For road cars yes, a bit is because of safety. For the US its mostly because of the one law about light trucks being work-vehicles and so they didnt get taxed the same or something.
It is that vehicle footprint is used as part of calculating a manufacturer’s CAFE score. So if the car is bigger it doesn’t have to get as good mileage effectively subsidizing large vehicles.
I believe a large part of the size is for aero reasons. For example, the wheelbase is extended by something like 50cm if I recall correctly. Bigger car equals more surface area to fit aero devices on. I think it was the teams pushing for bigger cars to make them go faster.
In terms of the ability to accommodate more advanced safety features, yeah. Isn’t that the main reason why road cars have grown too?
For road cars yes, a bit is because of safety. For the US its mostly because of the one law about light trucks being work-vehicles and so they didnt get taxed the same or something.
It is that vehicle footprint is used as part of calculating a manufacturer’s CAFE score. So if the car is bigger it doesn’t have to get as good mileage effectively subsidizing large vehicles.
I believe a large part of the size is for aero reasons. For example, the wheelbase is extended by something like 50cm if I recall correctly. Bigger car equals more surface area to fit aero devices on. I think it was the teams pushing for bigger cars to make them go faster.
Bigger cars also accommodate bigger engines (including hybrid systems and their batteries)