I want to clear up a misconception I inadvertently triggered.
Judged car shows are meant to give everyone an equal footing. Judges attend one or more judging classes. At these classes, the judges are given instructions on how they should judge, and the types of things for which to look. Should the opportunity arise to attend such a class, I highly recommend that you take that opportunity, and be a judge.
As part of that equal footing, no one should be penalized for not knowing all the little things for which the judges are looking. The criteria on the judging sheets are meant to ensure thoroughness and consistency. Each judged show is different, in that the criteriaare a bit different, and the judging teams are different.
The cars in a given class are all judged by the same team, to ensure consistency. The same team, given the same cars, may judge a given car differently, depending on the scoring sheet provided. There is no way to know how a given judge applied the guidelines and scoring criteria.
Everyone gets their judged sheets, along with their score. On the scoring sheet, you can see the categories. There is no secrecy on those.
If you get a low score on your tail lights, for example, what could you really need to know?
From experience, I can say that I forgot about each car after it was judged. No one on the team could say how well or poorly a given car did, because we didn't know the scores. Even the instructors of the class didn't know. When the scores were announced, the judges were as surprised as everyone else.
