Car show people - need some input
 

I just got a car show thrown in my lap. It's a benefit show for our local rescue squad, and I'm i charge of pretty much the entire thing.

I haven't gone to that many "open" type car shows, just specific make/model ones, and need some input for awards. We're going to keep it priced $10/car for registration, $5/spectator, probably give away dash plaques to first 100 cars, and awards for various things.

Now, what kind of awards do you think I should do? I was poking around the internets and saw some do as simple as "Best of Show" "People's Choice" "Sponsor's Choice" "Hard Luck Award" and "Farthest Traveled" what about Best Ford, Chevy, etc? I need an idea what other shows typically do.. Gotta try to keep this affordable for the squad putting it on as well.

When is it? Got pre-determined budget? Is this the 1st year for it?

September 6th, no actual budget yet. They're generally not overly concerned with money and do pay me fairly when I do stuff for them. I found another list from a show that i like and have edited it down some.. what do you think of

W/RU in

Antique (say 1900-1959?)
Classic (1960-1981ish)
Late Model (wherever classic leaves of - present)
Custom
Import
Muscle Car (maybe muscle car and classic over lap?)
All-Original
Specialty/Emergency
Street Machine (yes/no?)
Street Rod
Unfinished
Truck
Motorcycle

then
Best Display
Best Paint & Interior

or maybe take out last one and make it Best of Show?

Well, the easy thing would be to do like Cops-N-rodders. Get the sponsors to decide who gets them! This way you don't need to worry about setting up judging yourself or how to tally points. And any car has a chance to win. Look at how much time it takes Justin to compile the votes for the Nats. Imagine what it takes to do 200-300 cars!

This way you don't need any type of designated class for the trophy (nothing goes to waste), all the trophies would be generic: just have the event name, “class winner” and the date.

I’ve seen awards like:

"Mostly likely to get pulled over"
"Best project/potential"
"Most unrecognizable"
"Best display" <- I hate those dolls people have leaning against their cars!
"Rat rod" <- I hate them too.
Best of years (50s,60s,70s)


Another thing you might want is to do, we talked it for the Nats once for best of show: do voting based on something like .25 a vote. Each car gets a bucket and spectators could vote on the car they wanted by dropping a quarter into the buck. Easy to count and the money goes to a local charity.

Thats a good idea, but i'm not sure how many sponsors ill be able to get in a month. I'm gonna see if I can go to local business and have them donate $20-$25 to an award, that way the squad doesnt have to pay for them.. I'll run the generic awards by them, though i'm not sure if people would think thats tacky or not? what do you think? Would you rather have something that says "Best xxxxx" or just "class winner"? would it matter?

If you know the classes, the $$ is the same for either engraving. I'd rather have best xyz then generic best of class. They look better on my kids shevles. lol

True, but being this is the first year it's going to be hard to gauge what cars are going to show. Could also just get the plaques made having some for best X and some Generic this way you could just stick them on the trophies before you hand them out?

Been a while, but I think what they did at C~n~R was offered 3 size trophy, $45, $75 and $150. The two bigger had the sponsor's name on them on them, and I think they got to put advertisements in the goodie bags (So that's a good way to get sponsors to put up some cash.) :wink:

You could just have them all say "1st annual rescue squad show" or "2008 rescue squad show", then either make up classes then or not even have classes. Just have squad members pick them, of kids or something.

Or have people pay $2 for a ballot and give out awards to the 1st 20 winners, with large1-2-3 awards. Tell them to vote early & often!

Melissa your second list looks good for a first time show that you don't know what the turnout will be.

If you want to get specific you can do things like Best Corvette, Best Mustang, Best Camaro, then as generic as Best 50's, Best 60's, Best 70's, Best 80 and Up. You should have enough of each of those cars to fill a class. And I guess add an import class too. Allowing spectators to vote is the best option to get them involved and keep the squad from picking people's cars they know.

I find that "keep in simple" works the best. Offer the car owners some sort of discount on food and beverage with the registration fee. Email me the info and I pass it along to the Wanderers Club in Sussex County (Chatterbox Club) Also get flier to Doc South
the dj @ most car shows and he'll plug your event for free. I'm going to the chatterbox tonight so I can give one to him if you want.

I've actually been in contact with doc south, im trying to get him to be the dj at the event, hopefully he'll be free.