Ginetta have announced that the Centre for Advanced Performance Engineering (CAPE) at the University of Bolton are the world’s first Ginetta-Juno LMP3 customer, making them the only performance engineering centre currently working on the newly announced LMP3 car.

The University of Bolton leads in developing its students through an advanced performance engineering career experience in the classroom, in the workshop and on the race track. Bolton is one of the first Universities in the UK to have an in-house, fully-functioning race team on a university campus and is focused on the employability of its graduates.

Professor George Holmes, Vice-Chancellor and CEO of the University of Bolton said:

“Advanced Performance Engineering at Bolton is a unique offer from a UK university. Only our advanced performance engineering students have access to work on a Le Mans race team and as a result of our partnership with Ginetta they will now be working on the brand new LMP3 car. The UK has a shortage of engineers. Over 1.28m engineering professionals are required by 2020. Graduate engineers with strong experience can expect to enjoy competitive starting salaries, and an average lifetime wage premium in excess of £250k. The real-world experience provided by the University gives our students a competitive edge for a wide range of successful, advanced engineering careers, making them stand out from the crowd.”

Team RLR, who competed in the Le Mans Series with their own Lola LMP2 before preparing the Murphy Prototypes Oreca Nissan in its first year of competition, are based on-site at the University of Bolton.

With Ginetta already demonstrating a proven route through motorsport for aspiring racing drivers, this new relationship will provide unrivalled opportunities for undergraduate engineers to gain hands-on experience, vital in the competitive motorsport workplace.

Lawrence Tomlinson, Chairman, Ginetta said;

“Ginetta is delighted to be able to continually develop our motorsport career ladder. Bolton University is one of the UK’s leading centres for the study of advanced performance engineering and prepares students for the best careers in engineering – in particular motorsport engineering – thanks to their first-hand experience working on a car in a motorsport environment, which is what I look for as an employer.”

Ginetta will offer internships to University of Bolton students at their head office in Leeds to a number of CAPE’s students in areas such as design and aerodynamics, and the Ginetta-Juno LMP3 will make its debut as part of the European and Asian Le Mans Series in 2015.