<VV> Worthless awards, was:Concours philosophy

[airvair]

That is a very interesting question. I've never been a fan of the "gold,
silver, bronze" awards, and for a good reason. As you point out, instead
of competing against the rest of your peers, you compete against a set
scale. This puts undue pressure on the concours judging staff to be
"perfect" in their scoring, and even more pressure on whomever draws the
line between gold and silver, etc. I call it a "feel good" award, as it
proves only that your car can pull numbers within a certain score range,
and that it makes you feel good. After all, even a second, third, or
even lower ranked car could conceivably get a gold award. And this goes
for everything down the line. So to me, the only thing a "gold" award
proves is that it's a nice car. It DOESN'T prove that it's the best
amongst its peers.

Conversely, a "first, second, third" award system automatically
compensates for any varience in judging abilities due to us being human.
It only requires consistancy, which, after judging for more years than I
can count, I can attest to CORSA judges' consistancy between cars in any
given class. (There is a rule that the same team of judges has to judge
every car in a given class, if at all possible. This eliminates human
differences between teams making a difference in cars' ranks.) Scores
don't mean quite as much as rank, so when you DO get a first, it means
you are the best among your peers. Which makes PROPER classification
very important.

As it stands, you are right. In fact, we could eliminate classification
altogether, thus saving all the time, effort, and even grief that goes
along with classification. Trouble is, then concours would lose its most
important function, that of encouraging the preservation of stock
Corvairs. Without classes, there would be no need to make the effort to
be in "factory stock" class, and no doubt few would expend the effort.

On the other hand, I would favor the return to the "first, second,
third" award system. Sure, a lot of people would be unhappy when they
didn't get first in their class. But what awards they DID get would mean
something. And wouldn't you rather have an award that actually meant
something?

-Mark

ChiefTAM@aol.com wrote:
> 
> Just wondering....why does it matter what class you participate in in a
> concours, as I thought you are not competeing against other vehicles in as much as
> you are competing against a standard.  You don't have a "winner" as you could
> have numerous 100 point cars.  Unless I missed something and they won't judge
> the 69 Corsa in any class.
> 
> Todd
> Dallas