I bet I can rebuild an engine (been there/done that several times) faster than you can solve for critical interlaminar tensile stresses in an anisotropic reinforced carbon-carbon curved beam @ 2800 degrees F using non-linear analysis techniques. I'll even give you a year's head-start.
Component placement in consumer vehicles is largely driven by manufacturing concerns and speed/cost of assembly in order to keep the initial cost down. Military vehicles are generally more maintenance-friendly.
Most mechanical engineers like fast, loud, dangerous things that blow up just as much as the next gear-head. The only difference is that we somehow managed to struggle through the math/physics/chemistry to get here.
Just a little food for thought, and maybe an inkling of what I hate.
Peace 
i'll do ya one better.
you come to my shop. when that part breaks, on the engine, that in all obviousness, cannot break(thus the poor access) i wanna see you fix it.
or better. i would liked to see the guy that designed the FI system on the 7.3 powerstroke deisel fix the one i just had in the shop the other day. the absolute simplest internal combustion engine in the world, and they managed to make it as relaible as a gas engine.
i realize i shouldn't group all engineers into a single catagory, but c'mon......
chevy malibu. power brake booster bad. need a special tool to remove it, as it's no longer bolted to the firewall. what was wrong with bolting them there? it didn't work well enough for the last 50 years?
i could go on, but i don't really wanna piss ya off...........i WOULD like to see the engineers that design tyhis poo poo have a requirement that they WORK on the things they design first. i bet there'd be a lot of things designed differently.
now, all that said.......
thanks to engineers, i'll NEVER build a carburated street car again. FI is the only way to fly. more power, out of les fuel. driveable in ANY weather.....no more 3 or 4 tries to start, then give her 20 minute warmup......so i do realize they can do good.........
