Hey All,

I was kind of curious to find out from those of you who have been to both the small local type car shows, and the larger events, how your car is judged at these events? Input from those who have been judges would be a really big help.

At a car show I was recently at I finally asked a judge what they were looking for, so that I would know what needs work for next year. The judge had no opinions on my car as he didn't even stop and look at it because the car is white. He said white cars are bland boring, and don’t win car shows. He also said that a red car even if it is in worse condition will beat a white car every time.

Is this type of type of thing typical? I've seen at other car shows my car get looked all over, and they will tell me that the car looks great, and then go and write down the number of the red vette next to mine with out even looking it over.

Here is a link to pictures of my car, the front end is just as clean as the rear now, but I haven’t had time to get pictures up, been enjoying driving the car too much

http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/chaynes/

Thanks for any input you can give me,

-Chris

 

I have been the judge at a couple car shows. One in particular has over 500 cars. Each year the judges are usually different people or volunteers. We have points given out in certain catagories like paint, motor, display, and so forth. The points are added up and tallied for each car. Obviously, if you score high, you will win something.

The problem with judges though, is that they may like something different from each other. You may have an older guy who likes stock appearences and then a younger one who likes the modified. Each one may score the car totally opposite of each other. Its all about a judges personal opinion in most cases. and your car may get a low score because he doesnt like the color of it. Lets face it, if you had to judge 500 cars, you can get really bored and not look at every detail in every car.

 

I have organized cars shows been a judge and been doing car shows for years. I have a red 68 GTO very nice car. My buddy had white 71 GTO also extremely nice. My car would beat him out every time because it was red. When I ran our car show I had judging point areas. paint, interior, engine and so on. Cleanliness and detail we very important each area was worth so many points. I think this gave everyone an equal chance.
But on popular choice car shows Red always wins. Buy the way my 68 corvettte is also red. Some one had painted it white it was red from the factory so I put it bact to red.

 

It just depends on the type of Car Show it is. Who are the judges?

Some shows are "Peoples Choice" (a red car helps here and so does a lot of "bling" or chrome).

Some shows are set up with pre-selected judges that are experienced in judging certain years of cars. Doesn't matter the color of the car or amount of chrome.

Some shows the judges are sponsors or merchants that foot the bill for the show. They get a group of maybe five areas to grade on a scale of 1-5. Again a red car helps here too, but also a clean car.

You have to asked or find out prior to going to the show how are the cars judged?

Yes I totally agree that red cars give you that extra head start on the judging especially when it is "Peoples Choice" and a "BIG" motor and 4-speed also helps.

To give you an example: a friend and myself went to a major annual Corvette show that was judged by the merchants that sponsored the show.

His car is a:1973 Corvette Yellow with saddle L48 Auto that had been judged by NCRS and had attained a National Duntov Award. (That is 97% of correctness and condition).

My car is a"1973 Corvette Red with black LS4 4-speed that had been judged by NCRS and had attained a Chapter Second Flight Award.(That is 87%-94% of correctness and condition).

Granted my car is I would say is cleaner than his.

Results: I (the red car) placed in the top 3 in the class of about 12 cars.

His yellow car did not place?

I would also say that a black car also helps.

I keep two different sets of tires and wheels for depending on type of show and judging to be done.

These are just my opinions and my experiences from the shows I have been to. My previous Corvette was a 1979 White with Red L82 Auto and won several shows with it, but nothing like my current Corvette which wins on more outings than not.




Peter

 

There are quite a few different types of shows. Peoples Choice where anyone and everyone gets a ballot. These can be a 'who is the most popular" show as many participants will invite anyone and everyone they know to win a trophy. Next you have Participant Choice. These are a little better as car people vote, but I have found in my area that these can get a bit biased as well as many of these show poeple are regulars and tend to vote for their buddies cars. Next you have shows where the hosting business has judges, who may not know a thing about cars and they just vote on their feelings. Now the ones I prefer are shows judged against criteria. These would be considered more of a Concours type of show. These are usually set criteria working off of a point total possibility and dedcuting from the total points. Some of these shows then pit you against others; some shows you get a trophy based on point total benchmarks, and literally everyone could get an award. Many of our Concours events start at 100 point total and you are pitted against others. I am doing Chevy Vettefest this year, and it is 1000 point total and awards are based on benchmarks. What I like about judged shows is that it is really you against yourself. In other words you control your point totals. In these contests you should be told what you lost points for, allowing to correct the problems for the future. The only place I get frustrated at times is that I register as a street driven car, yet they deduct for some things which a street car may have. Some of the judges get very finciky. A guy next to me lost points for a couple of leaves in his car. Now he vacuumed this thing clean at the show, but by the time the judges came by a couple of leave blew in. Now my logic says if this is street driven they may be a leaf or gravel piece here or there, even with the best clean job.......

 

My car like yours is an 81 - (see pic), that being said it's silver/gray with a striking red/black interior and a manual. I restored the car over the winter and this is the first year that I have shown it.
It's has won 8 trophies this season. Both NCCC and local shows.

NCCC or any Concourse judged show is by points on exterior, interior, and engine compartment. These are the lest subjective since they are judged and are based on a points system. They are usually broken down into Stock, Modifified and Custom and have criteria to seperate the classes. Also they will be broken down by C1- through C6. This of course would be your standard Concourse Corvette show. Color really isn't a player here but lets faces it certain colors catch the eye better than others and "subjective" can creep into it if there is only one judge for each of the 3 areas. Usually there are two judges assigned per area so that there must be an agreement by the two to deduct points. This limits the subjective factor.

Local shows where every other car competes against the rest of the crowd are the worst type of shows. Usually no criteria for how judging takes place - The majority of what shows up here are the classic muscles cars from 1964 through 1972 - since they are the majority more of them show up and the vettes are usually ignored. Juidging if it's done is "Peoples Choice" which is participant judging so you can see where this will lead - muscle heads vote muscle cars most of the time.
You may find shows that do break the cars down into catagories but they are few and far between - fewer of these types because they require more work on the organizing group to ensure the sub-divisions of the cars and judging by qualified people in the sub-divisions.