But now that I think about it that does make sense. Shocking. Clearly the narrower fuselage and longer wings results in a dual performance advantage. Less drag/higher aspect ratio.

Many moons ago, SH built a 'Baby-Cirrus' and I think this longer wing/higher aspect ratio thing was part of the experiment. For some reason or another, I can't find a picture of it on the web but it was a Std.-Cirrus with the wings elevated on a pylon very much like the Grunau Baby was configured. It got converted back to a normal Std.-Cirrus after the experiment was done.
Uli
GM