Concours & the Concours Final at the NEC.

Post by **Chris Morley** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 8:49 pm

I've moved this to the 'concours' section as it risks being lost in general discussion.

Post by **Chip** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 12:41 am

I guess its down to me to own up and post as i've been a concours entrant for several years.

I will admit I am normally the one who stays in the background, watches what goes on in the forums and says very little, but just to prove some of us do use a keyboard from time to time I thought I'd better say hello.

Bill is now probably trying to work out who I am as the name gives nothing away !!

Post by **Kevin** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 6:39 am

trying to work out who I am as the name gives nothing away !!

A Clint Eastwood Fan as well then

Post by **wibble_puppy** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 9:10 pm

what an interesting thread

thanks judge for your wise and sensible words

i find myself agreeing to lots of the points made in this thread. particularly about concours cars being an example and a pattern which we other folk can use as a sort of moving 3D library. I was fascinated (of course) in Philip Horn's gorgeous councours van at the National, and amazed to find how friendly and helpful he was with sharing tips and advice when I asked for it - but not at all stuck up or superior, he was just an excellent bloke with a weird and rewarding hobby

i learned a lot and will be fully expoiting his phone number as I move towards reassembling my own van after its bare-metal restoration. It won't be concours but I found lots of excellent ideas looking at Philip's van. It is fascinating seeing how the vans might have looked when new.

juliet

Post by **HarryMango** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 5:42 pm

wibble_puppy wrote: I was fascinated (of course) in Philip Horn's gorgeous councours van at the National, and amazed to find how friendly and helpful he was with sharing tips and advice when I asked for it - but not at all stuck up or superior, he was just an excellent bloke with a weird and rewarding hobby
juliet

Hi Juliet

Have you normally found otherwise then - I have found that 99.9% of Minor owners be they everyday drivers or Grand Masters competitors just love talking about their cars & helping out other folk. I talked with quite a few Concours owners at the recent Chatsworth rally & they were all perfectly normal.

Rog

Post by **wibble_puppy** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 5:56 pm

HarryMango wrote: Have you normally found otherwise then - I have found that 99.9% of Minor owners be they everyday drivers or Grand Masters competitors just love talking about their cars & helping out other folk. I talked with quite a few Concours owners at the recent Chatsworth rally & they were all perfectly normal.

ooooh! yeah!! no you're quite right Rog, sorry if I was misleading there

i think i meant that i had maybe assumed in my head that such elevated beings must surely be rather superior etc.... and was extremely pleasantly surprised to find they were just lovely normal people

i met Fred Skinner at the National too and he was very nice too - but he "only" has a saloon (or is it a traveller? oh dear, i really don't pay any attention if it isn't a van

- and all my photos are of the engine bay and the underneath), so he was no 2 on my list

so two out of two that i've met have been really nice

hurrah!

juliet xxxxx

Post by **Onne** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 10:36 pm

There was a nice van on concours wasn't there? At the National that is

Post by **Cam** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 11:06 pm

Fred has the Maroon Traveller I think.

Post by **wibble_puppy** » Sun Sep 18, 2005 12:06 pm

Onne wrote:There was a nice van on concours wasn't there? At the National that is

yeah, that's the one, almond green

yes cam it's the maroon traveller..... yikes my memory is appalling

Post by **Kevin** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 1:07 pm

Just to help Freds car is also known as Dougal and is the only Traveller in concours.

Post by **aupickup** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 6:23 pm

was the van phillip hearns one

Post by **chickenjohn** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 7:34 pm

Kevin wrote:Just to help Freds car is also known as Dougal and is the only Traveller in concours.

I would imagine its quite tricky getting the bits where wood/ ali and steel meet to reach concours standards. I'd be happy just with condition 1!

Its easy to make a mess of the roof gutters for example, where they nail to the wood etc.

Post by **Kevin** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 10:08 pm

was the van phillip hearns one

I think you ment to say Phillip Horn.

Yes John the effort & time required is huge, and to get it up to Grand Master status and keep it there for 10 years is quite an achievement, he has owned it since it was 6 months old ans was his daily driver for many years and its covered 140-150,000 miles.

Post by **chickenjohn** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 7:24 am

I was tidying up the Dum Dum putty in the cracks between wood and ali panels the other day, it occurred to me that things like that and the roof guttering must be incredibly fiddly to get up to concours standard on a Traveller. I was just plugging any gaps in the hope of keeping the weather out!

