Anyone familiar with the drivers club membership at the NJ raceway?

Honeycutt swept the field and won both late model races tonight. Trucks tomorrow and cup cars on Sunday 🙌🏁🙌

A fascinating challenge that awaits a couple of F2's biggest names in the second half of this season!

Canadian Event.

example: 8:13

I'm currently a 19yo who has loved motorsports welding/fabrication for years. I'd consider myself fairly proficient in both Tig and mig aswell as welding stainless, aluminum, etc. and still have lots more to learn. I'm extremely ambitious about this career path but don't know what the income situation is around the country. I understand that as standard of living changes so does the pay but does anybody have any clues as to how much this industry pays for things like rollcage fabrication, custom exhaust, etc around the country I'm also curious where might be the best market for those services as I'm based in Northern VA where theres not to much. I'm more then open to move across the country. Thank you

“You grow up much faster at a go-kart track.”

At a grassroots karting track in Canada, children as young as five learn about competition, courage, friendship, and themselves all while racing wheel-to-wheel at more than 100 km/h. Trackside captures the world of youth karting through the eyes of the kids behind the wheel.

A film by Marcus Eriksson, filmmaker, photographer, composer, and three-time karting champion.

У меня не так много интересов в жизни.
Их всего три. Семья, трейдинг и автоспорт. Пожалуй расскажу в первую очередь про последние.

Автоспорт для меня это не просто болиды , которые быстро ездят по кругу.
Мне нравится сама борьба. Борьба за победу. За каждую позицию. За возможность выиграть несколько десятых секунды. Мне нравится смотреть, как пилот несколько кругов изучает соперника, а потом использует один единственный шанс для обгона.
И конечно я люблю гонки на выносливость а не F1. Там каждая гонка превращается в историю. Стратегия, трафик, погода, ошибки, поломки, возвращения в борьбу. Иногда победителя определяет одно правильное решение после многих часов гонки.
Я могу часами смотреть онборды. Смотреть, как работает подвеска, как машина двигается, как пилот постоянно работает рулём, как ведёт себя автомобиль на торможении и выходе из поворота. Иногда могу поставить видео на паузу просто чтобы рассмотреть конструкцию машины.
Больше всего люблю машины с характером. Не обязательно самые быстрые. Именно поэтому мне так нравятся Mustang GT3 и GT4. Недавно открыл для себя Turismo Carretera и сразу понял, что это именно то, что мне нравится. У этих машин есть душа. Они выглядят агрессивно, звучат по-своему и заставляют пилота работать на каждом метре трассы.
Наверное, автоспорт это одно из немногих мест, где я действительно могу забыть обо всём остальном.

Но конечно же автоспорт очень
сильно связан с моей жизнью поэтому эта одна из гласных драм моей жизни которая никогда не закончится. Если будет интересно, отвечу на ваши вопросы более подробно.

The Problem:
Most multi-line powersports dealers are taxing mixed deals wrong—and they don’t even know it. You sell a customer an on-road motorcycle, off-road UTV, trailer, and accessories in one transaction. Your F&I team runs them all through the same tax calculation based on customer address. Sounds logical. It’s actually illegal in half the states.

Here’s why: Just like In-State: An Out of State registered motorcycle gets taxed one way. An off-road UTV gets taxed differently. A trailer might not be taxable at all. Accessories could source to the dealer location, not the customer’s home state. But most shops treat them identically—same tax rate, same logic, same mistake on repeat.

The Real Cost:
You’re either overcharging customers (and they’re finding out after they leave, creating chargebacks and reputation damage) or undercharging and eating the liability when a state audits you. Both hurt. One creates angry customers. The other creates angry tax auditors.

Why This Matters Now:
Tax enforcement in powersports is tightening. Out of State dealers are getting audited. Multi-line shops are starting to see chargebacks. The friction isn’t theoretical—it’s happening in your F&I workflow right now, probably on deals you already closed.

Does anyone use a tool to assist with this? Which do you prefer? Any you’ve tried that suck?