AWARDS AND JUDGING

What Kind of Cars Should I Expect?

This depends on what you want and how you advertise. “Classic cars” generally refers to cars from the early 70’s and older although there are strict age and make/model definitions for serious enthusiasts. Many events are advertised as open to all classic vehicles. Other events get specific with age (e.g. pre-1977). You are likely to end up with a mixture of original vehicles of all conditions, restored vehicles, “resto-mods” (cars that look original but have modern or high performance drivetrains), customs, hot rods, street rods, old trucks, newer or old motorcycles, and possibly some “specialty vehicles” such as hearses, military vehicles, old fire trucks, and old police cars. In some parts of the country, old tractors and other combustion engine farm equipment are also featured. All of this variation can make award categories tricky. Be specific about what you want in your advertising. Visit local car shows that hand out awards and research on-line (see the car show calendar link on this website) to get ideas about how to structure your award categories and the types of awards to present.

More about Awards and Judging

My general recommendation is to have a cruise-in without awards but in some areas, awards are the norm. Do your research into local events and ask around to find out what is most prevalent and preferred. Unless you have experienced old car hobby people to be good car show judges, I would forego judging and awards. A judged show can easily get a bad reputation if the judges are perceived to be unfair or not experts about what they observe. Some car shows deduct points if the radiator hose clamps are not authentic. As an outreach event, you don’t want your event to get a bad reputation among the people who are usually both the visitors and “star attraction.”

If you are curious about how a serious car show is judged, read about Super Chevy car shows at: http://www.superchevy.com/features/0112sc_judging_chevy_shows/

If you want to read car owners thoughts on judged shows, read comments posted on a MOPAR (vehicles made by Chrysler) message board at: http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=2999248&Main=2999073

Participant Judging and Award Categories

If you go ahead with a judged show, consider a combination of participant judging and Special Awards.

Participant judging means that the car owners will vote and turn in ballots to people you designated to tally up the votes. Exclude your congregation members who bring a car from being eligible for awards as a gesture of ensuring fairness. The car owners will be your “experts” and you can tally up their votes to determine your award selections.

There are many ways to establish the award categories. Your show turnout will probably have a combination of various years, makes, and models that are unrestored original cars, restored to original condition cars, “resto mods” (cars that look originals but have modern drivetrains and safety features for better driveability), customs (cars modified with custom paint jobs and high performance drivetrains), hot rods (extreme customs), and other miscellaneous vehicles such as fire trucks, military vehicles, etc. With all this variability, you need to have a fairly simple but inclusive awards system. It can be confusing and even controversial about how to categorize a particular car. Participant judges’ ballots don’t necessarily have to distinguish all of these variables and they can vote for cars that impress them for any reason. A simple system could be:

· Best of Show (top participant vote getter)

· Top 10 (top 10 participant vote getters - or more or less depending on your expected turnout and awards budget;)

· Farthest distance traveled (your registration form should ask how far each entrant traveled)

· Special Awards (see below)

· Other variations

o Top 5 decade (pre-1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960, 1970s)

o Top 5 Hot Rods/Customs

Special awards are for cars selected by “distinguished guests” who may be community leaders, the pastor, or sponsors. Don’t be surprised if the Fire Chief selects a fire truck or a custom car with flames on the hood and front fenders!

· Fire Chief’s Choice

· Police Chief’s Choice

· Mayor’s Choice

· Pastor’s Choice

You could also add “People’s Choice” spectator judging to the mix and have a “People’s Choice” award and “Peoples Choice Top 10” group of awards.

What Awards Should We Give?

Your team will also need to decide what the awards themselves will be. They generally are either trophies or plaques of various designs and sizes. You should be able to go to local tropy and award shops to get them made and see samples. There are also several on-line sources. Below is a short list of the many on-line companies that have pictures of what they sell to give you ideas for design and cost:

http://www.magicworksawards.com/CARSHOW/CarShow.html

http://www.trophyoutlet.com/Carshows.htm

http://www.tristatetrophies.com/

http://www.johns-trophy.com/trophy_award.htm