2nd place at peachstate concours-stupid mistakes!

I'm very pleased with myself-but lost alot of points on trivial stupid mistakes on my part-I forgot to clean the stinkin' door latch on the passenger side! I want you all to know what great fun it is showing your car. Yeah it was plenty of work and then some, but my car is better than before-I repaired things I would normally leave alone, got my a/c blowing ice cold (I thought they might check for function of all systems but did not), and it is now worth more! It is really a no-lose situation-even if you don't place your car is prettier, cleaner, and worth more when you are done. I recommend that you all give it a shot----Oh! BTW- First place went to a car that is used for auto-cross and was lacking a few original parts like wheels, steering wheel, exhuast and muffler w/ headers, five point harness, ect. So you racers out there need to get your cars to the shows! This winner was mint condition clean-I was inspired to say the least. I will post pics. as soon as I get them developed!

R22tech:

Congrats on your finish. I'm thinking of entering my car in our areas next concours and would appreciate any tips and advice.

Also, what class were you competing in?

Thanks.


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1988 black on black Coupe
www.cheaterswayside.com/911/gallery.asp?sort=0&userid=339

r22:

congratulations! sounds like your car was obviously competitive! i tried to make it there today, but it was raining like crazy at my house in gwinnett county, and i didn't want to make the approx. 1 hour trip only to find that it might have been cancelled, or something.

before i sold my sold my bmw 3.0cs last year, i entered it in a few regional concours events... i thought my car couldn't get any more 'mint', until i saw the first place winners. i placed 2nd, 3rd, and also received a people's choice award at one show. showing your car is great fun, and you meet a lot of great people doing it! hope to run into you at some point at a peachstate event-

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Adam Nitti
ajnitti@mindspring.com
www.adamnitti.com
'85 911 Carrera Coupe
PCA member, Peachstate region

Congrats. I should have stopped by. It was pretty close to my house. How big was the turn-out? What year cars were there?

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Greg
72 911S

I wish you guys would of showed! Yes , it was raining on my way there and up to about 5 minutes before the judging started so it took all my time wiping down the exterior before the judging started. I probably would have done better scoring if I had time to catch some of my misses, buy still would have placed 2nd IMO. I am in division 2 class C which is 78-89 911. Mine is a 1985 Targa-it is in the gallary as a "before" picture. I will post a "after" picture ASAP. As far as tips go- I got burned on dirty door handles(the inside of the exterior door handles were missed). They lift the caps off the windshield wipers were they attach to the car and check for dirt-missed that. I cleaned up my fan real good but it really needs to be removed to clean it and the inner fan shroud to be competetive. If you have any surface rust on your seat rails you MUST paint them-missed that. I got railed in the luggage compartment-they found dirt and sand and grease. I cleaned out 3 times! My spare doesn't look good either so I would paint it next time. The key is figuring out which is worse: Non- original but mint appearance and clean, or, original and clean but not mint. I went with the latter and it hurt me. If the same exact cars were in the national concours, I would have won because mine is all original minus the radio and the winners' was not. He would have been in a different class I would presume.

I didn't think the size of the turn-out was that impressive-17-20 cars, but the quality of these cars was great to excellent. I'm sure only the one's that thought they could win showed because of the weather.

There was a perfect restored 72911e
a 74 carrera called "carrot" because of the orange paint
an 89 factory slant nose 930-perfect
some boxters
some SCs
some 944s
carreras
993s
c4s
turbos(993)

no 964
no 930 ( minus the slant)
no 914
no 924
no 928
no RS anything
no speedsters
no 75-77 911
what else?
OH! we were right by Dobbins Air Force base and the jet fighters were thundering by all day! F-16s, Stealth bombers, and that one that the wings move in and out-AWESOME!!! They stole the show!

Anyway, experience counts. I will do much better next time; I have alot of room for improvement and it will be easy now that all the hard stuff is done.

[This message has been edited by R22tech (edited 05-20-2001).]

R22, Congrats on your finish. Your car looked great and you did a heck of alot better than most first timers do in an extremely competitive class (BTW, the guy that beat you is a past club president who has been concouring for a long time with a very nice car-experience does count!). You will find that now that your car is basically clean, you can narrow your focus and work specific areas to perfection. Also you will find that it is fairly easy to keep your car to concour specs.
For those interested, we had 17 cars in the field despite some fairly iffy weather. The next concour is at Rennfest over Labor day weekend-See ya there.

Ray- am I correct that Bill's car would be in a different class at Rennfest? If not, will originality count at Rennfest? Like you said at concours school, a polished fan and painted fan shroud is not how the factory delivered it and discoloration is expected. However, the engine judge made a suggestion for me to remove the fan, polish it, apply clear coat, and paint the shroud. I am trying to figure out if this would count against me in the "presrvation" class.

Can someone tell me if in concours competition, you are judged in such things as having a complete toolkit, having the air compressor, etc. Also, should you remove floormats, glovebox items, itc.

Thanks

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1988 black on black Coupe
www.cheaterswayside.com/911/gallery.asp?sort=0&userid=339

R22...how could the auto-x guy with all the racer do-dads on his car beat your mostly original one? Sounds like the classes are a bit loose.
Anyway, congrats on your placing (*you* know who the *real* winner was ).

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Doug
'81 SC Coupe (aka: "Blue Bomber")
Canada West Region PCA
members.home.net/zielke/911SC.htm

answers to questions-
Yes, they judge the tool kit, must be complete and clean
Yes, most people remove the floor mats unless they have "perfect originals"
Yes, the glove box is to be emptied and the trunk should have a clean, complete tool kit, an original air pump, a clean original jack, and a clean original spare.

To answer all questions in general- any place you can stick a finger must be totally free of dirt, grease, lint, dust, anything! Like I said in my previous response-I cleaned out my trunk 3 times, the first one was with mineral spirits to loosen up the nastage under the carpet! My score sheet shows that they found dirt, sand, lint, grease, and rust in the trunk-I scored a 78 out of a possible 100 in this area as a result. However, they commented on how immaculate my fuse box was!

The thing is, it sounds rediculous but the same standards apply to everyone so you just have to hope your car is not as dirty as your competition. The person above called "RAY B" is our concours chairman so he can answer any other ?s you all might have.

As far as the winners car goes, I think on a regional level originality doesn't count-
and also, you could serve a filet and lobster dinner on his engine where as mine is more like hamburger and hot dogs! He deserved the win-no question. Next time will be a different story....................................see ya.

R22,
All 78 to 89 911s are in your class-very competitive.
As you mentioned on a previous post, originality takes a second place to cleanliness on a club level. You could imagine the can of worms it would open if we tried to determine what is or isn't original on every year of every model. On a national or perhaps even regional level, there are differing classes for preservation, restoration, etc., but locally we try to keep it simple yet competitive.
As far as polishing the fan goes-I heard both pro and con on this forum, but it is a lot of work. I really don't think you're going to go wrong keeping a car as nice as yours as original as posible. So break out the mineral spirits an clean the hell out of it. Good luck.