automationgame.com

The gearbox location in wrong. Front wheel drive cars don't have the gearbox like it's ingame. Generally the gearbox is behind the engine parallel to it.
This is important because it's limiting the engine size of transverse engines.

Actually this should be the same for transverse rear engines.

Erhm no, generally transverse fwd cars have the gearbox next to engine with a few exceptions like the old Mini.

Yeah, every FWD gearbox I've ever worked with has had the gearbox parts of it straight on the end of the flywheel, and then the diff tucked behind the engine.

You are right.
The diff that sits behind. My bad.

I still think there is something odd about the size of the gearboxes ingame. Maybe too long.

He may be on to something. Everything I've tried as a transverse FWD so far can't fit more than about a 1.9L engine in there. Even stroking out the engine eventually increases the size enough that it won't fit in the engine bay. At least, not if it's attached to a minorly critical system like, say, exhaust. Yet in real life, a 2.4L inline 4 is not uncommon for modern cars, even in a transverse configuration.

Which leads to another thing I noticed. Exhaust on a transverse FWD in-game increases the engine length, not width. Look at any modern transverse I-4 and you'll see that the exhaust manifold, IF it exits the front of the engine (which on a Nissan MR18DE, for example, it does not), the exhaust piping then goes down UNDERNEATH the engine and exit out the back of the car. So this means the extra size for the manifold should go to width, and a small amount for the piping to go to its height as it wraps under the motor.

On the smallest in-game bodies, I've had some difficulty getting anything larger than about a 1.4l or 1.5l to fit. But under the hood of my Chevy Sonic, there's TONS of space all around my 1.4T. The base-model version carries a 1.8 too with no problem.

And in real life you have tons of front wheel drive cars with 5 cylinder engines. Audi TT or the Volvo 850 for example. Both with more than 2l.

You have also to make in count that modern cars are wider than older ones aldo for this. Checking the one of the firs mass marketed modern transverse FWD FIAT128 (Dante Giacosa system), it was a lot wider than the previous car in order to put the engine inside.

On the other side, the gearbox was very small if compared to the Automation one.

I wonder if r&d effort could result in smaller boxes?

A longitudinal FWD setup is really missing, especially for older narrower bodies.

I'm sure I read that is coming.
Although I never knew such a setup existed until this year.

Longitudinal FWD? That's actually EVERY FWD Subaru ever made. Except the Justy.

and if you ever want to see a ridiculously long transmission for a 1.8L engine, look at the ones Subaru used from 1980 to 1989.

First Audi A4 had longitudinal FWD also if I remember right. That also means that same aged Passat had it also if I'm right...

I'm just looking foward too being able to build fullsized big block v8 fwd cars.