"Some of the most meticulous and highly skilled creatives working in the car industry are seldom name checked. They are the technical illustrators, the draughtsmen who detail the minute specifics of a vehicle's structure through every phase of its design, "
Roy Scorer – technical illustrator
Helping us understand what's going on under the skin...
Technical drawings have always allowed those unlikely to get their hands into the oily innards of a race car to get a look at what goes where, and does what.
We had a quick chat with technical illustrator Roy Scorer about these incredible works of art. Or engineering. Or both.
Influx: How did you realise you were good at technical drawing?
Roy Scorer: “While at school, O-Level era, the careers officer had a poster showing technical illustration at Portsmouth College of Art. So I went for it, and left 1986 with an HND in T.I.”
Influx: How long does a drawing take?
Scorer: “The latest historic race car cutaway/ghosted illustrations take approximately 130-150 hours, done in my spare time. They are done from photo reference only as there are no engineering drawings about from those days.”
Influx: How much access to the vehicle do you need?
Scorer: “This all depends on what is removable, some cars are easy to remove panels but the Capri only had bonnet and drivers door removable. So I research for photos of people restoring cars and photographing every stage of the strip down and rebuild. The more the customer is happy to strip down the more detail I can add. The Proton BTCC car a good example.”
Influx: Have you ever designed a car from scratch?
Scorer: “No, the nearest to this was an artist impression of Ginetta G40 as a National Hotrod. And a Citroen DS4 as a BTCC car. Also a range of sports cars as rallycross cars. All on website ‘coloured section’.”
Influx: Are there any cars you’d love to draw?
Scorer: “A modern day Rallycross car, Pikes Peak super cars and LMP1 WEC car. But pretty much any race car, any era really!”
Influx: Do you use pencil and paper, or a computer?
Scorer: “I trained on a drawing board using pens and pencils. These days it’s on a computer.”
Influx: Who are your inspirations?
Scorer: “Any good technical illustrator.”
Influx: Why did you turn to motorsport?
Scorer: “My dad raced stock cars when I was little and then raced trucks later on. I grew up with it on the TV and enjoy just about all motorsport.”
Influx: Have you covered any other forms of engineering or transport?
Scorer: “Plenty of military vehicles through work, examples of these are on my website alongside a set of major incident vehicles for the NHS National Ambulance Service.”
Influx: Which image are you most proud of?
Scorer: “They have all had different challenges to overcome. But if I have to pick one… The Roush Protofab Ford Mustang GTO. A nice lot of detail!”
CLICK TO ENLARGE