There wasn't enough light in that location on the front end of my car to get what I was looking for. The car is secondary in that photo to the 6 above it, hence the darkening of the front end of the car to bring the eye upwards. And even then, the curves on the hood and front fenders are significantly more emotive than the bumper, so I'd like to highlight those instead. I do like a lot of the original photos, but I can always get something more from them through editing, which is what I prefer.
Here's an HDR shot that is very, very close to untouched aside from the initial processing