I want to become a track designer...

[ECW Dan Selby]

Anyone have a clue what I need to do to achieve this?

I'm having a very early mid-life crisis and realise this isn't what I want to do (teach ICT).

Please can someone help?

Selby

[ptclaus98]

There's no such thing. There are architects who moonlight in track design, though.

[ECW Dan Selby]

Ahhhh I thought as much...

Do you have any insight as to how to get to that stage?

Sorry I don't mean to bend your ear too much.

Selby

And that seems really wrong that architechs are designing tracks...

[Purist]

Heck, Alan Wilson doesn't have either an Engineering or an Architecture degree; he went into Business and Accounting.

I started out in straight Civil Engineering, and subsequently switched to Multi-Disciplinary Studies, which allowed me to throw in some City Planning and Technology courses.

Selby, the closest major, track design firm for you is Apex Circuit Design, so I'd suggest looking them up, and getting an idea of the backgrounds of the major people there first.

[ECW Dan Selby]

Good call, Purist.

Thanks alot for that, man.

Selby

[bio]

Well, Dan, I guess all you need is a no-limit financial source - at least until you make your name known

bio

[Peat]

Dan, i can help you out with some info.

I went to Apex a few years ago about a possible job as my uni tutor was a personal freind of Clive Bowen. At the time, they were after someone to pilot 3DS Max to produce nice renders etc, but i was more interested in the circuit design/logistic side of things.

To give you an idea of what sort of qualifications you need: Their Design Manager, Ben Willshire, did a Motorsport Engineering degree as far as i recall. The junior designer there did mechanical or civil (cant remember now) engineering degree. They work closely with an architectural practice called Ridge, and use Microstation as their main design software.

Also, one of Clive Bowen's little requirements is that his designers hold a competition licence.

The company has grown substantially in the last few years, so i am not sure who holds what position nowadays or what software they are using.

Anyway, hope that helps. I thought i was close to getting my dream job with them, but i think wasn't suitably qualified (or good enough with 3D Studio Max...) so they simply stopped returning my calls......

Nevermind, i tried!

[ECW Dan Selby]

Thanks Peat!

Sounds like quite the mountain to climb... Still, it's definitely worth enquiring atleast!

Selby
--
And bio, if I won the lottery... oh good lord.

[ptclaus98]

haha. You could give me the GDP of China, and thanks to being a race fan, I'd have it spent before next week is halfway over.

[LuiggiSpeed]

I think there's no such thing as a track designer per se, you have the money and the land and you throw your track where you want, that's why in reality you have poor tracks and great tracks an this and that in between.

The few track designers that I know of some are extremely talented as Alan Wilson and some are extremely lucky I'd say Herman Tike, I don't know who designs spaniard tracks but I like them very much and to some extent many tracks are very much a circumstantial "design" depending on the size and shape of the terrain, even some emblematic circuits had to be modified because of brain farts.

[leftycobra]

Maybe you can start by offering your services to couple of indoor karting tracks who want to switch their track. by doing not only you get experiences but also you can build up your network and your port-folio.
Honestly i don't know how you can achieve your goal by the conventional way (meaning architecture of urban planning)
it's pretty much like airport designer...
I hope I gave you some useful hints.

[bio]

Maybe keepig looking for track designing tenders on the internet might be a good idea too. Apart from opportunities to show the actual designs, they would also be useful to gather info - how these tenders look like, what qualifications are usually required, how big is the competition, etc...
And, who kows, if you're talented (and lucky) enough, you could even win some...

bio

[LuiggiSpeed]

Well, at least the ones that "designed" **coughs** the tracks in my beloved Puerto Rico were uber failures, they were just the owners of the facilities, whom by themselves apparently told the asphalt guys "yeah throw some asphalt from here to there and then come back and make kind of a curve around here, that's the track" without ever thinking of all the possibilities.As I have repeatedly said in my safety thread, tracks must be designed with the worst case scenario in mind, don't you ever think " That can't happen, for that to happen the racer must be out of control or only a mechanical failure..." because that's exactly what will happen sooner or later and then someone gets killed because of poor design and you have no more track.

Some of the best tracks I've seen have been designed by a racer, like the one in Dominican Republic I just came back from racing this very weekend, the track was laid out by the original owner who was a renown racer back in his day, not only the track is fun and relatively safe, it's design is very simple and efficient.

[LuiggiSpeed]

Originally Posted by leftycobra

Maybe you can start by offering your services to couple of indoor karting tracks who want to switch their track. by doing not only you get experiences but also you can build up your network and your port-folio.
.

I just did!

[ss_collins]

There's no such thing. There are architects who moonlight in track design, though.

thats not true - pm me Dan