NEW RACECAR EACH YEAR. FAST LEARNING.

Bearcats Motorsports is the only Formula SAE Internal Combustion team in Cincinnati, designing and building a Formula-style race car almost entirely in-house.

36,000 Hours

Full team hours per car

90% In-House

Design, Manufacturing, & Testing

Completely Free

Unless taking the Course

Open to all Majors

Zero Restrictions!

Join Us for the Ride!

Bearcats Motorsports is always looking for passionate students from UC of all majors and any year. Building race cars will teach you so much more than you could ever imagine. Join our Canvas Onboarding with your school email, join our Discord, fill out the form, follow us on social media, or reach out to a BCMS member that you know.

Learn Hands-On Engineering, Project Management, Business & Communication Skills, & Network with Industry Leading Sponsors.
Bearcats Motorsports is the only organization at the University of Cincinnati that delivers this level of comprehensive hands-on skills for students.

We can't wait to meet you!

Join Bearcats Motorsports Now!

Get a Tour!

Why We Joined:

Hands-On Engineering

Real-world design experience
Multi-disciplinary learning
Engineering Software useage
Machining experience
Problem-solving under constraints

Career & Networking Advantages

Highly respected by employers
Direct recruiting
Speaking with industry professionals
Alumni networks

Personal Growth & Soft Skills

Teamwork under pressure
Leadership development
Creativity & innovation
Resilience

Project Management

Cross-functional teamwork
Time and budget management
Documentation skills

Business & Communication Skills

Meeting Industry Professionals
Marketing
Acquiring sponsorships
Event presentations
Branding and outreach

Unique Life Experiences

Travel for competitions
Trackside problem solving
Pride in a Tangible Result

Who Can Join?

Open to All Majors!

Here are some of our more popular majors that join, but as long as you currently attend the University of Cincinnati, you are able to join!

Mechanical Engineering/Mechanical Engineering Technology

By joining the team, you will expand your portfolio by developing competitive R&D skills, acquiring knowledge of the industry, and networking opportunities with big-name companies. BCMS allows you to solve real-world engineering problems by working within a team to help build the fastest FSAE cars possible.

Design Parts
- FEA
- CAD
Manufacture Parts
Test & Maintain Parts
Subteam Focus:
- Vehicle Dynamics
- Aero
- Powertrain
- Driver Interface
- Chassis

Aerospace Engineering

Design Parts
- CFD
- CAD
- FEA
Manufacture Parts
Test & Maintain Parts
Subteam Focus:
- Aero

Electrical Engineering

Design Parts
- CAD
- Diagrams
- Pinouts
- Schematics
Manufacture Parts
Test & Maintain Parts
- Data Acquisition
Subteam Focus:
- Low Voltage

Business/Marketing/Accounting/Sports Administration

By joining the team, you will be able to make connections with our many sponsors, help market the team on social media with our current total of 15,000 followers, put on fun and engaging events, and help manage funds to power the team's efforts in design and production. BCMS allows you to get a taste of running a real-life race team while still in a school environment.

Establishing Partnerships
- Networking
- Hypothetical Competitively Graded Scenarios
- $60,000 raised each year
- 50+ Sponsors worth over $240,000
Full Non-Profit Accounting
- Budgeting
- Competitively Graded Cost Reports
Marketing
- Over 15,000 followers
- Branding
- Media
- Outreach
Management with the University
- Negotiations
- Leadership
- Networking

DAAP/Design/Media/Comms

BCMS is looking for designers! Projects include car & trailer livery design as well as opportunities in graphic design, ergonomic design, & fashion design. This allows you to further understand material use and is a
huge opportunity to work with a team of engineers and business students while learning valuable communication and work skills. BMCS includes opportunities not only in the transportation industry, but can give huge opportunities to be recognized by big-name companies and race teams!

Livery
- Car
- Helmets
Social Media
- Photography
- Videography
Content Editing/Storytelling

Undeclared/First-Year/No Experience

Structured Onboarding
Shadowing Experienced Members
Learn-by-Doing
- Test out how much you enjoy taking a deep dive into many different majors

No Application. No tryouts. No Obligation

OUR SUBTEAMS

BUSINESS

The Business subteam ensures the team operates like a professional engineering non-profit organization. Responsibilities include sponsorship acquisition, budgeting, branding, marketing, and competition presentations. Members develop real-world skills in project management, financial planning, and professional communication while supporting the technical teams and representing the team to industry partners.

No Skills Required!

