FIRST TURN

Peter Olliviere , President

All of you folks who have been asking for the return of Concours events, hold onto your hats, because the wheels are turning to reintroduce this type of event. The first thing that needs to be done is for all of us to get on the same page as to what a Concours is. “Concours d’Elegance” is a French term meaning “competition of elegance,” denoting a gathering of automobiles in competitive judging of their respective merits in terms of coach work design, finish and appointments, and adherence to the manufacturer’s standard. Doing well in a concours event requires that you understand what the judges are looking for. Every car starts off with 100 points, or a perfect score. As the car is judged points are removed for any defects found in any of the judged areas such as body, paint interior, etc. Depending on the Concours the judging level can go from wash and shine to a detailed engine and suspension review. So, the first thing you need to know is how the judging is going to be conducted; that way you don’t waste time on items that are not going to contribute to the overall score. For example, since you cannot easily gain access to the engine in a Boxster, most of the time this item is not judged.

You also need to understand that your having a special paint color is not going to catapult your car to a winning position. Remember that the judge is looking for defects in that paint and doesn’t care about the color.

As you can see, there is a lot of information that will be gone over in “Concours University”! We are now working to get the location to hold this informational event. As soon as that is finalized, we will be sending an email with all the information needed to sign up.