Winning a Plaque at a Local Show

Here is the plaque we won on Sunday, July 8, at a judged local car cruise

This is an annual car show, held on the main street of a big town, and it's always well attended. 

It is also a 'judged' show, and I sometimes don't enter because there is a lot of competition and the chances of winning are slight.  (There is sometimes a general 'muscle car' category covering a wide range of years. which makes it difficult to win. )

Interestingly, one of the reasons my GTO gets points taken off in judged shows is that when it was new, I had extra undercoating put under the hood of the car and in areas of the engine compartment.  I feel that the GTO has  survived so well for 40-plus years because of the undercoating, but the purists think it takes away from the 'showroom quality' of the car.

My displays of the drive-in speakers and the food tray always get attention and it 's fun to see grandparents explaining to their grandchildren what these items were for, back in the 'old days'. 

We attended the show with cousin Mark (and his 1974 Bricklin).   We had oldies music playing through the speakers, which was also appreciated by the visitors.  Mark, of course, deserves all the credit for making the speakers so spectacular a display. 

Mark's Bricklin usually does won a plaque, and even though he attended the awards ceremony, he didn't hear that my car won anything.  So it was a big surprise while we were packing up to leave that someone came looking for us to tell us we had won a plaque!  It took a few minutes for us to track down the 'keeper of the plaques', but he indeed have one for my GTO. 

Unfortunately, because of the confusion of all the cars leaving and the volunteers being in the middle of packing everything up, we still don't know  why we won one!   There was only one other GTO (a white '68) and it was perfectly restored (and did win).    I feel that my GTO should win for being a 'survivor' and being 99% original, and some judged shows are starting to include a 'survivor' category.     

In any case, it was a great end to a fun day.