When you visit this site, you see a homepage that initially displays a small number of the most recent articles. More can be revealed by clicking on the Older Posts button at the bottom of the screen, and one could spend quite a bit of time calling up more before the site’s very first would finally appear. The count of entries in itself is impressive, but so is the length of time they span: 10 years as of today.
When I sat down and published that first post I never imagined that a full decade later the site and brand would be what they are now. To be fair there was no set long-term plan as such given the site was merely set up as a platform with which to share my photos and get back into blogging a bit, but had you told me then just how much content would be created over the next 10 years and what that first entry would ultimately lead to, I wouldn’t have believed it.
The math, in case you were wondering, works out to an average of just over 1.3 posts a week. 1.3 posts a week, every week, for a full decade; however, that’s merely “just” the blog and doesn’t also account for the YouTube videos, guest posts on Speedhunters, stories for fifteen52’s Project ST campaign, or magazine articles that have also been produced in that time. Looking back at it all, it’s a bit insane to think of how many photos and videos have gone through my cameras, and words through my keyboards.
As 2022 carried on and I started looking ahead to the next season, not just for the cars and events but also for officialTHREETWENTY, a natural thought was where to take it from here. We – giving important recognition to friends whose cars you’ve seen on the blog and whose hands have helped turn wrenches in the garage – have always tried to further improve what the site (and related entities) offer and over the years the scope and reach have continually grown, but this time around perhaps mere growth wasn’t the logical next step. At least, not in all aspects.
It should go without saying, but that insane and maintained rate of entries and updates has required no small sum of time over the last 10 years. When individual posts can take hours to compose between writing and photo editing, and more detailed technical articles can even require researching on and off for weeks before we feel they are ready to publish, running the site at such a level is an enormous time commitment and that is the one resource which is finite in this world.
As we were preparing to move ahead into the 11th year of officialTHREETWENTY it became clear that a refocusing (had to, I apologize) was a logical change to make so that the site and brand could continue with what are truly their core attributes while simultaneously allowing us to explore and expand into new areas. There are new projects and avenues I wish to investigate – both related to 320 and not – as well as more involved undertakings on the cars, all of which require their own fair share of creative energy and time to see through.
Considering the ongoing change in what makes up our calendar (we’ll miss you, iMSS), how meets often have to be organized these days (privacy and a more low-key approach working in their favour), me now being a bit more involved in the hosting side of shows, and our own changing approaches to many events (favouring dinner visits and relaxed chats as opposed to racing around for content), one of the primary revisions moving forward is set to be a near-full retirement of event coverage on the site and channel. I never want to definitively rule out a type of content nor state absolutes because we never know what we’ll have the opportunity to document and share, but shifting away from having show and meet coverage on such a regular basis will provide the time and ability to see other projects through, and delve further into the details of the cars and the related posts and videos for them, telling their stories and providing the information and technical aspects for the relevant articles which remain as a highly-valued and well-received component of 320.
Those how-to stories and project updates will also be presented and shared on a less rigid schedule; there has never been a set-in-stone, perfectly adhered to schedule with our updates over the last decade, but especially in more recent times they have typically alternated between a once per week or biweekly timeline. That too will be revised as of our 10 year mark today to be more relaxed, offering more freedom in composing them and ensuring each has the most value to it before it goes live; and likely shifting the primary format in which we publish them as well.
In a way, some inspiration for our new approach will be to follow a model of the forum build threads of yesteryear, which many of us fondly remember. The content will center around the cars and their respective progressions, delving into deeper detail and offering guides when appropriate for other owners to reference, with updates coming as and when they happen. There will be mini projects that can be shared more quickly just as there will be longer-term and more labour-intensive undertakings (see: Bomex restoration) that will span multiple weekends or even months before the finished product is realized.
Beyond the changes to the site’s approach I don’t wish to disclose too much else of what I and we are working on, but know that while we may be altering what officialTHREETWENTY presents slightly and when it is presented, we’re doing so in order to continue providing the best that we can. If you’re here to see one of the various cars evolving, use a guide as reference for your own build, or even pick up decals and small accessories, the aim is to focus on the core aspects that we know so many of you come here for and pack as much value into them as we can.
And in case you were wondering, this is post number 704. This is 10 years of officialTHREETWENTY.
-Bill