What are the odds of winning Top Flight

[Harvie C.]

I'm restoring a 65 Nassau Blue Corvette roadster. It is a matching numbers car. The paint is base coat clean coat, with aluminized exhaust, s/s brake and fuel lines, and wrong wheels. What are the changes of being able to win Top Flight with these differences?
Harvie Childers

[Roy B.]

Re: What are the odds of winning Top Flight

I'm restoring a 65 Nassau Blue Corvette roadster. It is a matching numbers car. The paint is base coat clean coat, with aluminized exhaust, s/s brake and fuel lines, and wrong wheels. What are the changes of being able to win Top Flight with these differences?
Harvie Childers

What were my chances on my 55 corvette.
1 Base coat clear coat
2 wire wheels
3 bubble top
4 to may accessories to mention
5 radio tires
6 trailer hitch
At 05 chapter meet=second flight and Ladies choice
At 05 national meet = top flight
If the rest of your Corvette is 100% correct and you drive to the meets you can too! Or may be the judges felt sorry for me.
NCRS has great people , helpful, understanding, many good judges and their not trying to tick people off , the JM needs help on C1's but mostly fair .

[Peter G.]

Re: What are the odds of winning Top Flight

Harvie......

From what I have experienced, a older Corvette with a paint job of a base coat/clear coat is going to have a uphill battle with getting the paint to pass. It is too nice! I am familiar with C3 cars and a excellent paint job is not what the factory did at St. Louis. There are ways that you can TRY to make the paint job appear factory, but in my opinion paint is a area which is dealth with much prudence and deliberation. Judges are different and have different feelings about paint?

Other areas are more black and white. Exhaust and brake lines are either SS or steel. It either sticks to the magnet or it doesn't.

Having your car judged by NCRS is still a great way to find out what kind of car you have. It's also is very affordable at $40-$50 for Chapter or Regional events.

Good luck.

[Rick S.]

Re: What are the odds of winning Top Flight

I have BC/CC and had the car wheeled before judging and got Top Flight.

Rick

[Harmon C.]

Re: What are the odds of winning Top Flight

I have not seen your car but if it drives good and you drive 600 miles to a chapter meet your chances of getting a Top Fight go way up. The 600 miles could gain you 6 X45 or 270 extra points which would offset some of what you listed that is wrong. Get the opp's 100% and your off to a good start with 540 points to burn in judging.

[Joe R.]

Re: What are the odds of winning Top Flight

Rick,

What do you mean by you had the paint "wheeled?"

Thanks,
Joe

[Chris E.]

Re: What are the odds of winning Top Flight

I'm restoring a 65 Nassau Blue Corvette roadster. It is a matching numbers car. The paint is base coat clean coat, with aluminized exhaust, s/s brake and fuel lines, and wrong wheels. What are the changes of being able to win Top Flight with these differences?
Harvie Childers

Harvie, I think at the Chapter Level, you have a great shot. Keep in mind that paint is 85 points, and you can afford to lose 270 and still make Top Flight.

My 67 has everything yours does except for the wrong wheels.

The aluminized exhaust was only a point or two deduct. The s/s brake and fuel lines were 1 point each.

For wheels, there are 3 subsections that add up to 75 points. So let's assume you lose ALL of those points.

So far, I've added up 163 points worth of deductions for you. Again, you can afford to lose 270 and make Top Flight.

That would mean you could afford to FAIL 4 operational things and assuming the rest of the car is perfect, still get Top Flight.

I think you're in the running. Go for it! Either way, you'll learn a LOT about your car.

[Wayne B.]

Re: What are the odds of winning Top Flight

So, my "new" operational problem - working on the car the other day listening to the radio after a nice fight getting the radio in and dash back together. The AM quits, not the FM just the AM. I really don't want to fight that radio out and fix it or find another. How bad to I get kicked? Right now I'd rather take a beating with an axe handle than pull all that apart again.

[Chris E.]

Re: What are the odds of winning Top Flight

So, my "new" operational problem - working on the car the other day listening to the radio after a nice fight getting the radio in and dash back together. The AM quits, not the FM just the AM. I really don't want to fight that radio out and fix it or find another. How bad to I get kicked? Right now I'd rather take a beating with an axe handle than pull all that apart again.

In a perfect world, both the AM and FM operation fall underneath the radio operations piece. That piece is 25 points. If FM works and AM doesn't, you should lose all 25 points.

[Jack H.]

Re: What are the odds of winning Top Flight

The odds are EXCELLENT! That's IF you obtain, read and understand the rules of the road.

You want to be conversant with the NCRS Judging Reference Manual and the applicable Judging Guide for your car to understand what/how deductions are made, what's required to achieve Top Flight status and how the NCRS Mileage Driven Credit program works.

Then, you want to download a Flight Score Sheet for your car and see how many points you'll lose for this/that aspect of the car that deviate from known factory original. Bottom line, just about any Corvette that would obtain a Second Flight award 'can' achieve Top Flight status IF the owner is willing to address/fix the small items and drive the car far enough to a given judging meet to take advantage of the Mileage Driven program.

We're the only Corvette factory concours circuit that allows owner involvement (Mileage Driven) to influence the judging/award outcome... Plus, our rules are in writing, so this is essentially an 'open book' test enviroment!

[Jamie F.]

Re: What are the odds of winning Top Flight

Harvie,
Definitely go for it!
My car just received a Top Flight on Sunday and it has a few things against it like a factory L88 hood that was put on by the dealer in '69 that I won't remove, radial tires, and a UA6 system with the key removed from the back.
I knew I would get hit with these three items pretty hard, which I did, but the rest of the car made up for them.
Plus the mileage points and the extra points for sticker, extinguisher, and battery cut-off.
It's a great feeling when they call your name for the Blue Ribbon, and when you later look at your car and know all your work was recognized.

[Steven C.]

Re: What are the odds of winning Top Flight

In a perfect world, both the AM and FM operation fall underneath the radio operations piece. That piece is 25 points. If FM works and AM doesn't, you should lose all 25 points.

Chris, I disagree. I would give partial credit for the FM operation. Other areas I consider are; 1) Speaker quality, 2) channel selector, 3) electrical interference, 4) speaker balance knob, 5) both speakers working, and 6) tone adjustment.

[Chris E.]

Re: What are the odds of winning Top Flight

Chris, I disagree. I would give partial credit for the FM operation. Other areas I consider are; 1) Speaker quality, 2) channel selector, 3) electrical interference, 4) speaker balance knob, 5) both speakers working, and 6) tone adjustment.

I figured that comment would get some discussion.

I thought the Ops section says "all or nothing" for points credit in the book, yet I've seen partial credit given out in the past.

[Rick A.]

Re: What are the odds of winning Top Flight

Chris,

many judges believe a line in OPS is all or nothing - you still need to look at FFIDC on each line of OPS - think of headlight operations - do you take the entire 20 or 25 points off if one headlight opens completely and the other doesn't - don't think so grasshopper

[Reba W.]

Re: What are the odds of winning Top Flight

I believe most judges take the number of items on the line and divide into 25.