Whole Life Project Draft

Prepared for:
XLIX Engineering Design Firm
9201 University City Blvd
Charlotte, NC 28223
ENGR 1201-008

Prepared by:
Robert Cody Stiltner
Date submitted:
11/7/2014

I have neither given nor received any unauthorized help on this assignment, nor witnessed any
violation of the UNC Charlotte Code of Academic Integrity.

Introduction
The purpose of the whole life project is to learn more about myself and my passion. In all
honesty I never really thought about my passion and my future in the long run. I was the guy to
do the bare minimum and do just enough to get by, but that all changed when college began.
This project helps me to determine my passion and what path, or paths, I need to follow to get
what I want out of life. Research will be conducted from what I think my passion is and then I will
use that research to create a path into the future of not just my career, but my life. This is an
important project, because this will build the building blocks of my college career and attempt to
create better work ethics to achieve my goal. My goal is to pursue a career in the motorsports
field and do my dream job of racing rather than doing an ordinary job I have no interest in. I
would love to be in the automotive industry because of my consistent interest towards cars and
trucks.
Passion
I believe that my passion is cars. I have always had an interest in cars ever since
I was little. My father is a mechanic and I believe I get it from him. No matter what he was
working on or when he was working I would always be there right under his feet trying to learn
everything I could about mechanics and cars in general. He taught me a little about how to work
on cars and how I could make them run better and take care of them. I have always tried to
personalize my vehicles no matter if it was on the interior or the exterior. My passion for cars
and how they work grows more and more every day.
As I said, my father has influenced this love for vehicles dramatically. He is a mechanic
and I have always followed him around right in his footsteps. He took me to NASCAR races and
drag races and by the time I was seven I knew that I wanted to be in the motorsports industry
and would work really hard to achieve my dream. At the young age of seven my dad took me to
Bristol Tennessee for the Thunder Valley Nationals in NHRA drag racing. I was blown away by
the view from the stands and walking through the pits of the racers. As I watched the crews
work on the cars I was hooked, and then my dad noticed that one was about to do a warm up.
He pulled me up as close to the car as I could stand and then stood behind me, because he
knew I would jump after it started. The car fired up and sure enough I jumped back into him. I
smacked the bill of my hat down over my eyes and he told me to put my sunglasses up as close
as I could to my eyes. The smell of nitro methane burns your eyes and throat if you are not used
to it. So I cried and walked away, but I knew that was what I wanted to do when I grew up. The
rush of adrenaline was unbelievable and highly recommended for anyone. For my senior project
in high school I built the motor in my truck and that sealed the deal on my love for cars and
trucks. Not only was this the first engine I built personally, it was the first engine that my dad and
I worked on as a team to achieve the same goal. To this day that truck is still my daily driver and
my love. I take care of that truck like it is a child and I wouldnt want to treat it any other way.
My experiences vary from the experiences of others. Everyone has a different
experience that defines them. For the first five years of my life I spent a majority of time in the
cab of my dads eighteen wheeler. He took me everywhere. I also helped him work on the trucks
as I got older in age. The summer before the ninth grade I began working for my dad in his truck
service business. I worked for him all the way up until move in day for college. I worked every
hour he did over the summer and when I was in school I worked as often as I could. He taught
me everything I know about the automotive industry and my mechanic background. I felt like I
had a unique experience with my dad being a truck driver and a mechanic on top of that. I had a
good teacher when I was growing up.

Impact
Taking my passion to the next level and creating an impact for the world is kind of scary.
I want to take my passion in the automotive industry and create more safety devices for
motorsports. Every time you turn around there is a driver getting injured in a wreck. The head
and neck is focused on primarily, but I would like to focus a little more on the lower half of the
body. Racers now have to wear approved helmets and what is called a Hans device. The Hans
device is a head and neck restraint that connects to the helmet. This device prevents the head
from moving at an excessive amount. It practically holds the head straight forward and prevents
the head from moving without turning the whole body. During the period from 2001 to 2011 a
total of 171 deaths occurred as a racing incident. It has been found that approximately 34 of
those 171 deaths could have possibly been prevented with the use of a head and neck restraint
according to Jim Downing writer of Death at the Track: Fatalities on U.S. Short Tracks/Drag
Strips from Head/Neck Injuries. Even with the protection of the head the lower body is not as
protected. The lower body has little to no protection from a crash. During crashes in the recent
years some racers have broken ankles, legs, and even backs. The lower body has very little
protection. The only protection is the side of the car and some drivers even have little pads
bracing their legs from the inside of the car. I believe this can be improved on and make the
injuries in racing almost inexistent. Of course there will always be the possibility of an injury
during racing, because eliminating injuries is impossible in racing due to constant changing of
the sport.
Also I would like to expand on the horsepower of the vehicles. I want to try and make
them go as fast as they can while not increasing the size of the engine. This task will take a lot
of innovation and hard work to achieve, because there is only so much work that can be done to
an engine without increasing its size. There is of course the occasion where the engines must
be tuned down to satisfy the safety regulations. In NASCAR this devise is called a restrictor
plate. The restrictor plate is a plate with different size holes that restricts the airflow to the
engine. The smaller the hole the more restriction. There is a high level of innovation in
motorsports. To keep up with the sport you must constantly be innovating it. It is said that the
innovators in motorsports do not apply for patents, because the patent process takes longer
than the idea lasts.
Outside of the motorsports industry I would like to create a fuel efficient vehicle without
leaving out any of the style or horsepower. In this day and time there are two different cars.
There are the fuel efficient and environmentally safe cars and then there are high horsepower
and stylish cars. Usually you cannot have both at the same time. I would like to take my
education and help to innovate a new vehicle so that it is stylistic and appealing to the public
while also being environmentally safe. Also the price of these vehicles now are ridiculously high.
I would like to make the vehicle affordable to the average person while not compromising on the
looks or emissions.
An emerging global issue is the issue of emissions. Emissions from the cars is probably
the most focused on issue in not only motorsports, but also the entire automotive industry.
Global warming has become a huge issue in the past decade and one of the major causes is
the emissions from the vehicles. The regular vehicles put off amounts of carbon into the air, but
racing vehicles put off quite a bit more fumes due to the extreme conditions that the engine is
put through. Drag racing for instance, in the national hot rod association, has cars that put off
well over ten thousand horsepower. Now that amount of power does not always make it down

