We've started brainstorming about the trophies for Stout's spring car show. Every year we've had 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place trophies in each class... motorcycle, prewar stock, prewar custom, etc.... And last year felt like a freaking trophy-fest! I thought it would never end! So this year for the 37th annual show I plan to change things. Give the show a fresh approach any way we can and just see what happens. Right now it's old and predictable... same people show up to take home their trophies. Really, it's rediculus. So what we wanna know is what have you all seen that works and doesn't work? I know we can't please everyone, but I'd like to know what you enjoy seeing on the ballot at other shows. Thanks for your opinions guys! ~Melissa president, UW-Stout Auto Club
havent been to many shows over the last 20 years or so... but i did go to a local one a couple of weekends ago... some dude had an unfinished car,, and got the unfinished trophy.... which is ok,,, but he also had a for sale sign in the car.. i figure anyone showing his car with a for sale sign in it should not trophy in any class... unless you plan on a for sale class bob
We just have "Midnighter's Choice Top Ten" and one "Best of Show" That way if only one motorcycle shows up and it's HOK Green (Ninja) then there isnt necessarily a trophy that HAS to be donated to the one entrant just because it's already engraved "Best Motorcycle". On the other hand, if the top ten vehicles all happen to be in the same category, or ALL the cars that show up are 50's customs you aren't restricted to only giving out top three, and taking the rest of the trophys home to get new engraved plated put on them for next year, and it also lets you off the hook about why one car was first and another third when the owner of the third place car is SURE his car is better and so on. I've seen shows where there's best paint and best interior etc. and at the same time the hosts decide to only give one trophy per car to "spread the wealth and make more people happy.. It just doesn't work that way! Whatever car takes "Best of show" has also got to also be best in their division... otherwise how are they best of show? They probably have the best interior and best paint and best engine too. it stands to reason, if they are really the best of show, doesn't it? And if they bring the same car back the next year and no ones built and brought anything better, then they DESERVE all those trophys again! Keep it simple. Have ten choice or twenty choice. and maybe one best of show, and if you're borrowing someone wlses property, have a "Host's choice" that YOU pay for but let them pick out, no matter where their tastes run. DO NOT have "Driver's Choice" or "People's Choice" because the club with the most people there will just pick one of their guys to win it and stuff the ballot box with his car's number, and "the people" will all choose the shiny but cheap red enamel 57 Tbird or Bel Air that's parked closest to the ballot box. I've seen both happen over and over. Also, make it known that your hosting club's cars are NOT eligible to receive any of the awards. It really pisses people off when they go to a show sponsored by a club and the club turns around and gives themselves all the trophys. That's just bad PR. Hope this helps some.
i reckon the old 1st, 2nd, 3rd in classes X, Y and Z is as boring as dead dogshit. trophies should evoke passion, emotion, make people laugh, make people cheer, add to the ENJOYMENT of the show, and of rodding. suitable trophies: - blackest paint. - most fuckable back seat (though you may need a euphemism here). - lowest roof. - highest roof. etc... if people come EXPECTING to win a particular trophy, then the spirit of the event is lost. if, on the other hand, the available trophies change every single year, they can hardly expect to receive one, can they? but that's just my two bob, and i certainly ain't in cars for the trophies, either... best trophy i've ever seen was the one i saw a photo of on the HAMB a while back, two pistons and conrods tacked onto a plate and lettered. it was sweet, and would be far more treasured by the recipient than some four foot, phony-gold monstrosity, i'm sure...
