Nice write up! Makes a lot of sense, your perspective. While I don't have nearly the same credentials with car racing and breaking, I did drive a heavily modified Volvo 850 T-5R back in the day, chipped from 240hp (peak) to 285hp (excluding 1st gear). The car was designed just fine from the factory, but the limited change I made would cause nightmares with the CV boots/joints. The forces would lead to leakage which meant failure not far behind, and, if I remember correctly, it was pretty easy to tell when things were going south.
Ragging on Tesla is not new to me, but I do think it's important to at least try to be fair about it. I mean, this case? Not quite a good example to me. Like you said, not a specific thing to a manufacturer. Now, seeing about 3 Model Xs in the wild so far, two of which had obviously troublesome door alignment (un-matched latch) fit & finish, that's fair game.
Ragging on Tesla is not new to me, but I do think it's important to at least try to be fair about it. I mean, this case? Not quite a good example to me. Like you said, not a specific thing to a manufacturer. Now, seeing about 3 Model Xs in the wild so far, two of which had obviously troublesome door alignment (un-matched latch) fit & finish, that's fair game.