Local Car show

[supratuner]

Well i went to a local car show today, out of maybe 300 cars entered, only one might even be able to be called an import won any thing

1st thru 3rd place awards for 16 diff categorys, plus another 6 awards or so for best of stuff

Kinda pisses me off to be perfect honest, one category was1 old piece of shit truck and 3 police cars "modern" cars, well guess who got first place? that ugly piece of shit, ill honestly say that %50 of the stuff that won in my opinion was ugly. the only thing that wasnt a hot rod or muscle car was a slammed blazer

there was a category that included my R34 GTR and had maybe 7 other imports, and 3 or 4 muscle cars, plus that blazer, well blazer got 3rd, muscle cars took top honor, in my opinion it was rigged, oh well

heres a picture of my Eclipse GSX and TWIN TURBO CIVIC

THe competion for my R34



well i got two door prizes at least...

[RallyRaider]

That is competitions for you. Were the judging criteria clearly stated up front? If so then you should be able to see why the winners won. If not then it probably was shonky, because even the judges wouldn't have known what they were doing.

[willimo]

I fall victim to similar circumstances, as most contests try to judge on "accuracy" and some local shows don't know what to look for in different types of cars. But, do you build for contests or for yourself?

[Layla's Keeper]

If you'd given us some pictures of other cars at the show, we'd be more able to tell you if you actually had a shot at winning.

And model car contests in America are PREDOMINANTLY muscle car, classics, and replicas. Have you ever picked up a Scale Auto Enthusiast Contest Annual? Most of the contest winners are radically detailed replica stock cars (like Bill Geary's 1958 Impala convertible with its working air suspension or Juha Airo's 1972 Road Runner with its working sunroof and tons of 100% accurate to that specific car options) or are masterfully done customs and hot rods (like Augie Hiscano's mostly brass 1933 Ford Roadster or Doug Whyte's 1953 Studebaker) or completely insane race cars (like Mark Guerrero's front-engine dragster powered by two Model A four-bangers each with a giant turbo or Don Molitor's replica of Richard Petty's 1967 Plymouth Belvedere stock car)

It's not impossible for an import to win a contest, but it has to be a phenomeonally well-built import just the same as any other contest winner has to be phenomeonal. Don't go shouting "bias" everytime you lose. Just build a better model.

[supratuner]

those cars i showed were teh competiton for my R34 GTR, as you maybe remember, it was shinny piece, as shinny as those cars were.

I had a whole different competiton for my civic and Eclipse, and that is a bad picture of those two, but looking at the cars that were agaisnt my eclipse, i think my car was good for at least 3rd place, no joke.

there was no criteria posted, and as i took a look at all the judges only one seemed to take interest into imports at all.


and for willimo, i build for myself, but it did piss me off about that show, i mean, there was a really clean supra there, it shoulda won some thing before any of mine did, but it didnt win any thing either.

[phase5]

i was a judge at our state show and we had all types of cars. But as judges we need to look at all aspects of the entery as in stance/finish etc not that its a tuner or muscle car. And trust me its sometimes a bloody hard job. But i have seen cars win without even being looked over which is not fair

[supratuner]

yeah they pretty much looked over stuff at this one

Light weight commercial
Crown Victoria Police car
Chevy ZO6 police car
Mustang SUper Stallion Police car
old Chevy pickup truck from around 1950

that pick up truck won, the mustang and ZO6 both looked 1000 times better then that, besides that the paint on teh truck was horrible.

now you tell me if that isnt biased or not.

[phase5]

Yeh it can be wrong and should be done properly
a mates car was one i had to judge and it killed everything in its class. but he forgot to put on thr side inicators which stood out like anything which then dropped him to 3rd which was a bugger as it was fantastic it should be on thr forums soon (hurry up rob and post it with indictors)

[ZoomZoomMX-5]

Without seeing the competition, I really can't comment, though I have seen bias and bad judging at contests. It doesn't happen when I judge, that's for sure.

One reason why people tend to prefer an NNL style show, where it's about the models and the builders, not simply a trophy-fest. NNL's give out fewer trophies, they're voted on by the public...and it makes for a more casual atmosphere w/o the BS that judged contests usually have at some level. The classic original NNL every year in Toledo Ohio has only three trophies, best of show-best theme-and best junior. It's nice to go to a show where the trophies and awards aren't the holy grail, it's the models on the tables and the friendships you make. It took years for someone to organize a model show that wasn't merely a competition event. You don't have to have a judged show to have the best models and modelers show up and show off.

[mike@af]

ZoomZoom is right.

I go to contests with the mindset of meeting people, talking about models, and sharing tips and tricks. Sure, if I won, that'd be a bonus. I plan to attend this years NNL to me a lot of people from AF, chat with them, and share tips and tricks. I doubt I'll win (even if the hot rod was finished in time), but its a cool place to just chill and look at models.

Think of contests as a building aid. Those cars usually win for a reason, look at that reason and make your car become that reason.

Whether your comp was biased are not, nobody can tell whether or not it was without looking at the rest of the compitition. You are generally biased to yourself, and thats human nature.

[willimo]

Originally Posted by GTmike400

I go to contests with the mindset of meeting people, talking about models, and sharing tips and tricks. Sure, if I won, that'd be a bonus. I plan to attend this years NNL to me a lot of people from AF, chat with them, and share tips and tricks.

That's why I'm drivin' 8hrs up the road. It sure as hell isn't on account of trophies. I have to admit, though, I've seen similar things at local shows. They tend to judge models like we skim chapters in out textbook - just looking over them without paying them close attention.

[Macdaddy4738]

i went to that show. Walked into the door...looked at the cars...and walked out. My first show and it was a total dissapointment. It was a terrible show. In a dingy brick building with no AC and a few tables full of cars. There where a few that stood out but other than that there wasnt much to see. Like Supra said...it was dominated by muscle cars followed in a close second by hotrods. Im very glad i didnt enter anything...none of my entries would have been muscle cars...plus i would have had to stay there for at least 3 hours (belive me it was terrible...i couldnt have done it) I guess it has alot to do with how big the show is. Imports cater to the younger generation and the only kids old enough to build something to enter the contest there where me and Supratuner the rest where older guys (by older i mean 40's to 50's).

[dag65]

supratuner and Macdaddy4738 you should try to organize and judge a contest yourself before you knock someone elses! Its not as easy as you think especially when one has to deal with sore losers and whiners.
Supratuner how many imports were there , a handful? Were the classes pre-determined so you knew what to expect?

[p9o1r1sche]

I quit going to that peticular show just because of the reasons that Supratuner mentions. Unfortunately, there are shows inwhich the judging criteria is not based on the appearance of the models on the table. I have judged many contests before, so I can speak with experience on this point.

[phase5]

the first thing that a judge will look at is paint finish and for glue marks
or what a judge should look at