Thoughts on trophys

[Kctom]

Went to a local car show this week end. A real nice one with rides for kids and a hour long fire works disply. The show was not only for streetrods but anything they could drive in and show. Was around 100 or so cars. They gave away 5 awards chosen by the people who entered cars by voting for the top five. I was parked next to a young man who restored a 1977 chevy 4 wheel drive truck. The kid did a outstanding job. Best one I have ever seen. He had my top vote. Well the awards were given out and my car or his truck were not amoung the top five. The fireworks were starting and the field lights were turned off. My wife pointed out that there were 2 people over by my car waving their arms. They pointed at me and wanted to know if this was my car. When i answered yes they came over to talk to me. Was told there was a mistake in the awards and I was in the top 5. They wanted my name and adress so they could send me a trophy next week being all had been given away. I asked if I could have mine awarded to the kid with the truck next to me. They said no the people had voted mine in the top 5. But because of the error the top 6.  I know the award would have ment more to him than it ment to me.
I have never been much of a guy who sews patches on his jacket or collect awards. Kinda a No Club-Lone Wolf kinda guy. But the 38 has changed my thoughts on awards. Would rather have the 10 bucks the thropy cost in my pocket, rather than the award. But the 38 seems to attract them. Have shown the car 5 times and 5 tmes a winner. The kid next to my car was more exited mine won than I was. Next time he shows his truck I really hope they award his efforts by giving him one.

[58 Yeoman]

I've got a box full in the attic. After getting a few, it lost the fun of it. Now, when I go to a show, if I enter my car, I put a sign in the window for display only.  Sometimes, I leave early, anyway.

[Bob Paulin]

I know at least two accomplished oval-track racers who do not have a single trophy to show for their accomplishments over the years.

Usually, they will hold the trophy long enough for the victory lane photograph, then grab the nearest kid and hand the trophy to them.

There's a lot of that going on. It's just that most guys are a bit modest about it all.

Maybe street rodders who have become tired of dusting their trophies could give them out to kids for "Best Appearing Bicycle in the Neighborhood", of "Best Garage Helper",etc.

On more than one occasion, I have seen the light in the eyes of a kid who is carrying a trophy almost as big as they are......It is priceless!....

....and, I can instantly understand why these guys give their trophies away.

Bob Paulin

[tom36]

"Would rather have the 10 bucks the thropy cost in my pocket, rather than the award. "
Me too!  That's why my favorite event is the Right Coast event at Syracuse NY.  No Trophies, just give aways based on your ticket # and the giveaway car is done on Saturday afternoon --not last thing Sunday like "the others".  Sure, you still have your posers and power parkers, but the show is about cars and fun--not trophies.  Tom..

[Crosley.In.AZ]

back in the mid 1980's my wife and I built cars in hopes of trophys and magazine  coverage. We did most of the work ourselves , power detailing everything on the cars.  

We achieved the magazine coverage, a couple of mag covers , several articles inside various mags, many trophys.

The past 10-12 years........ I don't care if my cars are even clean or finished.

[Mikej]

I hope I never win one of those really big trophy as they won't fit in the car. Plaques would be better. You can stack them.  When we first got the car it was nice but now I don't care. I have to much road rash to win anyway. The car shows are just an excuse to drive the car anyway.

[phat46]

The trophies don't mean much to me anymore either, not that i win too many. When I first had my '46 on the road it was a thrill to win a trophy. That changed when I won first in my class and the second place guy bit@hed up a storm that he shoulda won first. He did get first the next time we showed together, big deal. Then i heard a couple car "clubs" arguing loudly at the awards ceremony about who shoulda won the most trophies. The whole trophy thing lost it's charm for me. I usually drive around the "judging lanes" if that's how they judge the cars, and i never go to the announcers stand anymore for the trophies. A couple years ago at a bigger local show I left early to beat the crowds leaving; my brother stayed and wanted my window card in case i won anything. I laughed and told him there was no way i was gonna win anything at this show, but he wanted the card. About an hour after i had gotten home my brother pulled up in front of my house with his heavily chopped '34 pickup. as I came out the door he was leaning back into the truck and pulling out a 5' trophy! "hey thats great" I yelled across the street, "you got one of those big ones" He laughed and said "this is yours". LOL, that was funny, he could barely get the thing in his truck and had to drag it to my place. That's what he gets for wanting my window card. It's laying sideways on a shelf in the shop now.  
I like the idea of giving away the trophies to kids, maybe I should take a couple to each show/cruise i go to and give them to the kids I let sit in my car. Might be just the thing to get a future rodder enthused to build his own someday.

