[FlyingDutchman]

Originally Posted by KirkEvil

Being an engineer does not mean you automatically design/build great things. You could give the best engineer in the world a weak design budget and get a poor product. Stock parts are made for stock applications, under a budget...hopefully designed as best possible for that budget. If everything stock was made/designed/built to work well I guess there wouldnt be any performance gains with aftermarket parts?

You are right, engineers don't automatically create great things on a low budget (not that it is impossible). However, that wasn't my intended point. My comment was implying that a simple "car guy" would not understand the actual mechanics. They would just assume that since steel is stronger than cardboard it must mean one filter is better than the other. Intuitively it makes sense, but doesn't make it right.

Aftermarket parts are necessary for performance applications. In noway am I saying use them in your 10 second race car. However, just because your car is high performance and requires a high performance filter does not discredit FRAM. Most daily drivers are 100% fine with a FRAM economy filter. They make a quality product form what I am seen and they are not hiding anything. The video clearly addressed the fact that endcaps don't add any structural strength, they just hold the media together (which is already wrapped around a steel cylinder...). And if the only reason you argue that they are garbage is because of the cardboard, then why not trash the felt endcap too?