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From: Mike Patterson
Email: mchr@theriver.com
Remote Name: 216.39.177.19
Date: July 01, 2003
As Neil said,car show judging is often based on preceptions and personalities. In the case of open shows, many times it's the body style rather than the condition of the cars that plays a big part in determing who gets a trophy. Your 56 will usually have to compete in a very hard class (against 55-57 Chevys), and like it or not many people will vote for the chevy over the Chrysler products no matter the actual condition of the car. Several years ago I put together a modified 57 Coronet 2dr Post. The car was running a dual Quad 440, latter PB Torqueflite, Posi, Disc brakes, custom made wheels etc etc. The paint was fresh as was the interior. At one of the smaller local shows, it lost out to a pretty weathered tri-power 57 Chevy. In your case, I suspect that you lost out to what others considered a more popular body style (and as you said the winner had a very nice car). The thing is that in the world of streetrodding peoples preception is that any engine, but especially the SB Chevy is "correct" in any pre 1949 car. Personally I generally like to see brand intregrity and think the SB Chevy has been done to death but for a street rod it's the easy way out. My current project is a 37 Dodge PU, from a mechanical standpoint the easiest way out would have been to put a chevy in it and the majority of people would think there was nothing wrong with that. (I chose the more difficult route and it currently has a Hemi and torqueflight setting in it.)
