Darrell Floyd wrote:
My Bad since it appears that I have once again fueled the anti-concours fire.
Darrell, you haven't fuelled it as far as I'm concerned as I'm both confused
and thereby perhaps understandably ambivalent about the specific term
"Concours d'Elegance." I feel (perhaps wrongly?) that it is today not what it
once was. The term Concours at a club level now seems to have an entirely
different interpretation and IMHO a rather hollow one. I have a number of
trophies here at home, won many years ago by my late Dad in international
motoring competitions and a majority of those trophies are prizes for Concours
and Bodywork judging. In those days and certainly post WW2 in Europe, a
Concours after an international event was held to determine which driver had
not only done well by demonstrating his or her driving skill throughout the
event but also had taken excellent care of the vehicle in his/her care. These
were the days when rallying did *not* (as it seems today) to enable a crew to
have an additional number of cars in bits that followed the rally car as it
traversed the course. The Monte Carlo Rally is an excellent example of cars
that won outstanding prizes in the Concours after driving several thousand
miles against the clock and in appalling winter conditions. Many got through
without a scratch but were only permitted a wash and polish before going into
the Concours paddock. I don't think that sort of thing happens now and for
that reason I feel that Concours is an inapproriate name.
On the issues of *originality* which so many seem to want to follow, I've
often wondered how a Concours judge would regard the following examples of
cars that came off the line, 'factory fresh, certainly *original* and odd. I
saw all of them myself and can attest to their unique originality:
A Herald 13/60 salon with a LH drive steering and electrical set-up but a RH
pedal and hydraulics layout
A Spitfire Mk 3 with wire wheels on the front and discs on the rear with a
version of each wheel in the boot as spare wheels. Would you believe this car
not only got out of the factory but was delivered to the customer. The dealer
couldn't rectify it in the PDI because rectification of this nature could not
be undertaken until the 1000 mile service. What's more, the customer laid me
out on the sidewalk with his fist because I laughed at it. Wouldn't you?
A Toledo with two doors on the right, only one on the left and no engine or
transmission
All those were definitely original and I know from former colleagues that
there were others, so I wonder what criteria would apply for them to be judged
as factory originals? That's really why I tend to jest at originality because
mass production is such that all sorts and variations on a theme can and do
get built. I also jest at it because I've seen so many cars that claim to be
"as they came off the line" and those too are a joke. In the majority of
cases, their standards of finish far outstrip what happened in reality all
those years ago and I fear many of their owners are proudly labouring under a
delusion. But if that's what makes them happy..........
Good luck
Jonmac
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