Now for something completely different from Tony Matthews: a Penske damper, which Americans insist upon calling a shock absorber. 

Which brings us to the inevitable editorial question that arose in the production of this story. Tony asked if he should use his own familiar British terminology for this component, damper, in his text, or switch to the common American name, shock absorber.  

MCG went with damper. First, it’s a far more technically accurate and descriptive term. If there’s a “shock absorber” in this mechanical system, it’s the spring. Next, MCG will always preserve Tony’s British spellings, usage, and expressions wherever possible. To us, these are essential parts of his voice. Reading his stories in their native form makes our own world that much bigger and richer.  Speaking of Tony, here he is: 

Penske 8760 Series Damper

by Tony Matthews

As a change from a complete vehicle, this illustration is of one small part of a competition car. The first decade of my career, first as an apprentice and then as an employee, was spent drawing just this type of subject—one small part of a car.

Often the parts were this size, sometimes larger, sometimes smaller, and in that time I must have drawn thousands of items, from spire clips, self-tapping screws, and rivnuts to carburettors, instrument panels, and gearboxes. This work was mainly carried out for Lotus Cars and Ford Motor Company UK, the connection being the Ford Lotus Cortina. Having drawn the Lotus-designed parts of the Mk1 Cortina, we were asked by Ford to do their parts as well, and the relationship grew from there, culminating, in my view, with the parts catalogue for the Ford GT40.

If you are passionate about drawing, the subject and its size don’t have much bearing. It is still interesting to illustrate it in such a way that it is instantly recognisable in a parts catalogue or microfiche—and the way it works, is assembled or disassembled, can be understood, although FoMoCo always reminded us that the most important thing to them was that the part numbers were correct.

A bonus was that it was an ideal training for the next logical step: the full cutaway of a large machine. Toward the end of my years with James Allington I had the chance to draw two large illustrations, a Ford four-cylinder engine and a Lotus Seven, neither of which filled me with pride for very long as I realised their weaknesses.

 

The damper illustration, one of two, was commissioned by Penske Shocks, and intended as advertising material and as framed art for the office. After a series of cutaways in which the dampers were a tiny portion, it was very satisfying to get down to the small parts that a damper contains, and show them in detail. It is at times like this that one’s knowledge is expanded too, as although I knew in principle how a damper works, I did not have hands-on experience of the innards.

The damper was FedEx’d to me, and with trembling hands I fought through layers of parcel tape, corrugated cardboard and bubble-wrap to find this beautiful object, resplendent in gold, black and red anodising and gloss blue paint. It seemed

almost sacrilegious to take it apart, but needs must, and it was carefully dismantled.

The drawing was straightforward, but the painting, due to the large size of the parts in the drawing, the high finish of the damper and the fact that it was to be framed and displayed, meant great attention to detail. Much masking and airbrushing was needed, with only very small amounts of sable brush work.

 

The cutaway image below is high resolution. Left-click to open and left-click again to open to full size. 

Text and images copyright Tony Matthews, all rights reserved. Used by permission. Be sure to see Tony’s other great cutaways at Mac’s Motor City Garage. Links open in new windows: 

Maserati 250F

Williams FW07 F1 car

Honda Accord BTTC racer

Ilmor Chevrolet 265A IndyCar engine 

Williams FW14 F1 car

Ilmor Buick Indy proposal 

Auburn 851 Speedster 

1994 Penske PC23 Indy car 

Chevy Ilmor 265B IndyCar engine – pencil  

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