Functionality of "cheek trim"?
 

On both the 86 & BRZ, I see there are black "styling features" flanking the grille. Are those functional in any way? I kinda rather wish they were not there, they clutter the styling some. If those are for front brake cooling, all well and good.

I presume insufficient room to repurpose for driving lights, air horns or machine guns. :iono:

On the 2022 cars (second generation), there is a small vent to the front of the wheel well for drag reduction purposes.

On the 1st gen, that is where the fog lights are on cars equipped with them.

Aftermarket will always find a new use for that area, so standby for second gen parts that add more ducting/lights/machine guns.

JDM cars have fog light option that fits there. $600 for the part along with switch to control it.

They're critical for cooling the radiator overflow on the right and washer fluid on the left.
The side slashes are for the blinker fluid.

Uh. I think I'd have to see the OEM lights' performance in fog before I'd commit to that.

Thanks for the warning -- nothing worse than washer fluid vapor lock.

It is not so much a fog light as it is a DRL enhancement. You can see it here.

They do blow air to the inside of the wheel well, but probably not a lot.
The airflow is split 3-ways, and 2 of the streams are directed inboard.
No brake ducts though.

https://i.imgur.com/COeCVo3.png
https://i.imgur.com/fBwQBYJ.png

From 3:09 in
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oponEXpq56c

From the video it looks like all three streams are directed outboard.

That helps control the "wash" coming off the front tire, along with the rear vent to help clean up the air going to the back of the car.

EDIT: Looked at it again, you're right there are two streams going inboard. Looks like the outboard is broken up into 3, that's what initially got me.

Pass!

Cool, thanks for that detail... at least not wholly non-functional pseudo vents. That comprehensively answers the question.

@trippinbillies40 we would love to see photos or even videos of this area in a real car when you take the front wheels off next time.

Looks like it was a good thing that I kept the long-handled narrow brush that I made up to clean the water drain holes for my Miata; I can see those vents ingesting debris readily.

It looks like we've misinterpreted the graphics in that video! :(

Here's a photo of the front of the fender liner on a 2022 BRZ:
https://i.imgur.com/94tkLZv.jpg

I can only see the three holes for the streams that go around the tire on the outside.
I presume the other 2x3 streams go on the other side of the fender liner, and never enter the wheel well.

When I first saw the air streams, I thought of it as the air coming from the grill or engine well is going into the wheel well. Basically the opposite of what the comments read. There are no arrows on the air streams showing which direction they are going.

The front side of that "stream splitter" should have higher pressure than the air in most of the engine compartment, so I don't think it's possible for air to flow from the engine compartment into the wheel well through that thing.