One of your own winning awards

[smotherss]

One of your own members is just a little too modest to brag on his Willyz, so I will do it for him.� Macrisel recentely took his Jeep to a St. Judes car show and won.� You may be saying "Won What?"� There were over 300 vehicles there and apearantly the Judges found favor in this little Willyz and crowned it BEST OF SHOW for its class!!!!!� Congratlations Mark on one fine Willy.� �

[Ryan_M]

Very cool, and well deserved. Nice going Mark!!

[athawk11]

Awesome!  And well deserved.  That is a fine machine!

Brings up a question...

My Willys is modified, thus not worthy of any award, so I won't enter it in a show, but I've always wondered what category a Willys is put into? 

I'm guessing...truck?

Military Jeeps were considered 1/4 ton trucks.

Tim

[smotherss]

From my understanding, I wasn't present, the Jeep got lumped into a Mopar/Dodge class.  I guess not truely a dodge, it did compete aganist Challengers, Chargers, Vipers, old dodge pickups and new Jeeps.  And, won!!!  Maybe Mark should shed some light on the subject. 

[Ryan_M]

In the half-dozen or so shows I entered this year I always end up in some sort of oddball category. Something like "4 x 4 Trucks 1949-Present" which has me up against mid '90's Ford trucks or an '04 Durango or even a brand new Jeep. Yes, there are some vintage FJ's and some old Jeeps but usually it's a VERY broad class.� Unlike, say, the Mustang or Camaro classes that may only span 3 or 4 production years per class. Entering a class like "Special Interest" gets you matched up with an even crazier group of misfits.

Tim, your Willys may be modified but I wouldn't let that stop you from entering a show. Any of the judges I've faced very likely would not be able to tell the difference. Keep in mind it is not is a Willys convention where every detail of the Jeep would be picked apart by vehicle-specific-lunatics like us in the Willys crowd. 99.9% of the people you encounter at a show will have no idea that anything is modified, and even if they did, they wouldn't care. It looks like a Jeep.

As flawed as my Jeep is to a true expert, I have managed to take a trophy at every show. That is where such a wide and odd class helps. It's not as brutally competitive as some of those more popular classes. Winning "Best of Show" out of a fleet of 300 entrants, like Mark did, is truly impressive impressive.

My Willys is anything but a show queen. It's a good solid refurbishment and a fun driver. I will likely continue to attend shows even as I keep driving my Jeep, off-road or otherwise, and it will wear its battle scars proudly. Although it does feel good to bring home a trophy, I have more fun just talking with people about Jeeps. Everyone seems to have a Jeep story and can't wait to tell it to you.

I'm headed out to one of the last cruise nights of the year tonight at the local diner. No trophies there but it's the same sort of atmosphere. Just a bunch of people milling around trading war stories and drooling over classic machines. Good stuff.

[macrisel]

Thanks everyone, it was a pretty good day!� This car show was a 100 point car show.....meaning that there wasn't any classes.� Everyone (stock or modified) is judged on a 100 point scale such as:

20 points for your engine
20 points for your interior
20 points for your paint
20 points for your undercarriage
20 points for your overall vehicle

The top 20 with the most points get a 1st place plaque, the next 20 get 2nd and the next 20 get 3rd.� Then the leading point score for each brand (chevy, ford, dodge) wins a specialty trophy and the overall top score wins Best Of Show.� Sometimes it is a little unfair because someone can roll in with a brand new Viper and it competes with a 60+ year old Jeep.....but everyone is judged to the same caliber.� Because of this, you get a pretty good idea of how your car stacks up with others.� That is the reason I went to this show.� I really wanted to see how my blood, sweat and tears stacked up against some professionals.� I really thought I would walk away with a 3rd place if I was lucky.� When I didn't get called for 3rd, I pretty much tuned out the rest of the announcements until they announced I won "Best Dodge".� I won't lie..........it was pretty cool that a 60+ year old Willy that I restored beat out a few $90,000 Vipers along with classic Demons, Challengers, Chargers, Darts and other muscle cars .

Ryan is right though.� The best part of the show is talking to people and hearing the stories they have of "an old Jeep my Dad/Grandpa/Uncle had when I was growing up".� Driving it around town and getting bid waves and big smiles is great.� Trophies and plaques collect dust....but stories live on forever!

One last thing.� Smotherss is also being modest.� He is my paint/body expert and the one who layed the color down on my Jeep!� Not bad for a couple of kids from the Bootheal!