Finding a New Road, Part 6: In Search of Diamonds and Gold at MCACN

And we’re back! After a short break in the action, it’s time for another installment of our Finding a New Road series where you get to ride along as I take my 1978 Silver Anniversary Corvette through Bloomington Gold, NCRS, and MCACN judging. With a couple of months to decompress after scoring another NCRS Top Flight award, we’re rolling on to the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals for a shot at Concourse Gold and Triple Diamond accolades.

Catch up on our previous episodes here:
Part 1: Here We Go Again
Part 2: Ready for the Road?
Part 3: Showtime at Bloomington Gold
Part 4: Betting on Benchmark
Part 5: The Michigan NCRS Chapter Meet

The Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals (MCACN) is my favorite show of the year. While my first love is Corvettes, I’m always amazed at the variety of metal cars shown each November in Chicago. I must admit that this year I probably spent more time ogling the myriad of 1-of-1 Mopars than I did Corvettes. Seriously though, MCACN is a must-see for any serious gearhead. Having been 5 years since the last time I took a Car to MCACN, this weekend couldn’t arrive soon enough. Only Corvettes that have won Bloomington Gold and NCRS Top Flight awards are eligible to compete for the sparkly Triple Diamond trophy. Claim a Concourse Gold award at MCACN, and you also take home the Triple Diamond award.

MCACN Gold Concourse judging is essentially a hybrid between Bloomington and NCRS. All of the judges evaluate the car at the same time like Bloomington Gold, but here they can deduct in 1-2 (or more) point increments like the NCRS. Each car begins with 1,000 points and you need a 95% or higher for the Concours Gold award. So, lose less than 50 points and you’re good as gold. The overall judging criteria is the same as Bloomington and NCRS. The car is evaluated first for correctness/originality and then on condition in the Mechanical, Exterior, Chassis, and Interior areas. The Configuration section verifies the car’s driveline, color combo, and other bits are as intended. There isn’t an operations section at MCACN because the show is indoors. The judging is fast like Bloomington. I’d estimate that the judges spent somewhere around 40-45 minutes on my car, maybe a little less. When done, the MCACN judges review their scoring with you.

My busy pre-Thanksgiving week began on an oddly warm Wednesday afternoon when the big orange Reliable truck arrived at my door. Given the iffy mid-November midwestern weather, I elected to ship my to the show again. Before loading, my driver Brian performed a thorough inspection of the whole car. Even crawling on his hands and knees at one point. Once his comprehensive review was done, he loaded up the old silver car and parked it right behind a Ford GT and 2k-mile Cosworth Vega on the top shelf of his trailer. Brian and my Corvette arrived in Chicago on Thursday afternoon. Quick Hat tip to both Brian and Reliable Carriers. They make shipping process so easy and worry free for even us skittish Corvette folks. I’ve found them to be well worth the premium you may pay versus other carriers.

With the car at MCACN, the only thing missing was me. I walked in the door of the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center around noon on Friday while the final stages of show setup was in full swing. I quickly located my car and began the hunt for my parking spot. Luckily my spot was wide open so I quickly squeezed in behind that Vega steering wheel and headed over to my weekend home.

Just prior to moving my car, the first judge of the weekend arrived to inspect engine stamp and other key markings. Based on his body language, I could tell he’d noticed something with the VIN stamp on my engine block. Throughout my recent judging escapades, he was the first person to say something about the anomaly. I’ve not mentioned yet in this series is that both the engine and transmission VINs were stamped incorrectly when my car was built. Both are 1 digit off from the car’s actual VIN. The line worker had forgotten to change his gang set before stamping the engine and transmission on this car – something not uncommon in the late 70’s automotive world. After realizing their mistake, the engine was correctly stamped on a flat boss high above the oil filter and the transmission was corrected just below the incorrect stamp. No worries here, though, as I knew about this unique feature prior to buying the car last year. Additionally, I had reached out to both Bloomington and NCRS officials as well so I could understand how things may go on the judging field. With that knowledge in my back pocket, I showed the judge a photo (you can’t see the boss above the oil filter with the car on the ground) of the correct engine stamp in my files. He was good, and we both moved on. Interestingly, the Mechanical judge also caught the VIN stamp during Saturday’s judging.

I’m sharing this scenario because the plant didn’t build every car properly. Shocking, right? There have been many cases of incorrect, double stamped, and crossed out stamps seen over the years. This car is just another data point to that fact. In any case like this with a conflict between “typical factory production” and reality, be sure to do your homework first and have evidence to prove your point ready to show the judges should they have a question.

