<VV> Concours

[aeroned at aol.com]

Having just competed in my first concours ever at the Great Plains Corvair Roundup, I wanted to pass on a couple of observations.
 
You concours guys are just plain nuts!
 
I spent more than 2 weeks cleaning everything on my car, inside, outside, underside. Chuck Armer gave me some great pointers at Iowa to make the car better and I tried to get those things done to the car. All of this preparation was hard work, especially cleaning the underside.
 
Then I drove it to the event, about 25 miles, through the less than clean real world. Once I got to the hotel I had to unload all the stuff that I hauled. That stuff wasn't as clean as my car was. The fact that the gardeners were working and the wind was directing everything directly into my car didn't help. The fact that I had about a million things to do meant that I didn't have an opportunity to reclean the car unless I didn't want to sleep.
 
Then the rain came. The guys in Iowa know about this too. Friday night was the first round and then Saturday was the second. I was half way through drying the car when the drizzle picked up. I finally just gave in to Mother Nature and let the rain show off the quality of the wax job I did. Of course these conditions were less than optimal for judging, the rain was light and scattered enough that we could judge, but there was enough to make it difficult to keep the judging sheets dry.
 
All in all it was a good experience. With the guidance and organization of Don Wagner, we got all 12 cars judged. I don't know if I'll do it again, but I'll judge. It's fun seeing how much detail other guys put into the cars. I found a new respect for the folks that do it on a regular basis, especially the cars that are driven.
 
Ned