And what do they do when its time to re-varnish the wood?? Presumably the practical wood stain approach would be frowned upon by the judges, so they have to sand it down and varnish, as per factory spec, thus getting bits in the dum dum, rubbing the dum dum and occasionally scratching the ali panel. Nightmare!

I'm really intrigued to see this traveller and ask some questions of the owner...

Post by **Judge** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:27 am

Several more attempts by myself, over a considerable period of time, have been made to secure stand space at the NEC Classic Motor Show for Concours cars. Unfortunately these have all resulted in failure for yet another year. Therefore once again as it appears that the Club does not want concours examples on the main MMOC stand, and the commercial rate required by the NEC for an additional stand is prohibitive, we will not be there.

Perhaps if those of you that would like to see a more balanced stand, that better represents the wider interests of the MMOC membership, could write to the Club, or send your comments to Andy Rouse at the NEC (Andy.Rouse@clarionevents.com), things might change. However other than this, I feel that the current MMOC stand format is going to continue into the forseeable future, and that this almost exclusive opportunity to attract new enthusiasts to the Club from non Morris Minor circles could be lost forever.

Post by **Judge** » Mon May 22, 2006 7:13 pm

At last some good news in relation to the NEC. Whilst Concours cars will unfortunately not be represented on the MMOC stand, it appears that to date at least two will be taking part in the Autoglym Finals, these being Len Carter who took 1st place in Club Class at Eynsham Hall, and Fred Skinner who was joint runner up in Concours Class. It is really good to see that the standard of our Concours cars and the commitment of their owners has been recognised by this highly respected event, and that the general public will be able to see these being shown alongside concours examples of other marques.

Post by **Kevin** » Tue May 30, 2006 3:55 pm

It is really good to see that the standard of our Concours cars and the commitment of their owners has been recognised by this highly respected event.

I agree with you Bill but having spoken to Fred about the Eynsham event I/We can see how some people have the wrong idea about concours events.
When he arrived early as usual there were already around a dozen cars already there with tents etc as they had arrived the previous night (nothing wrong with that) but the car that beat Fred into 2nd place (out of interest a Cortina Savage) was sitting under a large gazebo style tent and then the team of 4 (yes 4) set about preparing it, well as it was a really wet day I think Fred did well on his own to compete against a team with support crew and vehicles and no doubt a similar congratulations to Len as well.
Apparently the crew entries had a moan when it was decided by the judges (quite rightly) that the undersides would not be judged because of the bad weather, well bearing in mind they could clean the underside of the cars being under cover and those in the open could not does not exactly help the concours movement, also when it was drive from under cover to be judged the last thing to be done was to remove the cling film from the wheels & tyres.
I hope others dont think I am against Concours as I am not it just seems to me that there are always those that like to play with loaded dice.

Post by **Judge** » Tue May 30, 2006 5:59 pm

Kevin wrote:
It is really good to see that the standard of our Concours cars and the commitment of their owners has been recognised by this highly respected event.
I agree with you Bill but having spoken to Fred about the Eynsham event I/We can see how some people have the wrong idea about concours events.
When he arrived early as usual there were already around a dozen cars already there with tents etc as they had arrived the previous night (nothing wrong with that) but the car that beat Fred into 2nd place (out of interest a Cortina Savage) was sitting under a large gazebo style tent and then the team of 4 (yes 4) set about preparing it, well as it was a really wet day I think Fred did well on his own to compete against a team with support crew and vehicles and no doubt a similar congratulations to Len as well.
Apparently the crew entries had a moan when it was decided by the judges (quite rightly) that the undersides would not be judged because of the bad weather, well bearing in mind they could clean the underside of the cars being under cover and those in the open could not does not exactly help the concours movement, also when it was drive from under cover to be judged the last thing to be done was to remove the cling film from the wheels & tyres.
I hope others dont think I am against Concours as I am not it just seems to me that there are always those that like to play with loaded dice.

Hence the high regard for MMOC Concours, where every car has to be driven to the event, no matter what the weather, where a strict set of rules have to be adhered to, and where it is not simply the shiniest, and most chrome covered examples that achieve the highest marks.

In my opinion the MMOC has one of the best, if not the best, Concours sections of any car club. It is for exactly this reason that I am so commited to its continued success, and why on occasion I may seem to have very strong views on aspects of its apparent rejection by certain areas of our Club.