P 14 How to Judge

P14 How to Judge                                                                                                     Revised

How to Judge a Show N Shine

Excerpts from Pat Mackie

Surprise, tomorrow you are going to judge a show’n’shine.  What will you do now?  Whatever you do, don’t panic.  Calm yourself, there’s no need to run for the hills.  You’ve seen enough judging; you’ve seen many show vans …it’ll be easy. Right? Wrong?

            Sure, you know all the trick stuff but how do you score it?  How do you tell whether flairs should get more points than spoilers?  How many extra points do you give for molded-in stuff against bolted-on?  And how do you keep track of it all?

            Now, let’s tell you, if you care about judging show vans, if it matters to you, and you get the job…allow yourself twice as much time as you think you’re going to need.  To do it properly, you’ll need between 10-15 minutes per van.

            The easy judging is awarding points for accessories such as flairs, spoilers, sun scoops, and so on.  You can immediately see whether or not a good job has been done on installing this stuff.  Where it becomes difficult is awarding points for subjective things as the way the interior is designed and finished.  You must allow enough time for the effect to sink in and to really notice the trick details, even judging the paint is not as difficult as this.

            The danger is that you’ll give the first vans you look at too many pints.  Some guys got a nice interior, well finished and a lot of detail.  You try to figure how much time he spent on it.  You’re impressed so he scores high.  Six vans later come an out of sight interior.  Then what do you do?  You can’t give any more than top points and you start worrying about whether that other van was really worth what you gave it.

            If that happens, don’t hesitate to go back and take another look.  In other words, judge one van against the other.  Better still, take a quick run through the line-up before you start judging to get a feel for the standards you should be using.

            All the above is related to picking the best in class, in other words, standard judging.  There should be a separate score sheet for selecting the “best in show” and for the other categories, such as “best mural,” “best exterior,” “best interior,” and so on.

            Obviously, this “best” judging will be between the vans that have scored high in the class judging, probably just the top of the classes.  Here’s where the really difficult decision comes in.  Probably, one van will be a standout… Do you give all the “best” to this van or do you try to spread them around a little?  Assuming that this standout van is going to get the “best-in-show” award, it was our inclination to try to award some of the other “bests” to other excellent vans.  We tried to make the other vans earn their awards and, as it turned out, we were able to stay reasonably honest in doing this.  Maybe you’ll be just as lucky.

The following is a list of vehicles that are or are not accepted at the Nat’s

Panel Truck                                                                     yes          Olds Silhouette                                                      Yes

Windowed panel (pre 73)                                                yes          Pontiac Trans Spots, Montana                              Yes

Swat truck/bread truck or step van                                  yes          Buick Terrazza                                                      Yes

Explorer motor home (dodge)                                         yes          Isuzu Oasis                                                            Yes

Ambulance/Van (not Cube)                                                         yes            Ford Transit (all), Windstar, Freestar Aerostar               Yes

VW                                                                                   yes          Sprinter (all)                                                          Yes

MPV                                                                                 yes          Mercury Villager, Monterey                                  yes

Nissan Quest                                                                    yes          Vantage Van-go                                                      yes

Dodge, Tradesman, Sportsman, Safari,                            yes          Chevy Van, Lumina, Venture, Savanna,                yes

Dodge, Caravan (all), Voyager ,Pacifica                          yes          Chevy Express, Astro ,Beauville                           yes

Hand Built box/mutant Vans chassis                                yes          Gypsy                                                                     yes

HHR Panel                                                                        yes          GMC Van                                                              yes

Toyota Sienna, Hi Ave                                                      yes          Rally                                                                      yes

Honda Odyssey                                                                 yes          Nomad (not the car)                                              yes

Econoline                                                                          yes          Chang An Tiger Truck                                           yes

Hearse/Sedan Delivery                                                     no

Van up                                                                               no

Cube Van (ambulance                                                       no

Class “C”                                                                          no

Transvan                                                                           no

PT Cruiser                                                                        no