MODS: Feel free to move this an any appropriate area, I couldnt choose. I was going to PM Dave, but he gets so many PMs, and so many times I have had a Buschur Racing employee answer, I wanted to actually get Dave's first hand opinion. I figured this was the best way.

Dave....I have decided to quit my job, and take up my parents on quite a good offer. They asked me to move home, give me my Evo (my father paid it off when he was in a bind, and I pay him) and they wouldn't charge me a penny, just as long as I went back to school and held at least a part time job to help out.

Point is, I am fed up with what I do. I have done tires for my company for 7 years, and Im only 25....my passion is cars. I can't even find time to work on my own car because of the hell-hole I work in.

Point: I want to learn how to fabricate chassis, i.e., bending, welding, designing. As well as motor building, tranny, tuning, drivetrain, and fabbing of exhausts, downpipes, manifolds, intakes and the list goes on.

I know its a trade by which most get in while their young, and I am....and I have the opportunity to do it while I have nothing holding me down (no wife kids etc).


I would like any advice you could give on where I could get started learning how to build and tune race cars. I dont expect a crash course and be a pro in 6 months, but I want to do it. I love it, and Im going to do it one way or another.

Flame on, anyone....but I am not going to be a jerk that commutes to work every day just to hate my job. Not for me....I'd rather be broke and do what I love for a living that be rich and miserable.


Again, anything you can add would be helpful. IF you think IM crazy, just say do-I'll respect that opinion just as well. Thanks very much, and BTW, keep up the good work. You have one hell of a business going. -James

 

all i have to say is AMEN cuz i feel the same way. i think alot of us do.

 

Thank you.....thank you so much. I thought I was crazy....but I just cant take it anymore. Making someone ELSE richer, and being totally unhappy in the process. No thanks.....at all.

 

+1...I think on some level many of us have thought of doing the same, except it is a little too late for some of us with families and crazy bills. Good luck pursuing your dreams

 

+3 Too late for me, but If I could change what I do & be as skilled at David and work on cars everyday, it would be a dream come true........

Best of luck....

 

hey, i give u props for wanting to do something about ur situation. i don't get ppl who r not passionate about anything and don't want to learn anything or develop some new skills. all they do is go to the job they hate and get stoned at night. i mean it's one thing if u can't get out of it, but if there's a chance, everyone should go for it.
u'r lucky that u own an evo working a crappy job. i couldn't buy a new car straight out of college because the economy went to **** at the time, so i had to wait it out for a couple of years working crappy jobs, till i landed a sweet job and bought the evo.
i keep seeing those commercials during horsepower TV for WYOTECH or something. that's like vocational skool to learn to work on cars. not sure where else u can go, unless some custom shop will take u in to learn the trade.

 

I actually love to work on cars as well, but I don t like to come home dirty everyday.. So i only work on my own.. So that is why i went to next best thing.. IT dept Time Warner and work on computers and networks.. dont get dirty hahah. I thought about learning to tune since I am pretty computer savy, but good luck to you man. If I were you I would take some welding classes and try to learn and weld. You will need to build your reputation once you learn to weld. And fabwork don't work out for you then you can always fall back on a welding job which pays pretty decent

 

I hate to be on the other end of all the "warm fuzzy-do what you love" stuff. I had the same mindset you do when I started DSMotorsport in 2001. Talon's were my passion/addiction while I was in college for mechanical engineering (im currently 4 credits from my mech tech degree, and I hold a associate in automtive engineering). I decided to quit school one semester early, quit my full time job at grocery store and start a parts business. I look back on quiting school just before finishing with utter disgust. That was the worst decision I have ever made in my lifetime.

It was GREAT for the first year, I was making a killing selling parts are reasonable prices. I had very low overhead, as I was working out of my grandparents business building rent free, no employees, keeping it simple.

5 years later, it's grown into "big business" with employees and all the hassles they bring. I have big overhead that is unbearable in winter. We sell 5-6X the amount we did in 2001-2002, but make less net profit. I absolutly hate going to work. putting in 13-14 hour days trying to keep the business afloat. It sucks. But Im stuck now, it's too big to just drop it and quit.

The major downside to working in the industry is that you may love it now, but deal with evo owners 8 hours a day and you will very very quickly burn out on performance cars. you answer the same questions every day, build the same parts over and over.

What Im getting at is that a job is a job. Getting into the performance industry will eventually kill your spirit for enjoying your own hobby. Evo's will eventually become just as mundane as the job you have now that you loath.

