sgtlethargic -- I think re-reading all that would just be to dig the hole deeper. Reposting the referenced templates with red arrows attached would make the questions easier to follow.
How about this: Bottom line The Template is a developed prolate hemisphereoid. All the good and bad things devolve from that: Less subsonic noise, but poor payload packaging and nothing said about the interface with the road*. I think the template is like the geodesic dome; a mathematical purity that when placed in the the real, physical, world dirt starts to cling to. And you know what that does to laminar flow.
Vekke -- Before you go cutting it, look at the GTI W12-650:
*Edit: I want to distinguish aerohead's contributions from the teardrop mirrored into the road surface.