It is nice to recieve a trophy as recognition for your hard work but I go to have a good time. I have been saying for a long time that they need to take trophies out of car shows and that will show you who the real car people are. The trophy hunters will sell there car off and go find something else to do. Then we can get rid of the LOOK AT ME PEOPLE.
I drive a little over 200 miles for the annual Lions Club Cruise in Fly in in McMinnville Oregon. Small show, great group. I go for the drive down the Wa/Or coast and their Pancake Breakfast. .
Way back in 1982, I sold my 70 Chevelle and headed south with the cash. This was my "post college before starting real job trip". I was 22. I drove my 56 Mercury pickup from Winnipeg Canada to Reno, NV by way of the west coast - about 4200 miles up to that point and still 1700 miles from home. Some guy about twice my age from South of Chicago pulled out his road atlas and convinced the show people that he was 30 miles further way than me and deserved the long distance trophy. I told them to go ahead and give it to him as apparently he needed the trophy more than I did. They did make it clear to him that the kid that came all the way from Canada by himself should have got the trophy.
for me trophys are for gold chainers they have to have a award for everything to boost there worthless egos' when I worked for a O/t car restoration shop I was sometimes required to bring the shops owners cars ( he had a small fleet ) some were total restos ( which were there for sales purposes and not judging ) a few were original except tires, hoses and oil filters , went to one show and one of our biggest P.I.T.A. customer was there , but he didn't recognize me , but this ego maniac tried to say one of the original cars that wasn't ours but a person we knew well ,was a resto and his was untouched ( it was the other way around ) , when I heard this I had to burst his lying ass bubble , told the judges were to look for the repairs from when we did the quarters and rockers on his car .( the judges pointed out he fraud to him ) hated to do it , but I hate people who buy shit and cannot lift a finger to do it themselves and claim all the glory and knock other peoples stuff down . needless I haven't seen the car or him after that..
I noticed a few years ago the OT cars with the fart can exhalst would display all thier trophys while at car shows.. The next open show I attended big me with the F##k ed up humor I have gathered up about 20 trophys and threw them in a pile next to my car. A few people got the joke and others did not. What was funny or odd some 10 to 15 year olds would ask if I would give them a trophy. ................................................................................ A all ford show I entered my jalopy 1934 Ford Race car in the race class. I really race this car. Well this guy with a 70 or so Mustang with Billett everything got mad because my POS won.. the judges told him was a real race car. I laughed at him and offered the trophy to him telling him how shallow he was. Now I place a sign on all my cars DO NOT JUDGE>
I drove my "stockish" 64 C10 over 1500 miles to go to the Southwest Nostalgia Drags in Wittman Az. Okay, so I was eventually headed to Phoenix anyways, but, I rushed to make it that weekend. I'm not sure if they even had trophies for the car show, but my reward was seeing my awesome friends, and getting waved in to park in the show with the dirtiest, fullest of crap truck you've probably ever seen in a show. I don't need a piece of gold plastic to know that I do awesome stuff.
I was at a local show about a month ago and a new car showed up it was a Kustom 53 Olds convert. I couldnt wait to see it, when I pulled out my camera and walked over to get a couple of shots, low and behold on the back seat with the top down was a 3 foot trophy, what a turn off barf, gag, I put the camera away and left.
My coupe got a Top 25 pick back in '83. If you want to be judged for awards at the nationals, you have to park in a certain area. They don't walk around the whole place looking for cars. There were a lot of guys with red 32-34 Fords who were pissed that a purple Chevy got a pick.
I usually drive 10-30 miles for each show I go to. I know Im not going to win any judged awards since my car isn't shiny and pretty. The only one Ive got was from the hill climb competition where I blew the doors off some "nicely restored" Model As with my jalopy.
One of the best car shows I go to every year is local show about 20mins from my house in Tunica,MS. They usually have about 1,000 cars but the best part is they do not give away one single trophy! They give away money instead, no not by picking the nicest cars. They just start pulling car numbers out of a bucket. They give away a total of $10,000. Much more fun than some stupid trophy!
I drove from Caloundra Queensland to Perth via Melbourne once, that was a 5 day drive 10-15hrs a day one way. Cant remember how many miles it was, me and two mates went there on a stand down period from our unit. We couldn't think of anything better to do so we went for the hell of it. It was a street machine run too, so no one took much notice of a grotty 38 Coupe parked among all the shiny newer cars. I wouldn't have a clue if there was a prize for longest distance and don't know if anyone drove further to get there? Edit: According to Sydney.com, that's Brisbane-Melb 1669mls, Melb-Perth 3430mls (5099mls one way, 10,198mls return). Doc.
My wife and I drove our A roadster to an NSRA event 2500 miles away, over 20 years ago. It is all about the drive. Met lots of good people along the way. Other wise, it's 80 to 300 miles for local stuff.
Back in 2008, the wife and I drove our 62 Vette from Burbank to a show at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, KY. We lost lost out the long distance award to someone in a brand new Vette from Santa Monica. I wasn't even aware of a long distance award until someone came up to me and told me the other guy was throwin up static when the show tried to award the trophy to us, because Santa Monica was further West than Burbank. The wife and I were actually at Beechbend Racepark during the awards ceremony knocking off 12 sec 1/4mile passes on the car's original, but rebuilt 327. No BFD, I'm a just a driver, not an enthusiast.
People's Choice is the only one that really means anything. Many times the cars that win aren't the nicest or highest dollar cars, but the cars that evoke fond memories for people when they see something they may not have seen in years.
I'm not gonna lie, I've never even bothered to stay to hear who wins a trophy, and I've certainly never looked it up later. Until I saw this thread I didn't even realize that I was missing out on all the drama surround $13 dollars worth of gold colored plastic. These days they give every kid who plays tball a trophy, what could it possibly matter? Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Drove my old flat 6 '51 Plymouth from Charlotte NC to Viva LAS Vegas, 2500 miles or so with documentation. They had a longest distance award so I figured I would tell them. Standing next to me was a guy from NY. He said he drove but the car he brought by no means would have made it and it was trailered. I kind of thought it was bullshit. My trophy was driving to and from Vegas with no problems and the journey. BloodyKnuckles
I figured out a long time ago from going to shows the local AACA chapter puts on no one wins unless you're "in the club". The president always wins best of show and then his buddies always get trophies for best in their respective class. Hell I've seen a guy win an award for best motorcycle and he didn't even have a bike... Don't worry about it, it's just a popularity contest. They can keep the trophies I'd rather hang up pictures of the stuff I did and the places I went. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
If I enter a car show, it is to support the cause the show is supporting. If i win a trophy, they didn't have enough cars entered in the show. I've won a few dust collectors over the years, the shows didn't have enough cars. I did win a long distance award one time (120 miles to the show), that was pretty cool. One car club I used to belong to had a miles per year award, to qualify, you had to drive your car at least 10,000 mile in a year. Every year, there were 3-4 cars that qualified. One year I won that award with 13,267 miles logged on my 35 Dodge. That one I was proud of. Gene
My Dad and I put on a Hot Rod Show & Nostalgia drag race at our local dragstrip every year. We had a couple of guys come to us a couple of years ago and tell us if we didn't start having classes and trophies they were not coming back.........we haven't missed them. We have it in big bold print on our show flyers, NO JUDGING.NO TROPHIES. NO POLITICS.
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