Quote:
Originally Posted by ZDan
But they are a styling gimmick, an effort to suggest LOWness and BIG wheels/tires that the car doesn't really have.
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My understanding is it wasn’t a styling gimmick but was designed that way to allow 3-4” deformation space between the hood and all hard points in the engine bay in response to Euro pedestrian safety standards implemented in 2010. The engine sits low being that the heads are on the sides so that wasn’t an issue but the top of the struts needed the fender arches. I suppose you could stylistically eliminate the arches by just having a higher hood all the way across but that’d be pretty ugly IMO.