Cutaway drawings

[dave dale]

I spotted this article in the U.K. Daily Telegraph.

Revealed: the inner workings of classic cars - Telegraph

I am interested in ordering one for my 403. If any other forum members are interested, perhaps they would like to read all below and register an interest with Douglas Newton at tiagol@talk21.com.

Dave Dale.

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Dear Mr. Newton,

With reference to the Telegraph article 28th. July, I wonder if you could produce illustrations for classic Bristol cars. For example, please see photo attachment for the 1953 model 403, which I own. This is almost identical, apart from engine capacity and a different gear change lever, to the 401 model. There are a approximately 200 owners of both models in the Owners Club. Then there are, of course, all the other Bristol models.

If you could give me some idea of prices for quantities, I would be willing to put a posting on the Owners Club forum to see what support there would be for an order from you. Thank you.

Dave Dale.
Dr. David E E Dale.
bristol@davedale.co.uk

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Dear Dave,
Thank you for your email. Now that I have completed the cutaway technical illustration of my 1950 Bentley MK VI, and so much interest has been shown in my work, I certainly would like to produce further classic car cutaway technical illustrations.

To produce an illustration of a Bristol 400 series I would Ideally need several owners showing interest to make it worth while as my Bentley illustration took me between five and six weeks to complete. The time included photographing my car, taking measurements and visiting the Rolls Royce & Bentley club headquarters to obtain Bentley engineering drawings etc. Referencing and sourcing the information needed to produce the level of detail I wanted to show took around two weeks.

I am a retired professional technical illustrator and I produce the hand drawn artwork using a three point perspective grid – first a pencil drawing and then traced over in pen and ink on to drafting film, the artwork is then scanned electronically. As a point of interest, my original artwork is A0 size (841 x 1189mm) so by scanning my artwork I am able to offer smaller size prints.

Should you know of at least 100 Bristol owners interested in a cutaway illustration and would be willing to pay £80 per limited edition print please, let me know and I would start this project. I would ideally need to photograph a Bristol 400 series car, obtain works engineering drawings and (if available) look at a Bristol chassis with the car body off. If you think this is possible please post my details on your Bristol owners club forum … adding a link to the Daily Telegraph article to give an idea of the level of details I would show. I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,
Douglas Newton

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Hello again Dave,
I forgot to mention in my previous email reply to you, that should Bristol club members be interested I can customize each illustration print by adding their own registration number plate, the additional cost would be £30.

Kind regards,
Douglas Newton

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Dear Douglas,
Thanks for your email.
>>I would ideally need to photograph a Bristol 400 series car, obtain works engineering drawings and (if available) look at a Bristol chassis with the car body off>> Photos – will be no problem. You may be able to obtain works engineering drawings ( if they exist ) from Bristol Motors. The company still exists and still manafactures cars. The new owner of the company is very approachable and may let you have access to the drawings. A posting on the forum should obtain a response from any owners with a 401 or 403 having a current body - off restoration.

>>Should you know of at least 100 Bristol owners interested in a cutaway illustration and would be willing to pay £80 per limited edition print please, let me know and I would start this project>> I don't know if 100 owners would be interested. The simplest solution that I could suggest is for me to post my email to you and our subsequent correspondance, together with the link to the Telegraph article, on the BOC forum with a request for any owners willing to make an order for a drawing to register it with you by email. ( I would be the first ). You could then see what comes in and eventually make a decision. I don't imagine that you will receive so many emails immediately that it will cause a problem, but you may be surprised. If you would like me to post this on the forum please let me know.
Regards,
Dave.
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Dear Dave,
Please accept my apology for not replying sooner, but I have been away for a couple of days. Thank you again for the interest you are showing in my cutaway illustration, also for the help you have offered in informing BOC members about my work. Yes I would like you to post my/your emails plus the Daily Telegraph motoring information on the BOC forum. If the forum is anything like the Rolls Royce and Bentley club forum (I use it a lot as a member) it should stir up some interest.

Kind regards,
Douglas

[Ashley James]

I must say that he's chosen well with the MKVI Bentley!
Ash

[penman]

Hi
There have, over the years, been such drawings of many Bristol models, they have been reproduced in the various Car magazines and books carrying articles about the cars.
The Brooklands book and the Oxley Books certainly have them and I think the Setright books do as well.
They presumably came from Bristol Cars so maybe those originals are still available, either at Bristol or possibly in the Heritage Trust Archives, to have copies made.
I know they will not have your own registration number but maybe they could be personalised.

[seanmcs]

The examples I have are all from Autocar articles or Autocar
reproductions on somewhat better paper. I also have a Cutaway
Collection of the 405. This says it is drawn from the archives of
the UK's leading motoring journals. Same for the 404. Both are
reproductions of the Autocar originals, on much better grade
creamish paper but not necessarily as clear lines, as happens in
reproductions. As far as I can make out Mike Millar was the
draughtsman.

Sean

[seanmcs]

Just found another one in a publication called The Car, issue no. 6.
It has an aerial cut-out view of the 405, partly coloured and in a
two-page spread. No draughtsman named.

I don't think any of these cut-outs originated from the Company.

Sean

[HughMiller]

I have a copy of the The Motor Year Book 1949 which has, in the section 'Technical Drawings of the Year', a full-page cutaway drawing of the 401. There are also drawings of the Hillman Minx (The New Generation), Morris Minor (Miniature Example) and Austin A70 chassis (The British Way).
The Bristol drawing is captioned:
"HIGH SCHOOL
This drawing shows the body-chassis construction of the latest Bristol Saloon (Type 401) which is a high-performance car of advanced design. The body is of particular interest as it has been developed in collaboration with the famous Italian specialist coachwork company, Touring of Milan, and has an unusually light, exceedingly strong, steel tubular framework. As on all modern cars, the width between the doors is virtually equal to the track of the car."
The drawing is looking down, almost side-on, slightly to the rear, and shows the network of tubes in the body frame very nicely, as well as the rear suspension and rear bumper mountings. It's a bit vaguer round the nose and engine. It's signed 'Cresswell'. A quick search suggests that this is Leslie Cresswell, who is credited with the cutaway drawings in Laurence Pomeroy's 'The Grand Prix Car' (Pomeroy and Rodney Walkerly are listed as editors of my book).
It's a fine drawing, and I'd be happy to scan it and post the image, but I think that would be a copyright violation. I could certainly make it available as a reference for Douglas Newton's project.
As a 403 owner, I'd be interested in buying a new drawing, but I'd hesitate at the price, though I can see that it might be a fair reflection of the work involved for a limited market.
Hugh

[HughMiller]

I've just checked further and found that 'my' drawing is reproduced in the Brooklands Books 'Gold Portfolio' on pp18-19, so many people will have seen it already. My original doesn't go over the gutter, though.
Hugh