
Photo of the month

Is it what it looks like or not?
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This was one of several Dooling Yellow Jackets that turned up in 2025 with the break-up of a collection. The difficulty was figuring out which were genuine (if any) and those that were reproductions, as it made a huge difference to the potential value? Three were easy, Ukrainian reproduction YJ61Cs. One definitely genuine as there was a paper trail with numbers that tied in with Bruce Underwood's lists. A YJ61P later confirmed as an original and a YJ61JJ as having been built by Don Sohn. That left three. Two that appeared to be built from original components long after Underwood had sold up and this YJ61Q. Underwood's own model list states that 61R and 61Q were not allocated, yet one of each of these tuned pipe motors had turned up on ebay and made mega money. Were they genuine though? Several month's of enquiries produced no confirmation until Don Sohn kindly sent a copy of his massive Yellow Jacket Engine Story. Sure enough, Underwood's list did not have a Q or R model, but then on page 10 was additional information with serial numbers allocated for 12 upright YJ61Q and 10 laydown YJ61R models. There is a note though that states these numbers 'were assigned to castings, not all engines were completed or sold', although photos of both motors are included on a later page. So, a new, Underwood YJ61Q tether car motor, which could be sold as such or not? What will never be known was if this was actually built by Bruce Underwood or put together at some later date from original components. As an aside, the casting quality, as can be seen, is far from the usual standards. ©copyrightOTW/individual contributors2026 |