the track. The engines sometimes explode putting off mass amounts of fumes, oil, and racing
fuel into the ground and atmosphere. Racing will always be around, but with the restrictions on
the vehicles due to the atmospheric problem, racing is extremely expensive. The environment
friendly parts and fuel are more expensive than the original parts. There is however fines
associated with the use of the original parts if the parts fail inspection and do not pass the
emission test.
The issue of noise is more societal based. Racing puts off mass amounts of noise,
therefore making the people who like the quiet weekends highly upset. As the rural areas now
become more populated and are becoming suburban areas the noise complaints of the race
tracks are at an all-time high. This issue will affect the motorsports at all times. This issue will
not be solved it will only get worse with the increasing population and the less space between
the race tracks and the suburban homes. Mufflers have come a long way on keeping the
neighbors of the race track happy. Mufflers are attached to the exhaust of the car and decrease
the amount of noise substantially. The fight of racing was to collect data of the noise level of all
other noises located around the track such as airplanes, trains, and so on. The noise levels of
these resembled the noise level of the cars, but the government said that the airplanes and
trains are necessary noises and motorsports is un-necessary. The motorsports community then
came back showing how many jobs were associated with the industry. From engine builders to
the maintenance crews that work at the tracks were all showed on the data collected. This data
was trying to prove that the motorsports community was in fact a viable industry.
One contemporary issue is the automotive industry would be the environmental
sustainable technologies. This of course relates back into the global issue of environmental
safety. The government wants cleaner burning cars where the public wants more efficient and
affordable cars. In todays time building an environmental safe car is not very affordable to the
public. I would like to take my knowledge and try to make an environmental safe car while also
keeping it efficient and affordable. In the future the environmental restrictions are only going to
increase and become stricter, so in this case innovation will be required to achieve that perfect
car for the government and the public. With the increase of innovation there has to be an
increase in education. I will have to stay up to date on my education and consistently look for
new ways to improve my knowledge.
Knowledge, Application, Skills and Abilities
To turn my passion into a career I must have a general understanding of the mechanics
behind the sport. Seeing that I have a mechanical background I believe that I already have my
foot in the door. I must pass the mechanical engineering course work in college and proceed to
learn all I can. The mechanical engineering curriculum has a concentration in motorsports which
I plan to enter into. The motorsports concentration leads me straight into what I want to do with
my knowledge and passion. I want to learn all about the sport and everything involved with it. I
believe that the motorsports industry is more mechanical based than electrical, therefore I
concluded I would attempt to graduate college with a mechanical engineering degree.
To follow my passion I believe that the best possible education major would be
mechanical engineering. The automotive industry is more mechanical based than anything else,
so that is how I decided to follow the mechanical engineering curriculum. Using the whole life
concept diagram and reflecting on my education decision I only grow stronger and more
passionate about pursuing the automotive industry with my mechanical engineering
background. Cars and trucks are my passion. Everything about them, and I will try my hardest
to get into the automotive industry so I can be surrounded by what I love at all hours of the day.

