<VV> National Conventions / concours

[airvair at earthlink.net]

All,

Concerning the "not judging the undercarriage" is concerned, actually we
already do. It's called the "People's Choice" concours (aka Car Display).
It really IS just the other version of a Concours. The two types of
concours are 1) judged by a dedicated set of judges, and 2) judged by
popular vote. We just happen to call our #2 type a "car display." In
concours, semantics means everything to many of the participants, hence the
word play.

There are distinct advantages and disadvantages to both types of concours.
A judged concours has the advantage of being more accurate and impartial,
while a popular-vote concours has the advantage of not taking into account
such things as an undercarriage (unless individual voters consider it,
which they rarely do.) The disadvantage to the judged concours is that some
people don't like the idea of having their "baby" being so closely
scrutinized, whereas the popular-vote concours has the disadvantage of
possible favoritism, where the guy with the most buddies or the flashiest
car wins over possibly cars that are in nicer condition but plainer or the
owner isn't well-known or liked.

I know this because I wrote the original CORSA Concours rules, and went
thru many a battle royal over just such things. As I said in a previous
post, SOME concours people (and mind you, they're usually only the most
vocal, and not the majority either) can be real "wicked witch of the west"
types, with a capital "B", if they don't get their way. It's why we
eventually decided to go both ways, and offer both types of concours
contests. 

It's also why we had to play around with words, so that we would get just
the *right* terminology, and not offend some squeaky wheels' fragile egos.
It's for these very reasons that rules are precise and written out well
ahead of time. There is no room for verbal, instant, or arbitrary
rule-making. And it's also why changes (to specific rules, various terms
and definitions, and anything else) have to be deliberate and well-thought
out, and implimented slowly.

That is why we have what we have now, as it's evolved thru trial and error,
and a LOT of screaming, yelling, threats of mayhem, temper tantrums, and
verbal abusage. Been there, seen it all happen. And I have no doubt, there
WILL be more of it to come. You can't please everyone, but if it's all laid
out well ahead of time and everyone agrees to it, most such incidents are
usually kept to a minimum.

-Mark

> [Original Message]
> From: Clark Hartzel <chartzel at comcast.net>
> Subject: <VV> National Conventions / concours
>
> I have a simple solution to the concours problem.  Stop judging
> undercarriages!  Have the concours last on a Saturday so the public can
see
> it.  If your car got dirty on the rally, econo run or autocross, run it
thru
> the automatic car wash and show it!  The factory never cared what the
bottom
> of our Corvairs looked like, so why do we "over restore" and try to make
the
> bottom prettier than the top?  I'll bet the average brand new Corvair was
> rusty underneath before it was sold.  Undercoating was sprayed around
wheel
> wells with no care by the appliers.
> If some got on the panted surfaces outside it was wiped off but nobody
cared
> what the bottom looked like.  Gas tanks, springs, tie rods, relay rods and
> other suspension parts were installed without paint so why do we try to
> powder coat and make all that boring stuff look pretty?
> Clark (cars are made to be driven) Hartzel
>