[Artemis]

Originally Posted by drgmt

Had to have been a functional vent.
This isn't an Audi - it's an M car.

See here (1M trivia):

Originally Posted by Artemis

I repost some 1M development info/trivia over here for the second generation buyers:
About the lack of CF roof and functional side vents:
"Was at M studio this week [October 2011] as part of my ED and got to talk for to a lead engineer for quite a while. He clarified that these front fender areas that now suggest the vents, originally were meant to have real functional vents. They'd be even bigger than the ~2cm they are now. (Thus cutting them open in the shape they are now would apparently not provide much aerodynamic benefit, i.e. release significant wheel well air pressure). However they couldn't get the fender sheet stamping molds accurate enough within the allotted time/budget. Particularly the two fenders sides exactly mirroring each other in shape proved too hard to achieve with functional vents. Pity, but I do respect that they either do it right or not at all."
https://www.1addicts.com/forums/show...7#post10576587

"[T]hey were tight on a budget plus they were really running out of time. So only one interior color was approved. Same went for some of the other "things" M wanted to do to the car. Like functional vents in the front fenders (the crease), they wanted to produce a carbon fiber roof, but they were running out of time. So in the end their hands were tied by time and budget."
https://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...0#post13996580

This render shows the 1M with functional side vents and CF roof (as was initially intended but did not come to fruition due to tight time and budget constraints):


More renders of the functional side vents:

Attachment 1278748