Aaron, to give you a little insight, from what I've seen, read, and learned this style was started by Europeans. Apparently there are laws saying your tire's tread can not extend past the body work. This of course was a big problem for VW owners that wanted to roll on Porsche Turbo reps, so to get around that law they began poking (having a wheel that extends outside of the body work) and stretching (running a narrow tire on a wide rim). These two stylistic features allowed them to run wide Porsche/Audi/whatever wheels, while not violating any state/local laws.

Disclaimer: Its possible everything I just said is not true.