As Friday wound down, I attended the 4pm Owner’s meeting and then scooted over to dinner with friends before judging first thing Saturday morning.

I arrived at my car at 8am Saturday morning to find the eager judges already there and ready to begin. We had been told on Friday that judging would start around 8:30, so it appears we’re ahead of schedule. No big deal. It just gets a little hectic helping judges open and close doors while dropping the spare and removing the ignition shielding and other bits at the same time. My previous experience had told me that this judging should be pretty uneventful. Each of my 2 previous runs through this style of judging indicated that this round could be the highest score yet. With a 97% and Bloomington and a 98% and NCRS, I was confident things would be just fine at MCACN. However, you still get a bit nervous with just 50 points to work with.

As the judges systematically did their thing, I did my thing too and just kind of watched and took things in. I figured everything would go well, but I still had to peek over their shoulders periodically. First up was the mechanical judge. After noting the VIN stamp, he completed his work and had taken 17 of the 50 points I had to work with. Whoa. Most of those points were condition related which was expected. Next up was interior where I lost another 11 points – mainly on condition again. Hmmm. 28 of 50 points gone already and 2 sections to go? This could get interesting.

Following a short break in the action, the exterior judge headed over and quietly went about his business. About 20 minutes later we walked through the judging sheet together and he showed me where he deducted each of his 5 points. All of those, again, were condition related. Phew. This was relief after hemorrhaging points in the 2 previous sections.

Going into the final section, chassis, I could lose no more than 17 points and still reach my goal of Concourse Gold and Triple Diamond. Chassis is always a wild card, especially unrestored ones like mine. Would 46 northern winters prove to be too much? Nah. It was all good. After crawling out from underneath the car, the judge informed me that I’d lost just 3 very generous points. 1 for a set of replacement rear shocks and the other 2 for condition. All that drama summed up to 36 total points lost and a final score of 96.4%. Concourse Gold and Triple Diamond were mine again.

With my judging complete before lunch on Saturday I was able to wander the show at my pace and catch up with friends both old and new. Sunday couldn’t have been more relaxed. Just hang out and wait for awards at 3:30pm. About midway through the ceremony, the Triple Diamond awards were announced alphabetically and my name was among the winners. An appropriate end to a hectic summer (and fall) of Corvette shows.

After the awards ceremony I packed up the old silver car so it was ready for the ride home. It’s still a weird feeling leaving a car show, but not taking your car with you. Luckily, I knew it was in good hands with the Reliable folks and it was home right on time Wednesday afternoon after the show. Brian, my transporter reached out a couple times to keep me abreast of his progress along the way.

So after a whirlwind 18 months I’d purchased a car I wasn’t looking for, smoothed out the rough edges, and again attained 3 of our hobby’s top awards. This was an interesting experience compared to my last car. There seems to be a definite love for the unrestored cars now and the judges take that into consideration. I also found it interesting that the show where I’ve typically gotten my highest scores, was the show with the lowest score on this this time around. Just goes to show that anything can happen on any given day. It’s also important to remember that my car isn’t perfect and yours doesn’t have to be either. You just need to get enough points for the award you’re after. My car has scratches in the paint, surface rust on parts of the frame, and even a couple discolored interior panels. The key is that everything has been carefully taken care of over the last 4.5 decades and 40,000 miles. Take care of them and they’ll take care of you.

I’ve learned a lot about these late C3’s. They’re certainly not the fastest Corvettes out there, but they do drive great. The added bonus is that they don’t cost 6-figures to get a nice one. You can have just as much fun as big block C2 owner for a fraction of the price.

So where does this road lead now? In the near term it leads to our Detroit Bureau winter storage facility where it’ll rest up until spring. I don’t have any other show plans for this one and that ZR1 still calls to me every time I enter the garage. With that, I’m thinking this one will probably go up for sale in the spring and off to a new owner who can write the next chapter in this car’s history. After that I’ll probably return to hunting a 4-seat fun car that can accommodate Mrs. Detroit Bureau and the two CorvetteBlogger unpaid interns. Oh, and I need to play with that ZR1 more too.

Thanks to everyone who reached out over the course of this series, stopped by at the shows, and to those that helped me learn the ins and outs of this 1978 Corvette. It’s been great to experience a new corner of our hobby, have some fun, and make some new friends along the way. See you out on the road.

Source:
Photos by Steve Burns

Related:
Part 1: Here We Go Again
Part 2: Ready for the Road?
Part 3: Showtime at Bloomington Gold
Part 4: Betting on Benchmark
Part 5: The Michigan NCRS Chapter Meet

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