For those who are not familiar with Concours Judging this is how it basically works -
A total of 1,000 points can be awarded when a car is judged. Points are allocated in 6 basic categories. If a car achieves a total of 700-799 points it is awarded Bronze, 800-899 achieves Silver, 900-1,000 achieves the much covetted Gold award.
Each judging category consists of different sections of the car with points awarded 50/50 for condition and originality.
The last 2 years our Red and Blue Mach 1`s have achieved Silver awards which we are absolutely thrilled with.
To explain better, the Blue Mach 1 this year was awarded a total of 824 points out of 1,000, which leaves us 76 points short of Gold. Do we try for Gold next year? Maybe. The Blue Mach 1 is being put up for sale by Jeremy. If he is offered 65k for the car, then that would be up to the new owner. In the meantime we will begin to further improve the car with that covetted Gold firmly in our sights.
Here are the points that were awarded in each category.
Body and Paint - 170 points available - achieved 164... Very happy with that!
Body Originality - 100points available - achieved 100 ... Going well.
Engine/Engine Bay - 265 points available - achieved 214....Not as good - wrong carby cost dearly.
Interior - 195 points available - achieved 179....Meh, that is ok. Bit of tidying up around dash required.
Underbody - 170 points available - achieved 95... ouch! Thought that was the strong point of the car. Bugger!
Boot/Wheels & Tyres - 100 points available - achieved 72... Need to put a set of original 14"twelve slotters on the car - not15" Magnum 500s!
So i think we can quite easily pick up those 76 points with a bit of attention to detail. Underbody faults included things like wrong shockers, incorrect springs, wrong paint colour on suspension components and fuel tank, dirty in parts ( hard to clean it properly after driving 2,000 klms ), wrong clamps etc. We paint clear over the suspension parts after painting them which is a no, no for concours cars.
We do not want to have trailer queens that we are too scared to drive, but i believe with careful use and all correct components being fitted over the next few months, we can hopefully go close next year.
It was said that the judging was quite strict this year. No problem with that, in fact there is nothing on the judging sheets that we can disagree with. We just need to lift our game a bit if we are to try and win those Gold awards. Time to hit that Concours Forum and learn some more about it.
Rocket.