When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
So last weekend I had entered my pristine 2014 C7 Convertible in a area "Corvette Only" show with about 120 cars. I had to drive almost 100 miles and spend the night to enter this thing. I regularly judge Corvettes for our local Corvette Club ...which has about 150 members. Judges came by 4 times...so I figured I might be a winner. The cars were grouped by Class C-1 thru C-8.
On their last pass around my car one judge said "We had it narrowed down between you and another Convertible that didn't look quite as nice overall as yours...but we found slight traces of previously applied wheel weight glue on one of you rims." The car has 25K miles on it and I just recently changed to OEM Michelins to the exact TPC replacement. The glue was from Bowling Green!!
WTF!! This a "Show and shine show" Not an "NCRS Regional Competition" !!
Anything like this happen to any of you guys? They actually had to get on their hands and knees and look behind a Brake Caliper to even see this stuff...about the size of two postage stamps!!
Last edited by sprink94; Oct 16, 2022 at 06:18 PM.
I've learned after years of car shows that what may catch a judge's attention at one show will not get a second look by a judge at another show. It's all subjective, depending on the day of the week or the temperature that day. Take it with a grain of salt. You win some, you lose some.
I had something like that happen at Carlisle one year with my '99. I drove in a pouring rain from Ohio to Carlisle on Friday . Saturday the judges went from my car to a blue z06 3-4 times . The judges came back the last time and ,pulled out the cigarette lighter and took a look . I thought ,great ,as I knew the previous owner did not smoke and neither did I . Well the Z06 ,that was a local ,brand new car with 30 miles on it won . Talked to the judges . They said the lighter had debris on the coils . When I got home I looked at it with a magnifying glass and the only thing I saw was shiny coils ! Oh well ,it happens !
I don't do car shows, but due to my mild(?) "OCD," I had to remove the visible wheel weight glue left from the previous weights after replacing (at 24,000 miles) my Summer Only tires with new All Season Michelin's.
Had a couple hundred vettes at a local all Corvette show a couple months back. I took Best In Class and Peoples' Choice at the show, but not before losing 1/2 pt for a "worn paint on the liftgate latch" remark. So that paint wore the first time BG closed the liftgate on the assembly line. They literally couldn't find anything wrong, but also couldn't give me a perfect score. Lol. The Peoples' Choice made my day though.
Surprising that the judges didn't mention the scuffs on your seat bolster or marks on your console flip lid?
There aren't any scuffs on the seat bolster...like new. The marks on the console are my finger prints before I wiped them off...good guess though. You can only see those smudged prints from a certain angle.
I found out later that another 2019 C7 Convertible had his top down just before the announced "Rags Down". He quickly put his top up and later got "Zinged" for having "Wrinkles" in the top. The show was in Florida...clear skies and in the high '80s. About 30 minutes later the Sun had smoothed it out....go figure. The guy right next to me with a White '16 Grand Sport got "Zinged for too much "Amazon Stick on Chrome" in the engine compartment!!
There was a C8.R that was perfect that got nothing.
I forgot to mention that I did win a nice small Combination SAE/Metric Ratchet/Socket set as a Door Prize Consolation from Summit and our Club got a Plaque for having the most cars from another Club!!
We were blessed with good weather and saw some cool "Older" "C2" stuff. One guy had a rare '65 396/425 Horse Convertible that was perfect. He won nothing...tough judges.
Last edited by sprink94; Oct 17, 2022 at 12:13 AM.
So last weekend I had entered my pristine 2014 C7 Convertible in a area "Corvette Only" show with about 120 cars. I had to drive almost 100 miles and spend the night to enter this thing. I regularly judge Corvettes for our local Corvette Club ...which has about 150 members. Judges came by 4 times...so I figured I might be a winner. The cars were grouped by Class C-1 thru C-8.
On their last pass around my car one judge said "We had it narrowed down between you and another Convertible that didn't look quite as nice overall as yours...but we found slight traces of previously applied wheel weight glue on one of you rims." The car has 25K miles on it and I just recently changed to OEM Michelins to the exact TPC replacement. The glue was from Bowling Green!!
WTF!! This a "Show and shine show" Not an "NCRS Regional Competition" !!
Anything like this happen to any of you guys? They actually had to get on their hands and knees and look behind a Brake Caliper to even see this stuff...about the size of two postage stamps!!
If you are a judge you do know that sometimes some cars are so close in their cleanliness (even show and shine shows are about cleanliness) the judges have to look at extreme locations to find a difference between the two cars.
I was at a Concours 40 years ago where the winner (between two cars brought to the show in enclosed trailers with velvet bags on their wheels to keep the tires clean) was decided after the judges had the owners lift the cars so they could check the driveshafts on the cars. One of the cars had dust on the drive shaft and took second place while the first-place car took home the $1000 prize. The winner had just been awarded a Bloomington Gold a few weeks earlier and was a 1963 Z06 Big Tank car.
I've learned after years of car shows that what may catch a judge's attention at one show will not get a second look by a judge at another show. It's all subjective, depending on the day of the week or the temperature that day. Take it with a grain of salt. You win some, you lose some.
I was at a Clean-N-Shine at a car show in Thousand Oaks. It was on a grass field, so, I had to arrive early to get the grass, and dust from a forty mile Freeway ride to get their.
I had about a half inch crack in the door stock, by the driver side window, which is common for a C4.
The Judge dinged me for it. I thought the same thing you did. I did get a First Place, Engine Judged. I left a Happy Camper. 😊
I was in a show once with over 500 Corvettes. Drove about 6 hrs to attend. I didn’t realize it was judged by the participants - so everyone that was in the show got a ballot with 5 categories. Bet you can guess who took home the most hardware…
…The club with most cars. It was very disappointing.
I'll never understand the appeal of sitting in a parking lot or field all day sweating my *** off to let someone judge my car on their own subjective opinion to win a plastic trophy that ill throw on a shelf and never look at again. I'd much rather drive or go to non judged car meets that you come and go as you please. We use to help out with some local shows and it doesn't matter what you do as a judge, you'll always have someone who thinks they deserve to win more than the other guy and you'll never make everyone happy. To each their own but not for me.
I've learned after years of car shows that what may catch a judge's attention at one show will not get a second look by a judge at another show. It's all subjective, depending on the day of the week or the temperature that day. Take it with a grain of salt. You win some, you lose some.
I once went to a car show where a clapped out Honda Del-Sol won "Best Domestic", since then I just stopped carring what others thought of my car. I goto car shows for two reasons, one to socialize with other car guys and I only goto car shows that support causes so I know my money is going to help others.
Car Show Fail
