Hey I think you should think about some things about the time when fuel injection is available.
In the game the injection is available from 1978, but mechanic injection was available in 1954 (MB 300SL) or 1957 (MB 300) and for the more normal cars in 1963 (Peugeot 404)
An electronic multipoint Injection was available in 1967 (VW 1600LE)!!!
The Game does not go by the year these technologies were first used, rather by when they had become commonly used. The Kee version introduced MFI in 1968, SPFI in 1978 and EFI in 1982. Why UE4 does it differently I don’t know because the old model was quite solid I thought.
As Wildgerman said.
Also, fuel injection was actually even earlier than 1954, planes had them. And in the 300SL it was very problematic thing though and it was way ahead of time, therefore being niche. So I don’t expect changing unlocking times.
Mechanical injection should be available in the game in 1968, as it is in the Kee version of the game. I don’t remember why is it changed in UE4, but IIRC it’s not meant to unlock as late as 1978, with EFI. 300SL had mechanic direct injection, and it was just that one production car with such technology made in history (AFAIK), so it’s not a good example. Mercedes in particular was quite special with their early adoption of injection.
And, in addition to what @Awildgermanappears wrote, in the campaign (even the lite version available currently in the Kee engine) technologies can be unlocked up to 15 years before their normal unlock date through investing into research, so in an extreme case (which the 300SL definitely was) you could make a car with injection as early as 1953, and probably release it to the market in 1957-1959.
As a matter of fact TWO small german cars introduced mechanical direct injection in 1952, the Gutbrod Superior and Goliath GP700. They were two-stroke engines though.
And I actually have some experience with the 300SL, I had the chance to rebuild an M198 during an apprenticeship at a shop specializing in post-war MBs. The system itself is surprisingly reliable, but very difficult to work with and insanely expensive (A rebuild will set one back 35,000€ easily). In general though just about anything Mercedes Benz made in the 1950s was near bomb-proof. We had a customer who had his engine (not a 300SL though) rebuilt with one for spare some 15 years ago, drove 250.000km and then had it swapped for the spare. The original engine was in pretty stout condition regardless. Few 1950s cars can do that.
As Awildgerman said. Date of commonplace use, not first use.
Also, the lagging of the Automation dates of availability behind real world first use will be at least partially accounted for by R&D and tech pool in the campaign. As it should be. In real life, those automakers were doubtless dumping money and engineering into those technologies in order to gain a competitive advantage. In the interest of both gameplay and realism, that advantage should definitely cost something big and require much forethought and long-term planning.