Reply to "Five modifications NOT to do to your Pantera"

Hello Mikael,

Thank you for taking the time to post on the forum. I read your article and the entire posting.

First of all let me say that I enjoyed your thoughts and I understand why you wrote what you wrote. I also understand the why some people wrote what they wrote.

It is why I work in the field that I am in, Field Engineering for over 30 years. A product is designed, for a purpose, then sold to the masses. (Pick any product!) What the masses do with the product is up to them. Sometimes people find ways to utilize the product beyond the design. Sometimes they modify the product at a cost of reducing the original design. In other words you want it to run faster then it will have a shorter lifespan. (Example: Dragster engines are torn down after each run. While that old Dodge slant 6 may run forever.)

Engineering is a critical part of the design process.

People pay my company a lot of money for me to show up and correct something they “did” to the product we designed because they wanted it to do something it was not intended for or they did not understand how it really works, so they “fixed it”. I correct the product for their application or I replace the product with something more suitable for their application, stating that... the company pays me to go and fix something they designed (or our vendor) that they made cheaper and in the long run did not work very well.

I took your article to mean; that first you look at the big picture, then see if the equipment is as designed, if not. correct it to “as designed”. If that does not solve the issue then look for a better solution if one is available, test the new solution to see if it suits the application and solves the issue. Our Cars are our hobby we like to tinker with them, when it is done we might as well sell it and get another project, my car will never be done, I will always want to make it better, (wash it at the end before I die). It is not for sale.

Some people look at the glass as half full, some people think it is half empty. Engineers think the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

PS Garth you know me, and the pictures were spot on funny.