Ford Last: As difficult to as it may be to believe, the oldest body style in Winston Cup was the last to get the 2003 templates. The first complete 2003 template sets were made available to the GM teams at a Sept. 8 meeting where NASCAR showed all the teams what would be expected of them in the 2003 inspection process. NASCAR gave the Ford teams the majority of their 2003 templates in late September. The delay came in the templates that measure the front cowl and the rear window areas. The delay has hampered Ford aero engineers who couldnt hit their early October wind tunnel reservations, where the changes to the car bodies were to be tested. The delay with the templates, however, is nothing compared the past when teams often didnt know which way to go with their car building chores until after January’ Daytona International Speedway testing. The only area of the body that unknown to Ford is the chassis nose as NASCAR and Ford officials continue to work on a new nosepiece for the Taurus. However, it is expected the Ford piece will in no way match the world sports car style noses on the new Monte Carlo and Grand Prix.(Ford Racing)(10-27-2002) (10-26-2002)
