In my previous two blogs I’ve shared by thoughts about the events leading up to a concours. Now we can turn to the event itself.

First, I think concours can open for cars to arrive as early as feasible, but should ask for the last cars to enter the field by 8:30 a.m. For the Forest Grove Concours, that means leaving downtown Portland by a reasonable 7:30 a.m. (You did remember to fill you tank last night, didn’t you?)

One very thoughtful comment suggested having as many entry points to a concours as possible, to try to eliminate the long line of cars waiting to get in. Further, any vendors should be expected to put up their booths on Saturday, if at all possible, to avoid having them competing with show cars for load-in space.

There’s been a lot written about judging, so I won’t go into too many details, but I do have some opinions about how the judges should conduct themselves. The head judge of a class should introduce his team of judges to the owner of each car and thank the owner for bringing it.

There should be a standard set of questions asked of each entrant, such as: How long have you had the car? Who restored it? What have you done with it? Judges should not use this Q&A as an opportunity to show off their knowledge of a car but rather let the entrant do all the talking.

Further, when finished, judges should be sure to step far enough away from the car that the entrant cannot hear them while they discuss the car. Finally, when the judges have made their class decisions, they should go as a group and walk past the entire class to see how they think the scoring holds up. It is no secret that as a judge your eyes change from the time you look at the first car in a class to looking at the last one.

I have one final though on the explosive arena of judging and how it is dealt with and it is that I believe there should be a “King Judge” with absolute authority to make final decisions. Yes, even overriding other judging groups. Sometimes things like relationships, sponsorships and politics need to be considered.

Next week, we’ll discuss how the show unfolds from the morning to the close of the event.

Have you ever been a judge or had your car judged? What did you think of the process? I look forward to your comments below.

All photos are from the Hilton Head Concours, in Hilton Head, SC.

Read my previous blog posts here.

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