Engineering Cheat Sheet
Learn How Cars Are Actually Engineered
Automotive engineering explained through real-world examples, engineering diagrams, calculations, and lessons from OEM vehicle development.
Automotive Engineering · Chassis · Structures · Vehicle Integration · Manufacturing · Electrical & EV Systems
What Do You Want to Learn?
Explore the major systems and disciplines engineers use to develop a vehicle.
Understand how the major systems of a vehicle work together.
Brakes, suspension, steering, tires, and vehicle dynamics.
Body-in-white, crashworthiness, materials, joining, and structural design.
Learn how engineers fit thousands of components into a limited vehicle package.
Vehicle electrical architectures, motors, batteries, controls, and electrification.
Learn how vehicles are stamped, welded, assembled, validated, and designed for manufacturing.
New to Automotive Engineering? Start Here.
Three foundational guides, in the order most students find useful.
What Is Automotive Engineering?
The core disciplines, career paths, and what the job actually involves.
Powertrain, chassis, electrical, and safety systems, and how they fit together.
The Automotive Engineer’s Handbook
Skills, tools, and what it takes to succeed as a working automotive engineer.
How Does a Car Go From an Idea to Production?
A simplified view of the vehicle-development process — design and engineering iterate together throughout.
Note: this is shown as a linear sequence for simplicity, but in reality, steps 1–6 happen largely in parallel. Early in a vehicle’s life cycle, the design is still fluid, and conflicting requirements are actively worked out based on the vehicle’s overall goals. Several of these activities also have staggered starting points, timed according to each company’s own program timing plan.
Featured Engineering Guides
Hand-picked, technically substantial reads — not just the newest posts.
Engineering Beyond the Textbook
Textbooks teach equations and theory. Engineering Cheat Sheet explains how those principles influence real vehicle decisions — packaging, cost, manufacturing, weight, performance, durability, safety, and serviceability.
Learn From Real Automotive Engineering Experience
Engineering Cheat Sheet is written by Anthony Bernal, an automotive engineer with hands-on OEM vehicle-development experience at Ford and GM. Everything here reflects that real-world work, not just textbook theory.
Go Under the Hood of the Automotive Industry
Engineering insights, career perspectives, and conversations with people working in automotive engineering — twice a month.
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