'and I did my absolute level best to put him off the idea because I just knew what the size of the job was:

At the time, Brown had left a job in insurance, looking for a career change, and wanted to use computer-aided design with historic cars. 'My strategy was to buy the best program and to become demonstrably the best at that software,' he recalls. 'Then I needed a halo project so I started casting around for a car to digitise. I was going to do the Aston Martin DB4 but couldn't get enough information. I needed to find

rl

. ~:

Right and below Rear three-quarter angle

illustrates the Type 35 chassis; gearbox internals

have been rendered in extraordinary detail.

'·

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somewhere that had the plans and I happened upon the Bugatti Trust."

He was attracted by the Trust's huge stock of 26,000 original drawings, including around 95% of those for the Type 35. 'I had a good first meeting with Richard,' says Brown. ' I remember him saying "A lot of people have talked about this but no-one's ever done it", and I remember th inking, well, that's rubbish; doing this in CAD should be simple. I genuinely thought it would be only four to six hundred parts in the car:

It was Day who suggested which model he should tackle. 'I persuaded him to do an early production Type 35 because they are our strong suit, and our drawings for that car are very nearly complete."

The project started to snowball and initially Stuart was paying the Trust for copies of the plans. 'Then Hugh Conway, son of the founder, said 'We've got to help you out" and they started giving them to me. They would keep turning up in the post, these magical old drawings that hadn't been properly studied for 80 years:

left The Bugatti Trust holds 95% of all Bugatti Type 35 drawings. Any damage had to be overcome as part of

~The data will provide a resource that can be drawn on for generations to come'

Rather than being daunted by the project, Brown found it became an obsession. 'What was lovely was going over them in detail, because you couldn't just use them straight away. There were lots of mottling and copying marks. A lot of the detail had gone. I had to go over each dimension with a pen and on the crankcase drawing there were literally hundreds of them. Some of the plans made me want to give up in despair but I kept at it.'

In time, Brown developed a growing respect for the Bugatti draughtsmen. 'I arrogantly thought the plans would be rubbish and technology would blow them out of the water. But the plans were fantastic. The errors amounted to less than two handfuls. It was minimal." He discovered one that produced a cumulative error resulting in the engine and gearbox being out of line by about 6mm. 'I asked Sugatti experts about this and they said 'We know that, we just fiddle it."' So Brown made an adjustment to the gearbox crossmember drawings to correct the problem.

After a while the project ran into problems as it began to push the limitations of the available technology. 'I started out ~

OCTANE JANUARY 2011 15

News

with a really fantastic computer, but after about 18 months it was overwhelmed by all these parts being thrown at it. After a while I could draw parts but not assemble them. After two years I couldn't get any further and I took six months off. Luckily technology came to my rescue and I upgraded the system for less than the cost of the original. I was back on it again and can now assemble the whole lot:

A great benefit of the project was that it forced the Trust to review all the knowledge it held about the car and discover any gaps. 'Producing drawings for Stuart forced me to look more closely at them: says Day. 'I had to add notes and details about how they went together: Where the documentary records fell short, Stuart was able to access anecdotal accounts through members of the Trust, including Conway and restorer Geoffrey St John. 'You underestimate older people at your peril. There's so much knowledge there; you just need to sit down and let them talk to you. It was one of the most important and enjoyable things that I did."

Because the SolidWorks software can render colour and finish, it became essential to confirm these details for the record. StJohn was able to explain the three-pot colour method of painting

16 OCTANE JANUARY2011

'To model the carburettors. Brown was Lent a set that he measured in every detail· Bugattis. An ex-factory employee told him that, when assembling the racing cars, they had three colours that they would apply by brush as they built-up the car. All hidden parts including the chassis rails were painted grey, all crossmembers black, and the final body colour was splashed on the dumb irons where they protruded at the front.

StJohn was also able to confirm that, while most restored Type 35s have had the spokes of their cast aluminium wheels polished, they actually left the factory with a sand-cast finish. Brown has faithfully recorded all these details and many more on the model for future reference.

To complete the model would require parts that were not made by Bugatti and for which the Trust did not have drawings. 'I needed a plan for the tyre which obviously the trust didn't have. I contacted Michelin, who remarkably had the plan and emailed it to me within half an hour: To model the carburettors, Brown was lent a set by Conway that he dismantled and measured in every detail. He even got access to the Jaeger gauges and reproduced every internal spring and balance wheel.

After four years· work, the project is almost complete and Brown has handed over the rights to the Bugatti Trust. Initially there are no immediate plans to exploit it but the potential is enormous. Part of the Trust's aims as a charity is to educate, and Day sees great scope for this. 'Young

people come to the Trust and can see a car and look at the drawings, but this is potentially a completely new way of looking at a Type 35. You can animate it being dismantled. In the course of time I would like to see it as a display in the Trust."

It can also help current owners of the cars. Although the Trust is not involved in manufacturing spares, the Bugatti Owners· Club is and it calls on the Trust for advice. It can also be used for analysis of the cars and to solve some of the known problems.

"You could find out why the blocks are notorious for cracking between the valve seats,' says Brown. With a CAD model, it would be possible to reproduce the temperatures and stresses the block encounters and possibly adjust the casting design to prevent cracking. 'The engine's oil system is splash lubrication. You could find out where the oil really is hitting. The limit is your imagination:

Today, Brown has built his business, 3D Engineers, on the back of this project and the credibility he earned through it. He also overturned the early scepticism of others. When I started, my whole family and friends thought I was a maniac. I could have just done an engine and people would have been impressed. But from the start it was my intention to do the whole car:

For Day and the Trust it has been an enormously valuable exercise. 'It's been a phenomenal project and we haven't seen anywhere near its potential yet. l"m sure it will be incredibly valuable into the future. There's more work to do, to produce visual renderings of assemblies for instance. Just don't mention screensavers- it's so much more than that: ~

To find out more, visit www.3dengineers.co.uk and www.bugatti-trust.co.uk.