I belong to an old custom car club in NJ, one in existance for over 20 years. We used to have pretty cool car shows, "back in the day", that were more like the even older "rod runs", where trophy getting was second to having FUN! Anyway, just for kicks, the guys used to make our own trophies, and the border-line-goofy 'classes' for them. The club's mascot was an Indian, and some years we used it as a theme for the awards. Best chop- a tomahawk mounted on a placque, Straightest Bodywork...an arrow, Best interior-a miniature 'hide' stretched inside a hoop. Other years we just did unique awards, and people who usually never recieved a trophy wound up getting them. "MOST" unfinished, for example. Most bugs-in-your-radiator (a giant plastic bug mounted to a heater core, on a wooden plaque), Lowest car (a candy painted coil that was cut off a car), Koolest Kolor- a spray gun cut in half, and "dripping" with many different colors of candy and pearl paint. Koolest taillights- an old Hudson light, with a candy colored bezel, Best hubcaps, etc. We even gave out one for "Best Power Parker', which was the back end of a horse on a plaque. Guys always cherished our awards, esp. cause they were always hand-made, and different! And it didn't cost the club a fortune to buy them, and no one was ever coming to our show just to win a trophy, cause they never knew what kind we were giving out, and if the awards were serious ones that year! Have fun with it, don't make it a stressed out competition!
Here's a thought- Don't call anything Best of... Call them Favorite whatever That way if someone comes up with the age old complaint "that my (fill in the blank) is better then the guy that won" Make it clear that the awards are called Club Favorites and that will stop some of the usual whiners. But it takes an open mind and team work on the club's side. We're always trying to come up with new awards and it's a never ending battle to do something new and fresh. If you order off your local trophy shop and the price seems high. Email me off list with the specs. and I'll tell you how bad the guy is trying to rape you on prices. You'd be surprised the mark up on some of this stuff.
Here's what we tried a few years ago and it went over big. We collected $50-100 from 25 or so show sponsors.Then the day of the show ,we had all of the cars register as they came in,let them park anywhere(no classes) and every half hour we pulled a car number and gave that person $50.We bought a few trophies and set up goofy catagories,like widest whitewalls,dirtiest trunk,etc. and gave the trophies to the vehicles we picked.At the end of the show we drew one car number and gave that person $300. Around here ,most shows are going to favorite 50 or 100 vehicles,because the trophy thing is getting to be a pain.
Here's another idea we tried: We bought picnic coolers and filled them with goodies,like oil,drink jugs,car wax and gave them out instead of trophies. We do the largest show in western Mass. and we still do 44 classes plus "best of" catagories with participant judging.We get about 600 vehicles and it's a pain counting those ballots,but people love to vote and get mad when we try to change it. Last year we had 175 diecast cars donated to us and we had a local trophy shop mount them on marble bases with our dash plaque. That went over so big we almost had a riot by the trophy hounds fighting over them.
Give out dash plaques. That way everybody is a winner. I don't put them on my car but I plan on putting them on a magnet and then I will put them on a toolbox or something. I like the cooler thing too.
Went to a rod-run in the mid 80's where the best club trophy was awarded to the club with the skinniest guys. Here's how it happened: The guy with the microphone called for every club to send 3 members up front....didn't tell why. After all clubs sent their 3 guys up, each group of 3 was instructed to all move in as close together as possible and a tape measure was stretched around all 3 of'em. Smallest measurement won the trophy which was a clear lacquered stick mounted to a plaque. It was soooooooooo funny watching 3 drunks from each club, face to face and laughing their asses off...
Go to the junkyard, buy old camshafts and other mechanicals, paint them gold and silver and wire tie on tags for first and second places. They're far cooler trophies. I keep trying to persuade our campus car club to do this if they insist on having our (poorly attended) show each summer.
First, I have to say, I have more fun at shows that don't have trophies. But, I'm on a committee for a downtown car show. We do top 50 trophies (each registrant gets a ballot to pick 10 vehicles) and best of show comes from the car that gets the most votes. We also have about a dozen specialty trophies. Best Chevy, Ford, Buick, etc., best paint, best engine and so forth. I like the top 50 for small shows. No classes, no 1st, 2, 3rd. to bitch about. All of our trophies are hand made and different each year. Last year we did pistons and mounted the rods on a wooden base. This year we did 45 records (remember those?), painted them gold, mounted them in a frame with a black velvet background. We glued a round (magnetic) dash plaque to the top of the piston and in the center of the 45. People seem to really like the personal touch.
won a trophy for "best beater". it was a lump of expanding foam(the kind in a spray can),painted turd brown,with model car engine and wheels stuck to it,and other assorted parts strewn behind it. if ya' gonna give trophys,the homemade ones are the best!