Even though I am almost certain that I want to pursue a mechanical engineering degree
I have some questions about the future of my planned career. Questions such as how
competitive are the mechanical engineers in the automotive industry and the motorsports
industry? If the industry is highly competitive, how hard will it be to do exactly what I want?
These questions will determine my work ethic in school and how hard I need to push for
internships, so that I go ahead and get my name in the industry. Getting my name in the
industry will boost my chances of getting my dream job substantially. Having good grades is
only half of the pie. To get the whole pie you also have to have connections in the industry.
While pushing for an internship I will also learn how competitive the automotive and motorsports
industries are and determine how I will try to get in them. I will also try to find out what average
mechanical engineers start out doing, and research the steps I need to follow to get as close to
my passion as possible. My questions can also be answered by current mechanical engineers.
Those engineers will know the exact steps they took and give some feedback on what I will
need to do to get where they are. Current engineers will be able to tell me what not to do and
what needs to be focused on the most. That will be the biggest benefit to me and possibly
answer all of my questions. My only concern however would be how rigorous the engineering
curriculum will be, and how taxing it will be on both my mind and my body.
I believe that the mechanical engineering education will benefit me the best in pursing
my passion. The automotive and motorsports industry is primarily a mechanical industry.
Although they are primarily a mechanical industry they also include a lot of the electrical. So
possibly receiving a degree in mechanical engineering while also minoring in electrical
engineering could benefit me the most.
Since the automotive industry has a lot of math and physics involved in it I will take both
calculus one and calculus two. After calculus I will continue into the thermodynamics course.
The math is more focused on than anything else in the mechanical engineering course, but
physics is also important. The physics that I will take will be the calculus based, because I will
already have the knowledge of calculus. A physics lab will also have to be done to continue on
to the next class. A senior design project will also be done senior year. This project will consist
of building a car and possibly racing it. The car design is of course in the motorsports
concentration. To do the senior design project and some of the projects in the junior and senior
year I will need access to the mechanics shop on campus. To gain access into this shop I will
have to take a safety test to show that I know what I can and cannot do while in the shop. This
academic program will benefit me the most by allowing me to gain not only knowledge, but
access into the industry. My knowledge gained after the completion of this course will prepare
me to create the impact on the industry that I would love to do.
I want to take mechanical engineering courses such as thermodynamics to expand my
knowledge on motorsports. My knowledge in motorsports will also grow as I continue to take
motorsports electives in my junior and senior year of college. I dont only want to focus on the
mechanical side I want to be a well-rounded engineer and try to learn a little about other
engineering opportunities. Another engineering opportunity would be taking courses in the
electrical engineering department to achieve a well balanced mix between mechanical and
electrical when I graduate. I might possibly take a course in design, so that I can take my
knowledge from there and implement it into the designing of cars or racecars.
One non-technical and non-academic program that I plan to pursue is to become
involved in a race shop to learn the basics and so that I can join the work force with a
knowledge of how things work. Joining a race shop will not only get my name in the business,
but could quite possibly gain me a spot on the team after I have completed my engineering
degree in college. I could possibly be a public relations intern to improve my public speaking

skills and to learn how to better address the public in terms that fit my career goals. These
examples will allow me to become more connected with the public and keep my name well
known with some of the big names in the automotive industry. Also the non-technical and nonacademic programs will help me to achieve my impact in motorsports by making me a wellrounded individual. That meaning that I have various techniques I can access instead of just the
educational knowledge that comes just from the mechanical engineering major.
Reflection and Conclusion
My passion is the automotive industry and in particular the motorsports industry. I plan to
use my knowledge and my education to impact the motorsports industry. I want to make the
sport safer than it is while keeping it fun. The Whole Life Concepts model is important, because
it is there to keep me on track and learn about myself so I can plan for the future. The center of
the Whole Life Concept model is passion and I absolutely agree, because I first have to be
passionate about something before I can make an impact on that something. To make that
impact I have to become knowledgeable about my passion and that is where my education
comes into play. At this stage of my academic and professional career the Whole Life Concepts
model is my plan for the future. I can alter it slightly to achieve my goals or I can alter it
dramatically and therefore change my passion and future. This assignment has made me
realize that I want to proceed with my dreams of pursuing the motorsports industry. I have put
endless hours into this project and that will not go to waste. This assignment has made me
realize that if you put the time and effort into something you can make that something great. I
want to do my best in college to get all the knowledge I can about the industry. I am committed
to doing all I have to do to get this degree and follow my dreams. To get a mechanical
engineering degree from the College of Engineering at UNC Charlotte will be a heavy weight
lifted off of my shoulder. Knowing that I gave my all and when I wanted to quit I didnt and fought
hard and long to achieve the well deserving degree.

References
"Automotive Research." Automotive Research. Accessed November 9, 2014.
Downing, Jim. "Death at the Track: Fatalities on U.S. Short Tracks/Drag Strips from Head/Neck
Injuries." December 5, 2012. Accessed November 9, 2014.
"EZ-Plate Systems - How It Works." EZ-Plate Systems - How It Works. Accessed November 9,
2014.
"Motorsports Mecca." Charlotte Chamber. January 1, 2012. Accessed October 3, 2014.
Klacik, Drew."Motorsports Industry in the Indianapolis Region."
"Racetrack Noise Legislation - Can Government Quiet Racing Permanently? - Circle Track
Magazine." Hot Rod. Accessed November 9, 2014.