First comment I have here is that there will be a reason for this. With mass-produced Motor vehicles (and the old RD350 was a popular machine in its time), the manufacturers have spent a lot of time getting it right, so stick to the original scheme, no matter how much it doesn't make sense to...
I'm an Electrical Engineer with >38 years of experience in heavy industry, pretty much all over the world. The toys in my sandbox tend to be Big, Noisy and Expensive :)
Anyone who has studied engineering in the past knows that Physics is included in the first couple of years and then sidelined...