Years and years ago, the US Army had an armored car called the Greyhound. It was a six wheel affair (single front axle, twin rear axle with the dual rear wheels driven), and not provided with "run flat" tires.
Apparently, there was something about the front wheel to rear wheel (front pair) distance that made it more susceptible to nails and such thrown by the front wheels in such a fashion that they would pick them up at a higher rate than would similarly configured 2 1/2 ton trucks (with the same axle layout but where the front to rear separation was different). They never did figure out exactly why it did that in that fashion (there was a war on and all), but a mudflap hung behind the front "wheel wells" cut down the rate of flats substantially.
This isn't evidence that the distance between the axles is the causative factor in the case of the Smart fortwo. But, if it is the cause, it's not the first time that this sort of thing has happened.
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