go for gold??

[David C.]

My question is--If I have a 97 point regional top flighted car, how do you think it would do if I took it to have it judged for Bloomington Gold? Are the standards the same for NCRS as it is for Gold?

[Tom H.]

Re: go for gold??

I would think a regional flight winner would breeze through gold judging.

[Jody B.]

Re: go for gold??

As long as the Bloomington judges give the pad stamp a "pass" the above statement is probably true. If the engine pad stamp doesn't fly the highest award you can receive is a Silver Certificate.

JB

[Edward S.]

Re: go for gold??

Once you have earned a top flight you will find that Bloomington or Vettefest awards should be well within your reach. At Bloomington judges have to sign in and out on your sheets, the longest time a judge spent on my car was 23 minutes. At a NCRS meet judges spend more time then that just looking at my factory sidepipes.

[Jack H.]

Re: go for gold??

My experience (rule of thumb) is to subtract 1% from your NCRS score to obtain a reasonable guesstimate of how your car should fare at Bloomington. Why?

Well, it's NOT because Bloomington judges are 'tougher' or 'better' than NCRS (about 50% of those who judge at NCCB are NCRS judges). It's because (1) you tend to get consistently knowledgeable judges at Bloomington (hand picked and paid) vs. the variance in the judges knowledge we see at NCRS meets other than our National, and (2) the judging target is slightly different.

The second area is one that trips up folks with NCRS experience. NCRS expects cars to appear in the condition they were originally built by Chevrolet and delivered to the original owner with then current dealer prep sans any dealer/owner inspired additions/deletions.

The Bloomington standard is how the car originally left the factory. They 'tolerate' some level of dealer prep to allow cars to be shown in the condition they'd have been on the showroom floor (washed/waxed, wheel covers installed, Etc.) but that's a little different than NCRS objectives.

Specifically, Bloomington will be looking for the window sticker to be in place AS FACTORY ORIGINAL (meaning no double sided scotch tape and/or plastic covering the sticker). They'll look for key envelopes, wire key rings, coded punch outs to be IN the keys, Etc.

Some of these items were routinely removed/changed during dealer prep and aren't demanded at NCRS while they're expected at NCCB. So, it takes a slightly different mind set to properly prep your car for Bloomington versus NCRS and many NCRS folks simply take 'baby' to Bloomington in the configuration it was judged at NCRS causing them to lose a few points here/there....