How You Learn

Our New Member Onboarding!
- Completion of all Required Safety Training
- Access to all team documents, communication, etc.
- Sub-Team Focus Lessons
  - We still highly recommend new members translate learnings to the FSAE world before attempting stuff on their own.
- View Past Manuals written by Leaders
- Task-Based Learning
Mentorship from Experienced Members
- Come into the shop anytime from 8 am to 10 pm, any day of the week, and you'll likely find many members working on organization tasks or homework.
- Spending your time here to complete all your schoolwork has been a great resource for our members to learn in-class or organizational lessons quickly.
Discord-Based Communication
- We have two Discords, one for the onboarding process, and the other is our main communication platform. This is to protect from bots. Sorry for the slight inconvenience.
- Our main Discord is shared between the Bearcats Racing teams and contains about 60 group chats that can be muted to your needs and focuses. This allows new members to try any team or sub-team without needing to switch between and get invited to private group chats.

Underclassmen Projects

How the System Works

When you first join, there will likely be a new member meeting that auctions off different projects that are created by upperclassmen. If this meeting is not around, then feel free to ask in person or on the new member Discord what projects need to be done, or attend sub-team meetings that interest you! At the time of writing this, as an example, we have 10 projects that currently don't have anyone assigned to them. This is a good opportunity to lead a non-critical project to get oriented with our resources and how things function. Within 6-12+ months of joining, you should have completed enough projects to become well aquiatnted to what needs to be done for the team. As students, we lead the organization's path to success. As a member, you will learn how to prioritize and create projects just like your future job!

Underclassmen Project Highlights

To help get an understanding of some projects that have occurred on the team, we wanted to enter two examples and their project leads.

TRAILER OPTIMIZATION PROJECT

Completed by: Will Brock & Thomas Ashby

TRAILER OPTIMIZATION PROJECT DETAILS

After we got a new trailer, our focus shifted to optimizing it to create an efficient workspace for our competition while still storing items in a safe loading position. Will lead alot of the design, while Thomas had a lot of experience with previous race trailers he worked on for other racing series, he also carried out the completion and building of everything that Will had designed. This project is planned to be completed over the winter of 2025-2026. We look forward to adding the finished product pictures soon!

PITCART PROJECT DETAILS

Since the beginning of our organization, we have been using a team-made flatbed cart that would have totes put onto it and pushed around at each competition. But if items were on the bottom, everything had to come off to access those tools. With how often things would fall off, typically 3 people had to push the cart around and manage it during a competition. Fun Fact: There are pictures of a frame being made on this cart back in 1997. It was used as a pit cart till the 2025 season. Ben designed most of the cart using his experience managing the cart at a previous competition and taking many measurements of items around the shop. Sean was able to help secure a sponsor to manufacture the cart and advised the sponsor if any questions were asked.

PITCART PROJECT

Completed by: Sean Seeley & Ben Castoe

JOIN US TODAY!

Bearcats Motorsports New Member Discord

SPECIAL REQUEST?

OUR FACILITIES

Main Campus

On Main Campus, we have a garage space to work on our car, but each car's life has started in the machine shop within the same room. All students will be required to take safety training to enter the machine shop; no knowledge is required before training. Our cars need a place to be designed, so in the rooms past our shop, we have storage and an office with many desktop computers and laptop space.

Schedule a Tour from one of our Members!

Disclaimer: This is not an official tour led by the University of Cincinnati or the College of Engineering. This is a tour led and organized by students within our organization. We recommend you still schedule an official tour through the University and plan to tour with us before or after. This tour is open to High School students, Transfers, Potential Partners, or other FSAE teams!

Can I Drive?

Everyone CAN drive but you will need to become a very active member of the organization and get experience within the team.

All underclassmen can have the opportunity to drive our go kart to get experience before driving our larger cars.

What Majors Can Join?

All of our organizations are open to any major at the University. No matter what we could use your help!

Will Help Land a Job?

Yes! Many employers are looking for SAE experience as it is one of the most intensive and hard working organizations on campus.

Do I Need Any Experience?

No, we all joined with little to no experience. We have an onboarding to help bring you up to speed quickly but that is nowhere near all the information our members know. Always feel free to ask questions!

What is the Fee to Join?

There is NO FEE! Our business team is focused on funding the teams expenses.

How can a Business Student Help?

We are a fully functioning business, if there is a major in Lindner for you, there will be a few job functions at the least that you can put on your resume.

Can I Join From Another University?

We would love more help but unfortunately this is only open to students at the University of Cincinnati.

How Big is the Team?

Each team has around 50 members! This can change up and down each year.

How Long Does it Take to Build a Car?

Last year our team of Seniors spent 25,000 hours building each of our 3 cars. Underclassmen hours were not tracked.