My advise is to look long and hard at where you want to be in 5-10 years, becuase they fly by REALLY fast.

Edit: my advise applies more to starting your own business in the industry. It's very cut throat.

The flip side is working for a performance shop, your still making someone else rich. Not to mention the job security is about nill. performance/aftermarket shops typicly go out of business vast majority of the time, ususally within 5 years.

 

this is a great post as a matter of fact I have similar dreams.

I work in a corporate environment now and have a degree in finance.... although I make good money, I do put in 40-44 hours per week and have to take care of my girl and my family affairs as well.

I dream a lot of owning my own shop, equipped with 2 install bays, and a MD Dyno and maybe a small office..... I would do parts as well and make money off of labor and tuning.

I've talked to my brother about this as well, and he does have the skills to do the mecanical part of it, whereas I have the business, marketing and customer service skills.

Believe me one day I will do it and I will follow my dreams and my passions cuz that they only way to be happy and come home fullfilled everyday.

At my job, all I think about is modding cars and customizing them

 

Thats good advice as well from someone who is experienced. I have worked my college years at a speed shop and got to see and experience first hand how everything is done. But one thing I can guarantee is that, nothing beats owning your own business and being your own boss.

true that employees may bring headaches, but I have plans on working with or partnering up with my siblings and childhood friends who have the same passion for cars as I do. In other words work with people you know and trust.

At the speed shop i worked at, employees would steal parts from my boss all the time and use it on their cars and even sell it on the side, where as I am honest and have never stole from my boss. I have always worked hard for my parts and paid for it with my own money.

Its true that building the same parts over and over again may be boring after a while, and dealing with the same ol' EVO customers may get boring, but to make it fun I think its cool if you were able to have a shop car and travel around the USA, attending track events, competing against other shops, and at the same time promoting your own shop and services.....

 

The best I can say is the state of the industry in 2005 is alot differant than in 2001. Today you cannot just jump in and compete with Buschur, AMS, Vishnu, ect. Sales of parts is so spread out around all the dorm room internet shops, that just getting a little peice of the pie cost so much in advertizing/racecar promotion that it's not even worth the effort.

 

stay in school, keep your options open. Today's dream/desire will soon be replaced by another. I'm not taking anything away from those that chose not to go to college, to pursue other things, that takes *****! Of which, I do not have, so hat's off to those people!

But an education is priceless, and cannot be measured in today's dollars. It will open so many doors, over and over again, and some day you may need that.

The succesful tuners/shop owners here could answer better than I can, but the tuner life is a rough life, long hours, sleepless nights, project deadlines, customers, grease under the finger nails, and the cutthroat parts business of e-commerce has made it very difficult to succeed. For every success in the arena, how many have failed? The odds aren't good.

But whatever you decide, best of luck to you. And I commend your parents also!

 

Yeah thats true..... people who got into this a few years back had it good....

but you are right though. I see a lot of "dorm room" internet shops popping up everywhere.


As far as competing with buschur or AMS, I agree as well. To get onto their level of expertise and experience takes many years of hard work and experience, as well as building fast and reliable cars.

But then again if I were a new shop on the block building and tuning fast cars that were winning races and all, I'm sure eventually I'll get a customer following as well

 

Unfortuantly to build/tune a fast shop car to win races and gain respect and customers, your going to have to out tune/out build and especially out $ spend the same shops mentioned above that have a decade head start. It's also a moving target, as they are advancing faster than you can hope to catch up.

In the end It's about selling product, not about building racecars and traveling to events. And selling product is much much harder than building a fast car. If your not making thousands on top of thousands in net profit selling product, the business can't afford to build a racecar and travel to show it off. Selling the parts and turning a substantial and consistent profit has to come first. There in lies the problem.

 

Interesting ideas that I have never thought of before....but a buddy of mine who started off in 2001 as a "dorm room" only internet business, who now in 2005 operates a huge shop with 5+ employees and a dyno told me that he makes enough profit in parts sales to pay his shops rent. but his main profit and source of income comes from labor from parts installs, repairs, and tuning....

He too is trying to discourage me as well from getting into this business since the hours are long and competition is fierce....

he also mentions that you must be prepared for long 12+ hour days, completing projects on time and dealing with customers and parts and running the shop and being a boss to your employees as well.... it is hard work and he told me not to get into it unless I was really really passionate about it.