• Question: What do you love best about working in vehicles and transport and/or infrastructure?

    Asked by anon-74897 on 24 Jun 2020.
    • Photo: Douglas Wragg

      Douglas Wragg answered on 24 Jun 2020:

      I love working on older vehicles, particularly classic and vintage, and one of my great loves is tuning engines – the reward comes when you have finished, and they sit there ticking over like a well oiled clock!!!
      Of course, roadtesting them is also a bonus!!!!

    • Photo: Juan Carlos Fallas-Chinchilla

      Juan Carlos Fallas-Chinchilla answered on 24 Jun 2020:

      Worked in cars when I was really young (before studying engineering). It is lovely to fix or improve something wonky, to forecast a potential damage and prevent it or to simply understand how things work inside a vehicle.

      After studying engineering got into a research job related to hydrogen cars. From that job and from collaborating/listening to friends working in infrastructure and urban planning my main satisfaction is to improve the quality of living of people, by lowering emissions and having clean air, reducing commuting times and improving safety for drivers, passengers, cyclists, pedestrians, animals, etc.

    • Photo: David Linsell

      David Linsell answered on 24 Jun 2020:

      My first motor vehicle was a Messerchmitt KR200 three-wheel vehicle. Maintaining that taught me an enormous amount about the need to understand what each component in the engine does and the importance of the correct methods and procedures for maintenance. Aged about 17, I could do a complete engine change in 90 minutes.
      My last full-time role was making Power from Poo for a waste-water treatment company. It may not sound as interesting as say designing satellite systems but the satisfaction came from knowing that what I was doing was making a direct and daily contribution to the health of the entire population of south-east England. Infrastructure works, whether clean-water, waste-water, electricity generation and distribution or Natural Gas production and distribution may not have the cache of some other elements of engineering but just remember that nothing in this country, or world-wide, would work without the under-pinning infrastructure.

Comments

  • Photo: Marty

    Marty commented on :

    Worked for Nissan NMUK and Jaguar Land Rover for around the last 10 years. I love being involved in developing the product whatever that might be, I spent a fair amount of time in casting and machining cylinder heads and its good to see a car out on the road and think that it probably has one of the heads on that you helped develop and launch.

    Likewise, its good to drive the cars and take pride in them when you see them out on the road.

    Like some of the other engineers who have responded I too am a keen car enthusiast and have 1996 Subaru Impreza that have been working on over the years.