After a bit of prodding from the organizers, this past weekend I went to a local European car show and entered our recently completed Bugeye Sprite project car.
It was a beautiful spring day. The show was well attended, and I met a lot of nice folks. The car seemed very well received. And I guess I wasn’t that surprised that the concours-level restoration and subtle modifications garnered the Bugeye a first-place trophy.
You might think that, with the number of cars I’ve restored and with 40-plus years in this world, I would have a lot of trophies. While I do have a few from shows, autocross and racing events, I don’t have as many as you think.
And I’m not sure my situation is unique, but I remember the trophies that I didn’t win almost more than the ones I did win.
My first trophy came when I was in high school. It was another beautiful spring day, just like the one this past weekend, and I had just finished restoring my third Mustang, a 1965 Fastback.
A buddy and I went to a local event, and I won my first car show trophy. What I remember most vividly from that day–other than my buddy being even more excited than I was–is some jag-off coming up to me and explaining that the bolts securing the fenders were supposed to be phosphate coated and not painted.
While today I know that to be true, at the time I was terribly demoralized by this guy and his snarky statement. What a crappy thing to tell an 18-year-old who restored a car himself and had just won his first trophy.
This incident turned me off to car shows, and I spent most of the rest of my life focusing on moving events instead.
This kind of drama can happen at moving events as well, though. I remember taking my son (who now runs our company) to a big Triumph meet.
We drove our rotary-powered Spitfire to fastest time of the day at the autocross. In what was probably a bad parenting decision (one of many) on my part and a potential liability situation on the organizer’s part, my son was in the car with me when I made those runs.
We were elated–at least until it came time to collect our trophy. We were dismissed and told that because our car was not Triumph-powered, we wouldn’t be given the FTD trophy.
I didn’t need that trophy, and in my public position, the last thing I could do was make a stink about it at the event. What made me mad was that there was nothing in the rules about the car needing to be Triumph-powered. They still took my entry fee, just like everybody else, and then screwed me out of that trophy.
For a while, I would take whatever car I had just finished for The Amelia Concours d’Elegance to our local British car show held about a month later. It was kind of a thank you to the community that had supported our publications and kind of a low-key way to unwind after the pressure of preparing a car for The Amelia, one of the world’s most impressive events.
The first time I did this, fresh off a trophy win at The Amelia, I took the Group 44 GT6 that we restored. I was placed in a modified class (rightfully so, I guess) and parked next to a ratty Jaguar sedan with a Chevy V8 in it.
That car won the class–it’s a people’s choice award–and I went home a bit bewildered and empty-handed. You would think that Triumph’s most famous race car, fresh off an Amelia victory, would beat a ratty Jaguar at any event. Not this one.
Unfazed, I went back later with our Tornado Typhoon project (now proudly displayed at the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville) and our incredible Lotus Elan, also shown at The Amelia after spending decades smashed and in pieces. Same result both times: no trophies.
I finally asked a club member, “What gives?” He explained that to win, you need to be in the club and be friends with everyone. Essentially the organizers were all slapping each other on the back and giving each other trophies every year. While I have been back to that show, I would never show a car there again.
Perhaps the biggest injustice I ever faced in the trophy department was at Lime Rock Park. I had the weekend of my life and bested the entire group, which included Ferraris and other expensive cars, in my Triumph TR3. It was the most compelling victory of my life. When they called my group, I walked up to the trophy presenters and was shooed away.
A person I had lapped was given the trophy. I was told that the event didn’t like to promote winning and preferred to give the awards more for spirit than success. I was pissed! To their credit, that policy has been changed at Lime Rock.
I’m not sure there’s a real moral to this story, but perhaps it’s that trophies do matter. People work very hard for them, be it at an autocross, race or show. Treat people fairly and they’ll come back rather than remember and share the injustices years later.
Comments
I understand the importance of trophies for some folks, and I don't knock them for that, but for me they don't hold a lot of meaning anymore. Funny thing to hear from the guy who won "Best in Show" at the inaugural Classic Motorsports Monterey Kickoff?
