Mercedes-Benz Re-Thinks Direct Injection

Believe it or not, gasoline direct injection is a technology that's near sixty years old. Sixty years old? It makes you wonder what automakers were doing all the while with less efficient, conventional port fuel injection. It's funny how only now, in the middle of the first decade of the 21st century, we're starting to hear about this alternative injection method, employed in Mitsubishis, Mazdas, Volkswagens and BMWs, among others. The real innovator, however, was Mercedes-Benz, which, way back in 1954 employed the world's first fuel injection system in the classic 300 SL 'Gullwing' coupe. It also happened to be the world's first gasoline direct injection system, which was derived from the Benz-designed engine featured in a Messerschmitt fighter aircraft a decade earlier.