Concours Judging at SAAC-37
The Concours at the SAAC National Convention is a major part of the event. Each year, a maximum of six cars in each class are entered for some pretty high-level scrutiny and judging.
The SAAC Concours Award is a valued achievment for any car.
This year, Jeff (1985 CCX) and I had the pleasure of judging three Cobras, one big-block and two small blocks.
The judging process requires the team to review all aspects of the car for authenticity, accuracy, appearance and fit/finish.
Each car takes several hours to judge and requires about a dozen pages of detailed scoring. The process starts with a perfect score and then deductions are made based on standards; items can contribute as little as a quarter of a point deduction, increasing with severity of the items judged.
This is not your typical car show. Concours, by this definition, benchmarks the car to be as close as possible to the way the car appeared on the showroom floor when new, or as delivered from the dealer to the first owner.
There are two Classes: Division I and Division II.
Division I requires complete originality and does not permit repro parts; Division II has the same standards, but does permit repro parts or modern equivalents.
Awards are given based on final score...from Bronze, Silver, Gold and, at the top, Premier.
Let's take a look at the three cars in the competition.
First, the 427... CSX3165
A beautiful example of early 427 street cars, this one had some "Comp" additions added to it over the years, which impacted it's scoring rather heavily. FIA wheels, roll bar and various comp mechanics detracted from originality, but nevertheless, the car made a nice appearance in Division II, achieving a Bronze Award.
