I wasn't there. I don't own a Tiger. I don't even currently
own an Alpine, but I have in the past and was involved for time in the
Pacific Tiger Club (Seattle Area). Now on to my post.
This event sounded like the ultimate in the Sunbeam community,
regardless if its a Tiger, Alpine or Imp. I would have loved to have
been there. All of those cars, from modified monsters to Show room
Marvels, looked so cool. (Observations based on photos viewed from
STOA, and Mark Olson's web sites). From what I have been able to tell
from the posts, photos, and general opinions, is that this was a SUPER
event. There are some however, and frankly I have forgotten who they
were, have complained adamantly about the concours event's placement
(poop field), Judges (Subjective Humanoids...ie, Real People), and
apparently changing rules, the extent to which has not been discussed.
Here are my opinions on this......Who cares... >8-| (read them
anyway...)
(Poop Field)
I think it was Mr. Norm Miller that explained that on several
previous inspections of the site, Goose poop was not present. OK, Who's
fault? No one. One of natures little tricks....DEAL with it. (was
there a backup site available that was close by? Guess not. Should
there have been one for this size of an event.....probably, ...just in
case of some unknown problem like the city digging up the park for a new
baseball filed, etc. Something to be considered for the next big
event)
(Judges)
This is a difficult one, and there is no perfect solution.
Every Judge is a different person, with different skill levels, and
different opinions, and different experiences, that's why our highest
courts always have more than one judge. Unless there is only ONE person
doing the judging at an event, there will be differences in how they are
judged and on what "that" judge puts emphasis on, this is regardless of
how strict the rules are. People are different....DEAL with it, or
stager the judging over a number of days so that only one VERY qualified
person does the judging of all the cars in any one class. Since this
isn't feasible in most events, just do the best that you can. I believe
that this WAS the plan with all good intentions. It may have gotten out
of hand somewhere, if the comment about a real Glass hard top rear
window passed for original was true. More than one judge?-----More than
one opinion------LIVE with the results and stop complaining and put
those energies into improving the Next event!
(Changing Rules)
If the rules did change on the day of the event, this is unfair
to those that came from a great distance. The Old rules should have
been grandfathered in so if a cars headlight (for example) passed by the
old rules but failed by the new ones, NO penalty should have taken
place. I can't elaborate more on this because the specified of the
changes have not been explained.
(Bottom Line.......(not the crease in your butt from sitting on the park
bench too long))
These events are put together for many reasons and take a great
deal of time to produce. Many people have put hours and hours of their
time in to these. They absolutely do not need to be belittled by the
people who attended this event because of some unforeseen problems, or
lack of "PERFECTION" at ever single aspect of the event. Give them a
SERIOUSLY big break on the complaints people. Do you think they will
ever want to be involved in something again with responses like these?
I don't think so, and either would you. From what I can tell, this was
fantastic, and I wish I could have been there, just for the event
itself, and the chance to see all of those cars together.!!!!!
The point was to have fun for a couple of days, get away from
the office, or city, or continent for that matter!, meet other Sunbeam
owner/enthusiasts, make some new friends, puts some faces to the names
we see here everyday, show your expertise behind the wheel on the track,
and for those with the nearly perfect cars (trailored or not) try to win
a trophy for the best in show!!! The balance of power on this little
planet will not change based on the results of the judging........
I really hope I have the opportunity to attend the next major national
(OK, west coast) event like this, although NONE will be just like this
one.....
I hope the complaining about this event stops now. Enjoy the pictures,
the memories, and the cars you all own, OK? If not, then I'm
going to hunt you down like a rodent and take your car, because I KNOW
how to enjoy it more than you! 8-)
Rich..............No flames.....These are only my opinions....
My praise goes out to all of those who had anything to do with this
event I hope someday that there will be one local to Seattle...
> ----------
> From: PLRRESTO@aol.com[SMTP:PLRRESTO@aol.com]
> Reply To: PLRRESTO@aol.com
> Sent: Thursday, July 10, 1997 12:33 AM
> To: tigers@autox.team.net
> Subject: TUXXII concour
>
> All,
>
> Seems that with the exception of Jeff Cushing, everyone else thought
> the
> social/historical aspect of this event was at least OK. But for a few
> it
> seems, the concour was a disaster.
>
> As you may remember from my first posting , I wasn't crazy about it
> either.
> Hell, I'm in the business of restoring these cars and had a couple of
> my cars
> in the show also. Of course, I'd like to see them PROFESSIONALLY
> judged too.
> But I've learned not to have high expectations, because I feel I'm
> being
> realistic. Simply put, we don't have enough qualified judges and until
> this
> problem is solved the situation is not going to get any better. In
> fact, I
> believe the problem will only get worse as more and more owners spend
> more
> and more money on their cars. From my earlier posting, I'd hoped to
> ignite a
> discussion on how we might be able to find an adequate number of
> willing and
> qualified judges, but little of value was presented. All I kept
> seeing was
> the same individuals calling the TUXXII concour an OUTRAGE with no
> viable
> solutions. I'll bet Steve and Jane Sage of CAT would love to have that
> list
> of 27 OUTRAGED TUXXII concour participants; maybe they'll all become
> willing
> professional judges by the time TUXXIII rolls around. I don't think
> so.
>
> And since Mr. harde keeps bringing it up, I thought maybe I should say
> a few
> words about the switched judging forms. Yes, the forms were changed a
> few
> weeks before the event and I'm the "extreme power" responsible. Why?
> Because
> a few weeks before the event I began receiving calls from people
> complaining
> that the judging forms posted on the Web page were unfair to the
> entrants in
> the personalized and modified classes. I felt I had to make a decision
> and I
> choose to make a decision that would piss off the least number of
> people by
> using forms that had been used in the past. Just for the record, the
> rest of
> the TUXXII committee disaggreed with me, but for some reason they gave
> in. Of
> course, I knew some were going to be OUTRAGED, and I knew exactly who
> they
> were going to be.
>
> Funny thing though, I figure I'm probably a qualified judge. And
> before the
> concour I went around and looked at all the top stock class contenders
> and
> ranked them the way I thought they should come out in the concour.
> Funny
> thing, when I saw the official results, I was supprised. With one
> exception,
> I had the same results the "judges" had come up with. Certainly, none
> of the
> persons complaining on the net would have been moved up.
>
> The way I see it, the best way for these folks to win those trophies
> they
> feel they so rightfully deserve is to go to the event chairman of the
> event
> they're interested in and lobby to have the rules changed to their
> advantage.You know, get rid of that Harrington, and while we're at it,
> let's
> get rid of those green Mk2s also. Hey, some people I know have been
> doing it
> for years.
>
> In closing, Frick and Frack of Tiger Technologies need not worry about
> my
> involvement in any future Tigers Uniteds. As I see it, these events
> have over
> the years moved away from what I thought were more social to what I
> feel have
> become far to competitive. TUXXII was an attempt to bring to a Tigers
> United
> interesting personalities and interesting cars to a pleasant location
> to
> promote social interaction. In most peoples minds, I think we did just
> that.
> But when I read comments like those from Mr. Cushing, it just pisses
> me off
> and I start looking for where else I can put energies.
>
> Comments welcome and 'til next time
>
> Paul Reisentz
>
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