There’s a lot to admire at a typical car show, and you want your entry to look at least as good as everyone else’s. And while there are many, many other tricks and tips to getting the best out of your car and the judging process, the below guidelines give you a great understanding of the basics of show judging. Some information for this section was provided by Eddie Potestio, an interior specialist for more than thirty years, and a respected judge in the Rocky Mountain Region for almost two decades.
1. Know the show rules! If you really want to place in the competition, you’ll need to know two items: First, ask the show organizer whether the judges are using the ISCA rulebook. This is the standard for most reputable competition shows other than concourse shows, which have multiple sets of rules for various classes. Those rulebooks and guidelines are too extensive to be listed here. Second, find out how the judges need your car displayed. For example, judges usually won’t open your hood if it’s closed, so if you want to show it off, open the hood, doors, and trunk.
Don’t worry about disturbing the clean lines of the car by having the hood open. That’s what the show card is for! Let Craig come up with one that is unique to your car. See some samples here
2. Leave your car open until the awards have been presented! The judges will come back to your car several times; first to decide what class it belongs in, then again to judge it, and perhaps two or three more times, to compare with other cars they’ve seen since they last peered into yours. A common mistake is to see the judges walk away from your car, assume they’re done, and close it all up. But when they come back, they can no longer see the engine work they were trying to compare to another car in your class, and that means you just lost the tie.
Let Craig help you with a show card display that lets people see the car in views they wouldn't normally see in the show itself. This can help you resist the temptation to keep changing the way your car looks during the show.
3. Clean farther than you can reach! Judges will inspect your work with a flashlight, and they’re trained to see dirt and inaccuracies that you might miss. That means you have to spend a great deal of time cleaning things that are difficult to see. Remember when you figured the lower firewall wouldn't be seen? The judges know in less than a second that you didn't clean it. Clean underneath, inside, and in between, not just the outside. Clean the entire distributor cap, all the fixtures around the engine bay, the carpeting up under the dash, all the way inside the wheelwells, the suspension, everything. If your car is driven, you’ll need to spend at least several hours cleaning it before the show. Don’t wait until show day to start this process.
Because it can take so much time to clean, Craig is happy to do the shoot for your car in-show, so you don’t have to go through the cleaning process more than necessary! Some of these examples were actually done in-show.
4. Carry a theme throughout the car! Classes are set up with very specific rules. If you put new wheels on your otherwise original AC Cobra, you’ve just lost your class. Once you make one change that will take you out of the stock categories, you may as well go all out with the mods, because you’re now competing with people who have done just that. In a restored class, having original equipment like a windshield won’t help your score if it looks less than brand new.
If you must have those wheels, put them on for a photoshoot, then put the originals back on for the show.
5. Don’t obscure the car with signs, pictures, or other memorabilia! The first thing a judge wonders when they see all the pictures laid out on the running board is “What are they hiding?” But they’re not going to remove your display to judge, either. So it will only hurt your score. Also, don’t make your display so complex, with dozens of trophies, plaques, excess machinery, or books that the judges will not want to get near the car. They don’t want to damage your car any more than you want them to, so they won’t take the chance. They’ll just stay ten feet away, and miss all the graphics you etched into the underside.
Craig can build a custom show card with a very sophisticated and polished look, and he can also give you guidance on an effective, unobtrusive display that can even include artwork based on your car.
6. Don’t make excuses – Learn something! A lot of owners and builders ask the judges later why they got the score they did. This is a necessary part of the show process, so don’t hesitate to talk to them afterwards. But… if a judge tells you about the sag in the fender paint he saw, don’t start in with the story of why you couldn’t get it just right. That simply indicates that you already knew about it, and were just hoping they wouldn’t see it. So why did you even ask, if you already knew the flaws? Instead, take that oppotrunity to realize that people will in fact see the things you hope they won’t, and you just need to work harder for the next show. It’s no big deal – every car has things wrong with it, even from the best builders in the world. Find the time to fix those things, and they’ll never be an issue again.
If your car has issues you can’t address, don’t worry. A photoshoot from Craig will address those concerns so that you won’t see those flaws in the final shots.
Competing for a trophy or other award is easy; winning is extremely difficult, and is a process that is best reserved for those who are willing to put in much more time than they originally thought would be necessary. Don’t be afraid of failure. Use that lesson to be better in the next show. Before you know it, you’ll be respected in the show community as someone who really knows what they’re doing.
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