Generally speaking, there are two layouts for the front engine, horizontal and vertical. Most of the models on the market adopt a horizontal layout, such as Volkswagen, Toyota, Honda, Ford and domestic brands, etc.; and most luxury cars like Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi have vertical engines. Seeing this, some people may wonder: Why do luxury cars use vertical engines? Is it much better than tapped? The old driver said: Everything is reasonable.
Simply put, the horizontal engine is placed parallel to the front axle of the vehicle, while the vertical engine is placed perpendicular to the front axle of the vehicle. That is, if you stand in the front of the car, if the engine is placed horizontally in front of you, it is the horizontal engine, and the vertical engine is the vertical engine.
And speaking of the difference between a horizontal engine and a vertical engine, we can analyze it from a mechanical point of view:
The engine transmits power to the transmission through the crankshaft after doing work. The transmission loss of force is directly proportional to its transmission distance and the number of times the force direction changes. The power output direction of the engine is related to the orientation of the engine, that is to say, the horizontal engine does work horizontally, while the longitudinal engine does work longitudinally.
So for front-wheel drive vehicles, the transverse engine can get a good power output, because the crankshaft of the transverse engine, the input and output shafts of the transmission and the front axle are all parallel, so that the directions are consistent and the power transmission The shorter the distance, the higher the transmission efficiency. It’s just that the horizontal engine will make the weight of the whole car concentrated on the front of the car, which will affect the handling to a certain extent. Intense driving is easy to cause the head to push, but it will do well in some models. For example, the Golf and Passat are horizontal engines. But their axle load distribution reached the level of 58% in the front and 42% in the back.
For rear-drive and four-wheel drive models, the longitudinal engine is very important, because the power needs to be transmitted to the rear axle, but the transmission distance from the front engine to the rear axle cannot be shortened. It can only improve transmission efficiency by reducing the direction of power conversion. Because the vertical engine can make the crankshaft and the transmission shaft parallel, this reduces the conversion of the transmission direction and reduces the energy loss. However, compared with the horizontal engine, the vertical engine will take up more longitudinal space of the vehicle body, which will affect the seating space in the car.
This is why the general front-wheel drive family car will use the horizontal engine, and for many luxury cars that use the rear drive or four-wheel drive, the vertical engine will be used, mainly not Changing the steering of the engine output can be directly output to the rear axle, achieving the effect of fuel saving without losing power. In addition, large-displacement engines will also be placed vertically. If they are placed horizontally, the size of the engine will occupy the entire cabin, and the gearbox will have no place to place it.
In general, the layout of the engine can also be seen as a watershed between ordinary brands and luxury brands, but there are special cases. After all, as the flagship model of the family, the Volvo S80 has always insisted on using horizontal placement. engine.
