First, I have to say that I think Tim in reply #56 has said it best. What a great outlook.
Second, I want everyone to remember that these are my opinions, and my opinions only. Lets look at a dictionary.
Restore: To bring back to original condition.
Hot-Rod: A vehicle rebuilt or modified for increased speed and power.
The rules for judges are made up by someone, and with all of the changes and carryovers that Ford did, there is no-one that knows all of them. If I had bought say a 1929 Model A 2dr sedan brand new and put it in climate controlled storage until today, took it to a restorers top of the line event, I'd be willing to bet that at least one thing would be found wrong (not original) with it. Now, I don't like the lack of power, so I change the head, or cam, or carb, or exhaust, or combination of some of these, do I still have an original car? Not in my opinion, I now have a Hot-Rod. If you completely restore your A, as best as can be done and later change to 15" wheels with big and littles on it, what do you have? It's not original, and it's not a Hot-Rod. (I know, some nit-picker is going to say they did it for a gearing change so it is a Hot-Rod)
Awards, trophies etc: Best this, best that. For an example lets take "Best Paint" Is the best paint job the smoothest, glossiest, deepest paint job there even tho it has a couple of rock chips in it, or is the best paint job one that is rock chip free even tho it doesn't look original either?
Best to me is not the same as it is in the eye of the judge (or judges argueing it out and settling on one.)
I could go on, but I won't. I'll just say that I love old cars, all of them, and I love meeting the people that own them. I can honestly say that I could care less about awards of any kind. I do like one type of reward, and that reward is being able to drive my car.
I would personally like to see real car runs come back and replace the "park it and shine it lawn chair shows". Reliability runs, tours, etc, remember them?
P.S. I have always been amazed when going to a fairgrounds "Rod Run". Go out behind the barns sometime and see if you can figure out 2 things.
1. How do the horses get air in those enclosed trailers?
2. How do they haul horses on those funny flat ones without the horses falling off?
