I've greatly enjoyed looking at the extraordinary collection of old photos here from Mr. Baldwin and many others. The shots which seem to get the most response are the candid snapshots of racers and families in the pits, and it's fun to see how young everybody looked then. But in a sport that is not just about people, but specifically about people who are fascinated not only by racing but by machinery, by racing equipment, there aren't all that many close-up shots of that equipment.

Would it appeal to anyone else if there were to be some sort of engine history photographic series, with clear, close-up shots of all of the various racing engines that have come and gone over the decades? Augmenting the photographs could be scans of manufacturers' brochures, when available. And not only production engines, but any photos of custom and one-off projects would be good, too. Some of this can be found if you hunt for it; Charlie Williams found a nice set of Merc 2, 4, and 6-cylinder stock and alky shots for his website, and by searching you can find such oddities as the Italian Soriano engines. But how about gathering shots of as many motors as can be found, in one place, as an historic reference collection? I have a couple of things I can contribute, and surely the membership has no end of goodies.

Maybe a similar stand-alone series of good close-ups of boats would be good, too. A couple of weeks ago I posted a thread asking if anyone had a photo of a DeSilva hydro, and in a few days we had a couple of lovely color photos. Now suppose someone wanted to see what a "bulldog Sid" or a Jones cabover or a Goff or a Swift Big D or a Charleton or a Neal or Jacoby looked like; he could use those terms in a search that specified a sub-forum specifically for "Historic Outboard Raceboats," and get right to what he wanted.

Does this make any sense? Is there a way to organize the submissions (without putting anyone to a lot of work), or should photos just be in the random order of when they're submitted?