I love cars. I also love originality, and take no issue with tasteful modifications. I restored my 1975 Dino 308 GT4 back to its original green color and Dino badging because I thought that's how the car looked best… not because I was hoping to win an award. Since I love cars, I do enter my car in concours events and I was admittedly shocked when I took home "Best Italian Car" and "Best in Show" in 2022. Shocked that I was invited to display my car at Casa Ferrari that same year. Shocked that I won Silver at Concorso Italiano, also that same year. I didn't know I had created a show-winning car, that was never my intent!
Going back to my Porsche days, I had the same experiences as you—there were three occasions that my car was easily the best in its class and it won nothing. I thought it was because I had a 996 and there was just a prejudice against it, but when you're in the 996 class against four other cars that were objectively not as good as mine and I didn't win anything… well, something was amiss. Experiencing that three years in a row made me abandon Porsche. I still love the cars, but I'm done with their events.
The Ferrari proved to be different. People seemed to really like the car, and as I noted, it was a hit at your show. This made me feel really good. It was also a hit everywhere I took it, and I was pretty happy about winning the Silver at Concorso… that is, until I read the score sheet. That's when I discovered 2.5 points were deducted for things they shouldn't have, clearly showing the judges didn't know what they were judging. If just one of those half-points had not been deducted, I would have won gold. I took it to Concorso the next year in 2023 and did win gold even though nothing had changed about my car. But winning then didn't feel good. I didn't care about it, I just wanted to prove them wrong and I guess I accomplished that.
The same thing happened at Hillsborough Concours when I had my car judged there—only I won nothing! When I got the score sheet back, again, points were deducted for things they shouldn't have been. It just baffled me how I could win "Best in Show" at one event and get absolutely nothing at another event.
On a positive note, there was honestly something special about winning at the Classic Motorsports Monterey Kickoff—it felt real, genuine. Aside from being unexpected, it was fun and left me feeling overwhelmed (in a good way). Not winning awards was kind of like "whatever" for me, however, winning those other awards is what turned me off to displaying my car to be judged.
So, I'm done with judged events. I still show my car, but I don't bother getting them judged anymore for the reasons you call out (it's a circle-jerk) and because the judges don't seem to know what they're actually judging. My approach to concours events was always "if I win, I win, if I don't, I don't" — in other words, I never really cared that much. But reading highly inaccurate score sheets, and winning nothing when my car was clearly the best in the group doesn't feel good. So why put myself through that—especially when it was never my goal anyway?
There's one more event I may enter and have it judged, but that's because I know it will actually be judged fairly and accurately since I know the head judge and his incredible wealth of knowledge and stern abidance to the rules. But really, now, my car is "Display Only" and that has made concours events much more enjoyable.
ddavidv
UltimaDork
4/19/25 6:17 a.m.
I've got a box full of trophies and plaques. I should probably just toss them. They really don't mean much other than the first one I got for a car I restored.
The driving awards mean far more to me, because I found victory much harder to achieve on the track than in the garage.
Nowadays, though, I seek out events that don't do judging. I just don't want to participate in the drama. I get far more satisfaction just talking about my car with other like-minded people than walking up to a podium to receive a $5 award.
wspohn
UltraDork
4/19/25 10:14 a.m.
Except for some championship trophies, the usual cheesey ones handed out at some races aren't worth worrying about. I once got a first in class trophy at Portland and the trophy was basically a beer can mounted on a plinth (the sponsor had been Blitz Weinhard). The ass-hat at the border coming into Canada gave me a hard time asking (if you can believe it) how much an empty beer can mounted on a piece of wood was worth....
I gotta say that some trophies mean something special and some are just junk to clutter up the house, no value, no meaning. The most special trophy I ever received was in a dart league I played in, the trophy was for going undefeated the entire season in singles......the league didn't have a trophy or award for that, so my team mates actually had it made up and presented it to me.....I value that one more than any other I ever received because it had some meaning behind it. And do not get me started on "participation" trophies.......
ddavidv
UltimaDork
4/23/25 7:16 a.m.
I will say the GRM $2002 Challenge trophy on my wall is one that does matter to me.
I have a bunch of trophies on my mantel but they don't really mean very much to me, particularly because most trophies these days are just some bits of shiny plastic on a little wood base - if they were solid silver loving cups I'd feel differently about them. 
In reply to stuart in mn :
My parents had some loving cups from rallies back in the day. I wonder if they still have them.
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