VisualCAM® for Geomagic Brings Racing History to Life!

Jim Piazza of Cupertino, CA is member of the Bay Area Engine Modelers Club. Jim uses VisualCAM® for Geomagic 2015 in this ¼ scale replica of the side plate breather for the Offenhauser engine. Shown in Figure 1 below, each fin was sliced in a layer to obtain the profile for the tool path.

Figure 1 – Side plate breather modeled in Geomagic Design and toolpaths created with VisualCAM® for Geomagic Design

Figure 2 below shows the completed plate with the breather stacks and caps. All the parts were machined using VisualCAM® for Geomagic Design 2015.

 Figure 2

About the Offenhauser Engine from the Justice Brother’s Museum

According to Ed Justice Jr., whose Justice Brother’s Museum houses a dozen Offenhauser engines,

“No story of the incredible Offenhauser engine should go without mentioning the amazing backstory that got us to its place in history.”

“The road to the creation of the Offenhauser engine started literally at the earliest days of automotive development when three French drivers/engineers convinced Peugeot to build a twin-cam engine of their design.” adds Justice.

Figure 3 – Offenhauser engine with side plate breather indicated

All three engineers, Paolo Zuccarelli, Jules Goux and Georges Boillot were 27 years old when they presented the idea to Peugeot. Goux is better known as the 1913 Indy 500 winner. Their design featured two overhead cams and four valves per cylinder, a departure from the typical racing engines of the day that relied on bigger displacement for power.

“During World War 1, parts for a Peugeot engine could not be acquired from France for the 1914 season. The engine was taken to Harry Miller’s shop for service and was cared for by Miller’s machine shop supervisor, Fred Offenhauser,” says Justice. “Miller and Offenhauser saw many benefits in the Peugeot design which later served as the basis of the Miller racing engine. The Miller engine later evolved into the famed Offenhauser engine which owes much inspiration from the early Peugeot Grand Prix racing engines.”

Figure 4 – This WRA racecar houses a 102.5 Cu Inch Offenhauser engine. It is a replica of the car driven by “Bullet” Joe Garson which won the 1958 USAC Pacific Coast Championship. Courtesy of www.onedirt.com.

Don LaCourse

Don LaCourse is an Application Engineer with MecSoft Corporation. Don brings over 20 years of experience in CAD/CAM operations in both automotive and mold design applications. Don also has extensive experience in documenting CAD/CAM products and is actively involved with writing the on-line help as well as creating training tutorials for MecSoft's products.