Quote:
Originally Posted by SilverTurtle
something to think about :
the roof was raised 14mm and there was a b-pillar added to the inside of the car... the b-pillar was added to reach crash safety standards... the taller roof was added to make room for drivers (and passengers) greater than 6'1" tall... this affects the roofline because now you have to widen the roof at the sides to give adequate room for the b-pillar to fit inside the car and not cut into head room... and you have to slightly elongate the roofline to retain the same overall shape of the Concept and not make the production car look like its too tall or top heavy... combine the two and you've moved the c-pillar out and back just a bit... so the room that you used to have for the super cool billet gas filler cap is now taken up by the quite necessary c-pillar... to put the gas cap on top would have put it almost next to the trunk... and I believe we all learned a lesson with the GTO that taking away from trunk space to put any kind of fuel cell or filler neck in that vicinity is a bad idea... so the only real place you have left is on the side of the fender.
now this may not be the only reason that they moved it... and the reason for it being on the right hand side is probably because of where the car was developed and the other cars that the platform will be shared with... since almost every, if not every, Holden car has the filler neck on the right hand side, I blame that on the choice of sides... but when you combine crash safety standards, augmented roof lines and global car development together, you really do get putting the filler neck on the right hand side fender as a more logical place to put the gas cap.
its not what most of us want, but at least we still get the killer looks of the car... and I think that a flush mount filler cap will make it all that much better  |
Best logical explanation so far, Silver turtle.
I know there are good reasons for the changes, like everyone else I wanted the exact Concept version but knew changes would happen. Hopefully your possible explanation helps those that are still spinning with the current changes. I don't blame them, they are very passionate.