[freebeard]

The Loach was always my favorite. They buzz instead of flapping.

Cowl height is among the first parameters set and it's hard to change. Consider the Mustang/Probe kerfluffle in the 80-90s.

"This time, we were in on the project earlier," Ford designer Mark Kelly told us. All along, we had thought the Ford-Mazda partnership that produced the Probe and MX-6 front-drive two-plus-twos had been an even-Steven deal from day one, so we wondered: had Ford just been tagging along when these cars first appeared in 1988?

Kelly and product development chief Neil Ressler explained that the first time around, they were handed an existing Mazda platform, that of the 626 sedan. For their half of the joint sports-coupe project, they could only restyle the skin and fiddle with chassis tuning. All the "hard points" had to remain fixed in space. Cowl height, suspension locations, wheelbase, track—the key mechanical-architecture cards had already been dealt before Ford walked into the room.

For the second-generation, 1993 models, however, Ford engineers were able to spec out the new platform the way they wanted it. They started with a considerably bigger and more stable footprint by stretching the wheelbase almost four inches and pushing out the track, front and rear, more than two inches. Dropping the cowl height a dramatic three inches and pulling the windshield base forward nearly four inches provided the canvas on which a lean, long, contemporary shape could be drawn.

http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/1993-ford-probe-gt-archived-test-review

Let's hear it for the boxer-motor.