Pay the fees, enter the show. How to win? No idea. Depends on the judge and your luck. I have seen some ugly cars get awards, so I don't know what to tell you. But baiscally, not a stock car. Unless you enter best stock looking car at the show.:thumbup:
Wow that's a pretty broad question. Probrably someone like Craig or Chase could give u a better answer.
I've been entering car shows for a long time now, so I"ll give it a shot.
1) For starters, alot of show cars aren't daily driven. If you driver your car around right now u might want to consider getting a beater car to take it's place.
2) You car needs to be complete. Every aspect of your car needs to have some work done. (Audio, engine, suspension, exterior, etc) There was a time when u could win best of show with clean car that had just body kit and rims but that's long in the past. If you're gonna do something to your car make it ballsy. I've known people that have won without complete cars but those are exceptions. Just make sure ever part of car has something done to it.
3) Car show people (judges and spectators) aren't usually super knowledgable on performance. As long as something looks flash, they'll give you brownie points. For instance, alotta the suped up Hondas you see at shows have non-functional turbos, fiberglass bodywork that would crack like crazy if it every experience chasis flex that a car undergoes when driven hard.
4) Last tip for now. Whatever u do try it make it a little outrageous. Pretty much everyone has the same stuff on their cars. If you wanna win u gotta take it to the next level. Car next to you has 4 TVs? THEN U NEED TO GET 10 TVs, a couple in the trunk and a maybe even some in the engine bay. Errr okay that's crazy but u get the point.
On a personal note, I have decided to not do any more cars shows. I believe to get my car to show winning status, I would have to violate my modding ethic. What fun is it if I can't drive my car around? How often am I going to be watching 10 TVs let alone 1? Maybe I'll build a REAL show car when I'm older and have tons of money lying around. For now I'll just mod my car for me not to impress people at a car show. My 2 cents
Sponsorships are great. The plain ugly truth is that there aren't that many out there to be had. I think one of the better ones is the Toyo Tires sponsorship. U get 1 set of free tires. But then again that only covers your tires. Nobody is gonna pay for you too fix up your car. Unless u are famous in the car show scene. Even then most people still put in alot of their own money. Enough money to put downpayment on a house in some cases. Not trying to discourage u from fixing up your car. The plan truth is that it takes alot of money to win. If you want a cheap show car u can always go with a Honda the mods are way cheaper.
Just about everybody on dtmpower is getting widebody. :dunno: I can't hang with that action. At least for now I prefer not cutting into my car's sheet metal.
Oh yeah one more thing. A little bird told me that some of the awards given out at major car shows like import showoff and hot import nights are fixed. Dunno if this is true, but anything is likely.
Try to get the know the people that run the show. Kiss their butts like mad if you wanna win. It's not gonna help u if you roll in stock, but if you think you're a serious contender start talking to those guys. Really helps if the guy judging your car happens to your buddy. They might even try to talk to u first. Cars that bring in spectators will always be given preferential treatment.
One last thing. Not that I haven't entered myself, but it bewilders me why people with such nice euro cars can enter shows with mostly soy sauce mobiles.
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