This totally amazed me when I started working on cars. Both carburetors and direct injection creates a mixture of gasoline and air BEFORE this mixture enters the cylinder. Direct injection now seems like a misnomer ;) It makes a lot of sense if you think about the incredibly violent conditions inside the cylinder head though. I'm always surprised that spark plugs survive as easily as they do, I imagine a high accuracy injector nozzle in that situation would not last as long as current injectors. Has anyone done a true direct-injection design?
Jacob, can you update the drawing slightly? "The fuel injectors spray gas into the cylinder..." is incorrect, it should be closer to "The fuel injectors spray gas into the intake manifold where it mixes with air before being sucked into the cylinder"