At a recent PCA car celebration and (alleged) concours, the awards were based on participant voting. I imagined that to consist of presentation, cleanliness, and popularity. I had no expectations of recognition, although I did spend the better part of two days preparing the car.
The somewhat irritating aspect of the event was the resultant awards presented.
The bad: in a field consisting of a least a dozen 356s, including a couple of normal 356 Bs, the "judges" conferred the "slowest car award" to a 1976 914 2.0 . I'm not that familier with 356 performance figures but I'd be hard pressed to believe a 1958 356 B Normal coupe would be faster than a 2.0 914 of any vintage.
The good: that aforementioned 1976 914 DID win a very deserved award in the standard "concours" judging. It was all OEM as far as I could tell and was a past PCA Parade Preservation class overall winner
The real annoyance, however, was the two awards given to a (remember this is a PORSCHE Club event) a car (keep in mind the 914-not-a-real-Porsche controversy) that was a Beck 550 spyder with a VW engine. Granted, it was well done, and I am sure fun to drive in the right venue, but, just what qualifies it as a Porsche?
I suppose with the relatively "mass market" approach that corporate Porsche is pursuing of late, I shouldn't be surprised at the general casual approach that car show organizers need to take to attract uninformed and mildly interested participants.
Paul