By extremely rough measurements (and "on paper") the front *is* wider than the rear, but IMO the lines are so perfect and flow that you honestly don't notice it when doing a walk around from 3 feet. As soon as I can steal a nice Fall day (on the heels of Sandy they are now calling for us to get hit by a Nor'easter and get 1" to 3" of snow tonight -- that's crazy!), I'll pull the 1 out and shoot a walk around short video and post it for you to see yourself.
The work that my installer had done to seamlessly integrate the stock side skirts with the 1M side skirts totally complete the "optical illusion" and complete the perfect flowing lines. Otherwise it would draw your attention visually and make it more noticeable. All of my friends that have seen my car have all liked it and commented on how well the lines flow and believe me they are just as car-crazy and me and if they didn't like it they aren't shy and would let me know.
Even people at SP the other weekend who saw it commented on it and gave me props -- especially when they saw the nice wide 265's on the front. Ask pixelblue for a "second opinion", he was setup right next to me.
Honestly, I would have *much* rather BMW produce enough 1M's to meet the demand and traded in my 135 for a 1M and be done with it, but BMW corporate politics are what they are and they didn't and any dealership that was lucky enough to get a 1M to sell on their lot marked it up BIG time and all were already spoken for, so given that BMW decided to make the 1M a limited production "niche" car, the rest of us must "do what we must".
Having said that, I would have loved to have been able to convert the rear of the car to 1M as well, but the budget just wouldn't allow for that at this time. As it were, this venture cost me around 4 total all said and done. I'm guessing the rear would be around 5 to 6 and I'm not sure that would include the cost of the parts.??? It gives me something to look forward to, plan and save up for, so maybe this time next year or some time on 2014.