WITH OR WITHOUT FORD.(Competition)

CART CEO Chris Pook says it will be several months before CART decides whether to take Ford racing boss Dan Davis' offer to extend Ford-Cosworth's exclusive engine supply agreement beyond 2004.

Nonetheless, it sounds as if Pook already knows what he wants to do.

``There has not been a response to [Ford] and there probably won't be, I'd say, much before July,'' Pook said. ``We'd like at least two manufacturers in our circuit.''

And while Pook concedes the spec-engine contract is as good for CART as it is for Cosworth, he says the starting point for a 2005 engine formula remains what it was when CART signed its exclusive two-year deal with Ford: a gasoline-powered V10.

``We have to align ourselves more and more with the automobile industry as it exists today,'' he said. ``We are going to put starters in the cars. Why? You might be watching on television and think, `That's a car? It can't even start.' We need to bridge that gap to real, usable technology.

``A V10 is sophisticated, and you'll see that the world's manufacturers are moving toward V10s. At the Detroit [auto show], Ford made a big issue about building a V10. You've got Volkswagen making V10s, and others are coming out.''

Implicit, if not spoken, is another obvious advantage with a V10: If the seven manufacturers building V10s for Formula One can get more mileage from their huge investment there, with minimal incremental costs to detune the engines and make them last longer, then CART might look like a much more attractive business proposition. Ultimately, CART's decision-stick with Ford beyond 2004 or start with a new formula-will likely depend on how much interest it gets from other manufacturers, and how quickly.