[chopped]

Know I have a car that will never win one, then a couple weeks ago I get "Long Distance" at a show in Alabama. That one I like.

[58 Yeoman]

Remembered something else that turned me off to trophies at participant voting shows.  The car clubs vote for each other, whether their cars are good or not.  I don't belong to any clubs, but I've had a couple of the locals come to me and say that they'll vote for me if I vote for them. I like it better when someone comes up to you and asked about what you did to the car, or the history of it.

[40 Chev Coupe]

I got to agree with 58 Yeoman, most of the shows are for the club members that vote for each other.  
It's not about trophies but the people you meet and the info and ideas  you get and give.
Trophies are for dusting, the friends and people you meet are what it is about.

:b-d:
:b-d:

[Pope Downunder]

I guess there are trophies, and there are TROPHIES.  The only distinction is whether you value them.  I have a couple for my old Coupe that fall into the latter category that I kept, the rest got binned.  

In the former category: I debuted the '32 Pickup at the regional nationals in QLD in 2000,  two weeks after completion.  Sharon, myself and our then 3yo daughter hooked up the camper and drove the 1600k round trip.  The harmonic balancer came adrift and I spent the Sunday at a mates place pulling the front sheet metal, and drilling the forged crank nose for a retaining bolt (tough job in the car Don D!), and changing the balancer and seal etc.  Apart from the hassle, I enjoyed the time with my friend, and it is a valued memory.

Anyway, when I got back to the showground, my wife said I 'won' a trophy.  I thought it might have been 'hard-luck', but no, it was marked 'Wildcard'.  It seemed to have no bearing on the car at all; never did figure out what is was for; seemed a totally pointless exercise to me.

I notice in the area where I live a lot of the local events seem to be going for lucky entrants draw prizes etc., and getting away from traditional trophies.  I think this is a good idea for smaller events.

[Bib_Overalls]

I have showed my roadster a half dozen times.  At a couple of shows I did well.  Even won my class once.  But at others I have "tied" for third with all but two of the cars in my class.  At one show they closed the awards cermony by saying "If you didn't get a trophy come up and get one."  From now on I am going to pass on judging.

Today one of the local clubs had a cook out in the park and invited all of the area's rodders.  On the way out I stopped for gas.  As I was pumping a van stopped and a mother and her three boys got out.  She stopped because the kids wanted a closer look.  The oldest was about 15 and the others were not much behind.  They asked good questions and took pictures of each other sitting behind the wheel.  When they left they thanked me and shook my hand.  The memory of that means more to me than any trophy I could possibly win.

[OzRod]

The car shows are just an excuse to drive the car anyway.

CORRECT. I go to a show because I just plain enjoy driving the car. I gues I am proud of my own work. I know it's not award worthy but I don't care. It's all about cruising there, meeting people, asking questions, answering questions, checking out the rides, getting ideas and the whole * atmosphere!..... not about trophies and recognition.

[btrc]

I agree that the car shows are just an excuse to drive the car and to meet and talk to people with the same interest.  Now that I have had my car in a couple of shows and did OK I would rather just participate without the bother or expectations/dissappointments of trying to win a trophy.

My favorite car show story is when I went to a car show being held at a Chevy dealer about 70 miles from home.  It was being held by a car club from that town and since I was president of our club that year I thought it was only fair for me to go to theirs since that some of them would come over to ours.  I had no interest in actually competeing so I entered in the Corvette class with my Cobra.  The classification guy said I had no way to win that class because it wasn't a Corvette and I told him that was fine with me.  Well when they presented the trophies they called my name for Best Corvette.  And the best part was that the trophy  was presented to me by the Chevy dealer himself.  I felt kind of bad for the 4 corvette owners who were inthe class too but that trophy is the only one I really have on display in my home office.  The next year I noticed they changed the class to "Sports Car".

[rumrumm]

I donated a lot of my trophies to the Special Olympics and some others to the local trophy business so they could recycle them for donated trophies. I would much rather win a free dinner to a nice restaurant or a gift certificate to a NAPA store or some other such place. To me, trophies are meaningless and a waste of money.