I noticed on my car both front side air inlets have cutouts in the top corners. Any idea why a previous owner may have done this?! See pic - top left part is cut out. The same cutout was done on the other side.

Should I worry about it? any impact on aerodynamics or anything?

 

It looks like he removed the "bumper warts". Below is a pic.



Later, Steve

 

Yep Warts, he did it because they are hideous.

 

Ha.... been awhile since I saw a picture of those bad boys. Man those were awful.

 

Bumper what?!

 

Warts. Like on a witches nose.

 

I looked at a lot of pictures online but haven't seen anything abnormal. It's supposed to look like this (doesn't look ugly to me):

 

Here is a better picture. They came on early 2001's if I'm not mistaken.

 

Sam has a Turbo S ... so I assume its a 2005 ... so no warts ...

 

Right, it's a 2005...

So, any other guesses?

 

I guess you're right, I found this picture of a car with the warts removed and the bumper and grills are definitely different.

 

"Wart" removal is the only reasonable thing I can think of. The size and location of the cuts supports it as well. Maybe the PO painted the OEM ones or something, and sourced this set to replace and return to a stock-look prior to sale? Or replaced the originals due to damage at some point?

 

this looks like it could be a tell tale sign of open -Wart surgery... my speculation is that the previous owner may have sourced an old junk yard bumper cover from an early '01 turbo...then removed the warts before turning the car in...?? Maybe for covering damage, maybe as simple as a worn cover from rock chips or the sort...again this is just a thought...I would check the car for any front end respray or damage...

 

Something fishy is going on since that should not appear on an '05. If there are no holes in your bumper in the upper inside corner above the grilles, then you can simply order grilles that don't have the opening for bumper warts from pelican parts or somewhere else. If there are holes in the bumper then it looks like the previous owner sourced a bumper from an early '01. if that is the case you'll need to get the bumper repaired and resprayed or find a new one to make it look normal again.

 

Just a guess...did the car have air ducts for brake cooling? Sometimes there are strange holes cut to accommodate such venting.