In Europe? They have the darn things, don't they? And there are a bunch on the market, so hot hatches must be a trend across the pond. In the US? No dice. Gas prices and overcrowdedness have a long gway to go before that happens. I think our version of this battle is this small car, V8 business, and it will go on for awhile.
I think there's a fair amount of hot hatches here (GTI/R32, Cooper S Works, Mazda3 MPS), but, GTI aside, they sell in relatively low numbers and aren't treated with nearly the same respect as a V8, rear-drive sedan/coupe is. For some reason, few here see the validity of a sporty compact car. Size has always had a strong pull for American consumers, although I've never quite connected with that. I much prefer quality to quantity.
philly cheese
So you think the only logical solution would be to slim down the C pillars? What if the beltline was lower? I wonder what effect that would have.... Would it totally screw up the proportions? I'm also wondering if that overhang has something to do with the issue. It seems that placing a wheel closer to the middle causes problems.
The rear overhang is a result of the rear wheels moving forward (thus more trunk space). In general, modern cars have horrific visibility compared to their ancestors. Observe the M3's evolution:
E30:
E36:
E46:
E92:
At first glance, things pretty much look the same. The rear wheel is directly under the hofmeister kink, and everything else is pretty much laid out the same way. However, the angle of the rear (and front) windscreens gets increasingly lower, meaning there's more bodywork obstructing the view from inside the car, and more bodywork "over" the rear wheel. At the same time, the windowline gets increasingly higher making it look like an old man with his pants pulled up too high.
These changes occur for a number of reasons. A higher waistline and thicker pillars mean more bodywork can protect the occupants. Lower windscreens increase aerodynamics, and add to the sleek, coupe-ish look. There's also the
rising beltline/windowline, which is supposed to give the effect of motion, agression, or speed (depending on which marketing fluffhead you speak to). That rising line, however, has done nothing but make the rear wheel look smaller, since it creates an inequality of the wheels' relative spatial occupancy front-to-back. Kinda like this:
...only not so exaggerated, and without the balloons. It probably comes from
drag racers or
Can-Am cars, where the rear wheels
were much larger, causing the entire car to be tilted up from the rear. My solution? Stop trying so hard to make cars seem like they're something they're not. The best-looking designs over the past 100 years have had nothing to do with "visual aggression" or "moving 100MPH while standing still". A Miura looks like it really could go fast, whereas the E92 M3 looks like it will be a bit faster than a 335i.
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- i don't know where the hell i plucked that nugget of info from 
