September 21, 2002

With the finesse of synchronized swimming and the brilliance of rocket science a Winston Cup body fabricator begins the day knowing that what he accomplishes today may change NASCAR history tomorrow.

Images Courtesy Body Dynamics

NASCAR the sanctioning body for the Winston Cup series recently met with teams to relay information about standardized car body locations for the 2003 season. I, in turn had a conversation with my pals at Body Dynamics Racing Bodies, Inc about what these changes mean to the future of the sport.

The body of a Winston Cup car is truly a remarkable work of art to behold. From its sleek lines to its intricate twists the body plays a very important role in how the car will react on the track. The pleasing appeal of the hand crafted shape comes with a price to be paid in sweat equity by Winston Cup fabricators.

The process of molding the panels and hanging the finished works on the car takes an estimated 10 days for a shop to complete. This type of custom art form has very little in common with your street car with the exception to the roof, hood and deck lid which are supplied by the car maker of choice such as Dodge for example and, required by the sanctioning body in an effort to call the subject car stock.

Upon beginning fabrication procedures the team at Body Dynamics Racing, Inc. takes sections of sheet metal and starts the forming process by using what is known as an English Wheel. This device has a heavy solid wheel with pressure exerted upon it. The sheet metal to be formed is placed between the wheel and a rolling bench rest. The fabricator then starts moving the sheet metal back and forth with the idea of shape in his mind and the end result meant to be a fender in the Winston Cup series.

With all the characteristics of old world craftsmanship and a set of 32 body templates the body fabricator molds sections of sheet metal that will be tack welded into place and further checked and studied before the sections are completely welded out. The welding process does not end the idea of sleek design however for these gurus of metal as; a grinding and smoothing procedure has the final say as to how this work will appear.

The set of 32 templates supplied by the sanctioning body (sold for $ 3,800) begin to tell the story of how the fabricators day went. The total number of templates has increased over the 2002 season which was noted as being 30. Also noted for the 2003 season is the fact that 18 of the machined measuring tools will be considered “common templates” With tolerances less than the thickness of one side of a match book there is no room for error in this business. An error in one portion of the body can cause the template not to fit in another. There is nothing like hearing Tim Suggs from Body Dynamics telling you that “It’s too bad that had to happen on your last day." These guys are pros to say the least.

Body Fabricators in the series are noted for there initiative to brilliance in the area of technology advancement. They have learned that by moving a body forward on a super speedway car there can be a noted gain in speed and a reduction in drag numbers. There has also been advancement in the area of twisting of a cars body in an effort to try and hide a portion of the rear spoiler. I was able to find that there will be one cast in stone location for the body in 2003. There will be a measurement taken from the center line of the rear axle housing to the tip of the roof. The number shall be 60 inches.

On a short track the body is moved to the rear of the chassis as much as possible. The total movement of the body is believed to be in the area of seven inches overall. This area of movement has noted extreme with super speedway being the forward extreme and the short track being the aft. With a cast in stone number for 2003 to work with we wonder what the fabricators will pull out of there assorted bag of tricks. It is my understanding that they will still be able to build somewhat of a twist into the body but nothing like we have seen in the past.

Winston Cup Director of Competition John Darby, speaking on the rules change was noted as saying, “An obvious reason for this is that it will cut out some of the arguments we get when one team or one make is winning a bunch of races”. “They’ll all be in equal equipment starting next year; it will be a matter of what they do with it."

Let’s make it clear that the cars will still offer noted styling differences that will be visible on the track. It is the overall silhouette of the cars that will be similar. Each make of car will have their own style of nose, tail and side glass while contours on the hood, roof and back glass will be the same.

Whatever the rules for 2003 bring you can be sure that the gurus of metal will find a way to send their sleek body designs flying at maximum speed around the tracks of the NASCAR series.

I want to thank all the pros at Body Dynamics including Timothy Suggs, one of the owners for their help on this complex topic. Located in Denver N.C.(also a neat web site) Body Dynamics Racing Bodies, Inc. can be counted on to get the job done when it comes to fabricating and maintaining the body of a race car. The next time your down that way give Tim a shout and tell him that Bump sent you. Well maybe don’t mention my name as Tim fired me that day for dropping one of the templates on his foot.

You can contact Joe at: Insider Racing News