Car design - flat wheel arches on everything, why?

[XplusYplusZ]

Why does everything from bentley to bmw, maserati to mazda, have a 2 inch 'flat' section around the rim of the wheel arch? Is it a manufacturing choice, an aesthetic choice, or something else?

[22Rgt]

Its a way of strengthening the panel to make it rigid. If it was just curved and rolled under it would flex a lot more as on many older designed vehicles.

[AudiSport]

It's also a styling that is popular, along with a the black strip at the base of all rear bumpers to house the exhaust pipes!

[Vladimir]

For some reason it's a bit I often miss when I clean both cars!

[fausTVR]

It's always been a bugbear of mine that most cars from the last 25 years or so are designed with pointless sticky-out blister arches. These are so as to appeal to the rally car fanboys of yester year and the habit simply stuck. I never thought it a good look on humdrum white-goods cars to make them look "sporty" in this lazy way, and it's long become a default requirement from the outset of design.

I always see it and think lost interior space. Why not simply widen the inner dimensions and keep the same overall footprint? From an aesthetic viewpoint, the loveliest car shapes haven't needed the stick-on effect of swollen arches.

I know many will disagree but just my 2p.

[wildcat45]

I always thought it was an engineering thing. As said, to make the steel more rigid.

[cptsideways]

Its also an aerodynamic drag reducing feature, it reduces the turbulence around the wheel well

[Steve Benson]

XplusYplusZ said:

an aesthetic choice,

This I think. I spoke to a Bentley designer and he told me one of his aims was to make the car look like it had been chiseled from a stone block and this was one of the ideas. Makes the car look more solid.

[Dog Star]

Those in the first post look fine.

The front arches on the Pug 3008 though

[londonbabe]

Because car designers all hanker after the Mk4 Cortina.

[robinessex]

There's a lot of them out there, and I think they look bloody awful. Much like modern car styling. There's no structural benefit at all.

[Skipraider]

I don't mind them. There are a few exceptions though.

[XplusYplusZ]

it just seem odd that EVERYTHING has them.. from the cheapest tp most expensive. It's almost like a legal requirement..

[Justayellowbadge]

Probably related to the old MB trick of higher radius curves on panels, as it makes the eye think it is made of thicker metal, and therefore more solid and higher quality.