I went to a local show years ago with a friend who entered her car. They had a REALLY cool way of dishing out some neat "awards"! They passed around ballot sheets with questions like: "Which car would Lenny & Squiggy drive?" "Which car would you have liked to have had in high school?" "Which car is your cruisin' pick?" and so on. I thought that was alot of fun, and a refreshing departure from judged trophy competition! My goal??? I wanna win that Lenny & Squiggy award someday...I think those guys are WAY COOL!!!
The Road Rockets in Indy always have homemade trophys at their Weekender show. I've never managed to win one but it would be the neatest trophy on my shelf. For example, Best Custom was a blob of real body lead melted out of a 57 Thunderbird and mounted on a plaque. Yeah, a trophy with soul! Sure makes the little marble and potmetal trophies look lame.
i think a billet dildo award should be given to the most billet'd street rod...seems only right...ha!!!!!
Been to a lot of shows in the last few years. A lot of them have a beater class, something that I wish they had back in my youth. Beater class is cool, but most of the cars that win beater class are really junkers. A real beater is little rough around the edges (or like mine real rough) and mechanically sound, a daily driver. The term comes from something to beat around in. Beater class would be cool if the cars were real beaters. You would have to stipulate a cutoff date, so someone didn't win in their Accord. You might separate the Street Brawlers from the Cruisers. it would take some research, but you might class some for period correctness, IE 60s Customs, '50s customs, dry lakes racers etc. If you need a different trophy I got a broken posi in my shop that I would mount on something and donate. You'll have to get your own plaque. I'm not an engraver. if it don't make you dirty it aint yours
Tok- hahaha that would really piss off some of the locals! Our current trophies are fine, we've thought about making them ourself but we haven't really decided. And we do give out dash plaques to the first 200 cars. I was just curious on some ideas because while we still feel we need a couple of trophies since the clubs been doing this for 37 years, we're tired of the reasons some people come to our show. It should be about the show and the cars themselves, not the trophies. The people in it for the trophies can just stay home or discover a new reason to come in our eyes. Your ideas are great guys... keep them coming! ~Melissa
Like FatHack, I also attended a show which asked the same type of questions...I was awarded the "car most likely to be seen on the set of American Grafitti", I was driving a 62 Impala wagon at the time. The show also had awards for: car that you would lose your license in, car that you could pick up chicks in etc. Awards like that make shows fun to go to.
How about this. Give out gift certificates for hot dogs at the A&W. Then the next time you sit one the john call all of your friends over to see your trophy before you pull the flush handle. I wish I could tell your how I really feel about trophys. TROPHYS: THE BEST WAY YET DEVISED TO RUIN A GOOD CAR SHOW Frank
one of the best trophies i've seen was "the check-writer" award. given to the car who's owner obviously did nothing to the car but write the check to the builder, and put gas in it. the recipient of this award got really pissed off though, so if you use the idea.....beware. always go with the gold chainer award...non-hambers may take the knock as a compliment.
I help with the picking of cars for awards at Frankenmuth each year. 2500 cars showed up this year,so it's work, but fun work. I am assigned categories such as "bitchin hot rod", then I get to pick a few for that "class". I am left alone to pick whatever I want for whatever reason I choose...the car can be rusty, dented, incomplete, shiny, dull, ugly, it's all up to me. The club likes what I pick and I get a kick outta it. I always try to mix it up by picking cars that are usually passed by. I do a short interview with the owners of cars I like...not letting them know what I'm doing....and I try to pick cars that have owner involvement, or were driven a long distance to attend...I picked one from Georgia this year. The awards are very nice German beer steins...Frankenmuth is a bavarian style town. It's almost necessary to have awards at a car show...but I wish they werent so important to some people. Thats how it's done in Fmuth....hope this was some help. Well, thats my say and I think they have a nice system at the show
I like trophies. They make me money. I have more fun at shows then anyone I know. I'm not worried about some stupid trophy. If I want one that bad, I'll make myself one.