Metal car or human body, such engineering manoeuvres are no different anywhere across competitive professional sports.
In this disillusioning modern age of athletics it seems the same creative shortcuts in the form of medical supplements are causing far too many of our supposed heroes and role-models to step down from their pedestals in abject disgrace.
The facade of the naturally gifted, hard training, sensible dieting superwoman was shattered this week by the news the world's highest paid female athlete Maria Sharapova had failed a drug test for meldonium - an officially banned substance as of January 1 this year.
Well known in Sharapova's native Russia and Eastern Europe for helping treat heart conditions, meldonium was allegedly needed by the tennis beauty because her heart's electrical reading (EKG) was abnormal and she was concerned about diabetes.
After taking it for 10 years, 28-year-old Sharapova claimed she missed the email stating her little white pill friend had been added to the banned list.
It's just an honest mistake, honestly.
Trouble was, within hours this flimsy defence was being pulled apart.
Former World Anti-Doping Agency president Dick Pound said Sharapova and her team had either foolishly or deliberately ignored five notifications from the agency last year that meldonium would soon become a big no-no.
Also, the business savvy and well-managed multimillionaire, who was plastered on her sponsor's billboards as the picture of perfect health and beauty as she hawked their products, had made no attempt to apply for the oft-abused therapeutic use exemption (TUE) which many athletes request for one ailment or another.
"If you are running a US$30 million ($44 million) a year sole proprietorship, I'm sorry you damn well make sure that you don't do anything that makes you ineligible," said Pound. "Clearly within the tennis circles they were aware that a lot of players were using it, so there must be something in it."
So is the powerful and towering Sharapova really so unwell that she needed this harmless pill?
Suspicious eyes narrow further when you read the December study in the Drug Testing and Analysis journal.
Meldonium "demonstrates an increase in endurance performance of athletes, improved rehabilitation after exercise, protection against stress, and enhanced activations of central nervous system [CNS] functions."
So, you bounce back quicker from hard training, are less likely to suffer an "adrenaline dump" during a match, and the brain can send messages down the spinal cord quicker to keep your body channelling its resources to the right areas.
Why, oh why, would a top level tennis player want something like that? For possible diabetes prevention. Sure.
Mixed martial arts had a similar conundrum in recent years, where just because testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) wasn't on the banned list, there sure seemed to be a lot of muscular veteran fighters who were prospering in the octagon, while coincidentally getting the medical treatment they claimed they needed.
The male body stops producing such testosterone around the age of 25.
Simply put, we men start getting older, less able to bounce back quickly from illness, tough training and injuries. You know what that's called? Life.
Jon Jones, the UFC world light-heavyweight champion and in his mid-20s at the time, made it clear he felt anyone receiving TRT to cheat the effects of ageing was by definition also cheating in sport.
"You should fight the way you fight when you're in your 40s. I don't think you should be able to take a drug to pretty much give you the strength of a 30-year-old again. That's like me saying, 'I'm not as fast-twitch as I was when I was 20. Let me take something to be 20 again.'
"I think things like TRT or steroids should be for the sick, or for the normal people that really need the drugs."
Ironically, it was life's happenstance which saw Jones lose his championship - taking recreational drugs and getting involved in a hit-and-run car crash which saw him receive an 18-month probation from the courts and be stripped of the belt for conduct unbecoming.
Simply put, life happens. This is why sports journalists like myself point out "home advantage" in match previews because we know the visiting teams will have to travel some distance to compete, which is naturally tiring.
We make clear distinctions in contests between "young hotshots" and "veterans", because we know the latter will be relying more on their experience and guile compared to their opponent's youth, due to the natural deterioration which comes with ageing.
If we know an athlete has been ill, or coming back from injury, we expect them to be at a disadvantage in terms of stamina and strength - judged by the standard of the sport they are playing.
On the day, for whatever reason, an athlete simply may not be able to turn up and perform at their best, so why should these stars be allowed to read between the lines of the rule book and find the loop hole to maintain a standard which is impossible without a magic pill?
Taking something to stay unnaturally at your body's peak is just as illegal as taking something which enhances performance to make you better than you really are.