The 2^nd annual “Concours on the Palisades” was held in Fort Lee NJ on Sunday July 23, 2023. The show reverted to this rain date when threatening weather on the original planned date of July 16 made it imprudent to hold the event on that day.

The postponement was a wise move, as the weather on the 23^rd was sunny and warm, with low humidity and a slight breeze. If there was a downside, it was the observed possibility that a number of registered cars didn’t show up because the owners were unavailable on the new date. Still, turnout was strong. I would estimate that there were close to 150 show vehicles on site, and a varied assortment they were. The featured marque was the Chevrolet Corvette, celebrating its 70^th anniversary in 2023. Several blocks of Main St. in downtown Fort Lee were closed to outside traffic to allow the Corvettes to take over. There were 50+ Corvettes in attendance, from all 8 generations, from the C1s through the new mid-engine C8s.

The remainder of the show cars were arranged in a parking lot surrounding a large parking garage, just up the block from Main St. Classes included American, British, Italian, German, Japanese, and Swedish cars, plus ‘exotic’ and ‘vintage’ automobiles. Similar to what many towns have done during Cars & Coffee and Cruise Night events, the local restaurants and shops threw open their doors and hopefully were able to drum up some business with all the spectators milling about.

I was there to do more than spectate; I was also judging the show! (See sidebar.) Judging gave me a chance to converse with owners, which is always fun, but I then needed to race through the classes I didn’t judge so that I could take in the rest of the show. The event officially opened to the public at 10 am, and the awards ceremony was held at 1 pm, with everything wrapped up by 2 pm, so it was not an all-day affair.

I’m not familiar with any similar show in the northeast part of NJ (The “Ramapo Concours” ran for only one or two years and seemed to have petered out), so we shall see if Fort Lee can work their magic and have a 3^rd consecutive show in 2024.

 

EXOTIC

 

 

 

VINTAGE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JAPANESE

 

 

 

SWEDISH

 

 

BRITISH

 

 

 

 

ITALIAN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GERMAN

 

 

 

AMERICAN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CORVETTES

C1:

 

 

C2:

 

C4:

 

C6:

 

C7:

 

 

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SIDEBAR: JUDGING A CONCOURS

My very good friend Sal, whom I know from our now-discontinued Sunday breakfast drives, found himself invited to be a judge at the inaugural Concours on the Palisades last year. He invited me to also participate in judging, but I had a personal conflict in 2022 and could not join. Sal repeated the invite this year and put me in touch with the Chief Judge, someone I’ve known for decades: Bob Austin, a Volvo corporate colleague whom I met in the late 1980s. Bob signed me up and the emails began to fly.

I’ve judged a number of car shows, mostly AACA events. AACA has a rulebook chock full of specifics. Overall, AACA rules require that cars be judged based on how they would have appeared when new and about to be delivered by an authorized dealer to the car’s first customer. In essence, this means the vehicle being judged should be 100% stock with no factory deviations. In addition to shiny paint, sparkling chrome, and pristine glass, the colors, materials, and equipment must match what was used in the year the car was built.

As Bob explained it to us judges in Fort Lee, we would be judging by “French rules”. He explicitly gave these examples: “I don’t care if the color is one that was never original to the car, and I don’t care if the engine or the upholstery has been changed. We are judging cars on condition, of course, but the ultimate question you might ask yourself is ‘would this be the car that I would want to take home with me?’” Put another way, how did the cars impact us emotionally? We were handed outlines about exterior and interior judging, and also told that our judging would not include the engine or trunk. Bob said “be consistent. If you knock a car down because the glass is dirty, you need to be sure to objectively judge the cleanliness of the glass for all the cars.”

The French rules were 180 degrees from AACA judging, but we judges would be on teams that needed to reach a consensus, and no matter how many (or how few) cars were in a class, we had to select 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place. As my fortune would have it, I was teamed up with Sal, with 4 smaller classes to judge: exotic, vintage, Japanese, and Swedish. There were few enough cars in each class that choosing the 3 cars was easy; we then had to rank them, which involved a bit more back-and-forth between us, yet it didn’t take us long to create the final lists.

I’m going to avoid the “how and why” of our choices, for several reasons. One, under French rules, it’s likely that any other team of two would have chosen completely different cars; two, if you weren’t there to see them in the metal, it could be very difficult to explain why we chose the cars we did; and three, I think it’s unwise to reveal any of the process should show car owners be reading this.

Judging can be fun; it can also be time-consuming, frustrating, challenging, and if one is not careful, inconsistent. The last point might be the most important. My own cars have been judged multiple times, and you want the judges to be fair. I believe we were, and I’d like to see Sal and I end up on the same judging team next year.

 

 

All photographs copyright © 2023 Richard A. Reina. Photos may not be copied or reproduced without express written permission.