I believe in the little guy; the backyard mechanic. For background, I’m infatuated with cars. I worked on cars since before I started to drive. Even now, I still do my own work though I can pay others to do the work for me. Nothing gets my attention faster than a good sounding exhaust, chrome or a clean paint job. I can appreciate all types of cars provided they are well one. As I’ve gotten older, I started going to car shows more than the race track. I really don’t have anything to prove to anyone anymore. I’m just enjoying myself. It’s interesting to watch the competitiveness of some people in chasing a plastic trophy that will do nothing but collect dust in a corner. The work most of these people do in working on their cars is writing checks. There is an unbelievable amount of money being thrown into chasing the useless plastic trophy. Here is my heartache. At car shows, the little guy rarely wins the checkbook war. That is because he is usually the person that has put blood, sweat and a lot of work into his car. He’s traded, scrounged, salvaged and toiled to put the car together. It usually isn’t as pretty as the checkbook writers car, but you the here the pride in the owners voice when he talks about the car. I have really gotten frustrated with hearing about “I spent XXXXX dollars or more to pay some shop to build my car.” People need to get over this thinking. It’s not really their car; it’s the shop’s car. The trophy should be presented to the shop that collected the check.
Give the backyard mechanic a chance! My solution is that economics should have nothing to do with the awards process. The judging should include criteria about how much work the owner has actually put in the car. The trophy should go to the guy that can tell what size wrench you need to turn which bolt because he’s actually turned the bolt. The little guy may actually be able to