Simulating an Entire Car Engine (yes, it makes noise) [12:04]
Quite possibly the dumbest project I've ever undertaken, this was an odyssey but well worth it in the end. It's hard to fully explain the depth of the rabbit hole that I was led down and I ended up having to study things like fluid dynamics, physics and chemistry. As the title suggests, this is a physically realistic (or at least, somewhat realistic) internal combustion engine simulation. It also generates audio which I feel is some of the best procedurally generated audio for a V8 engine I've ever heard.
If you want to simulate a clutch and gearbox, don't bother. F1 once tried modeling their clutches to allow for perfect 1st gear shifts at the start. There are too many variables, nested and self dependent differential equations that become impossible to compute in realtime. They solved it by basically keeping as many variables fixed and called it "launch control". The car puts itself in a very controlled state so the board computer can actually compute the clutch release.