Marin Sonoma Concours - "Japanese Manufacture" - 5/19/13

[david premo]

Great job Ed Mason 1st place, 2nd went to Mike Young, and 3rd went to a 280Z.

[notoptoy]

Fantastic and a great showing for Roadsters!

[jamesw]

Congratulations are in order for everyone that showed their cars this weekend. Great job guys!

Cheers
James

[ACote]

It was a great show.
I ended up parking in the normal spots but found these 2 close to the show. Wasn't sure how to get my car there.

Here's Premo getting looked over

I'm real Bad with names but all the cars were looking great. Some new Bias tires.

Is this the one that won? Eddy? Looked great So much detail.


67 2000 su's, they had a lot different from the later years.



Mike young with some toyos tires.
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And here's the link for the rest of the awesome cars!
http://s1238.photobucket.com/user/alexc ... t=3&page=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;"

[acuboy]

That's my black 1600 parked behind the red one. I didn't know where to park, so I just pulled in behind the only other roadster I could find. Beautiful day, awesome cars, and I got to meet some of my fellow roadster owners.

[bikermike]

Congratulations to Ed and Mike on their 1st and 2nd place awards today. Both cars looked great and represented the marque well. I need to sort through some pics and videos from the weekend to post and share.

For starters, enjoy Ed and his '67 SRL being recognized for Best in Class.

[youtube][/youtube]

[Alvin]

I want to thank everyone that entered their roadster into the Concours and congrats to the winners!
I could not be at the show but bikermike kindly updated me on the events as if I was there

The video mike posted made me very emotional.

This is a great time for Datsun roadsters and Japanese cars in general and I can't wait for Mike and others to share their Concours experience with all of us.

[SLOroadster]

Just a quick update tonight...

Dave Premo and I drove the Tour d'Elegance this morning from Larkspur to Sonoma Raceway via an 80 mile scenic route through redwoods, farmland and vineyards with a wonderful mix of cars dating from the 20's through the 70's. We drove 3 parade laps on the track with the other participants before lunch was served in the suites above the grandstands. Then we watched some of the afternoon races and were free to roam around the pits and check out the mix of vintage race cars that came in for the weekend.

According to tomorrow's Concours program there will be a total of 13 cars entered in the Japanese Manufacture class - 8 Datsuns and 5 Toyotas.

Roadsters will be represented by 5 examples: four '67 SRLs and my 67.5 SPL. Other Datsuns are a '72 240z, a '73 1600 (510 with Mexican plates - we saw it today on the Tour) and a '78 280z

The Toyotas entered are a '67 Sports 800, three Celica convertibles - one each from '83, '84 and '85 and an '85 Supra.

More to come on Sunday.

I was wondering who's roadster was in the upper parking lot. I've got some pics for you after I'm done sorting and editing everything I shot on Saturday.

Will

[petrol]

And that's my red 69 2000! It took some perseverance to find the "car club" area- signage was poor. Normally that area is full of Jag's, Triumphs, etc- seemed to be a lower turnout this year, probably due to the Sonoma Historics races, which I attended the day before.

That's my black 1600 parked behind the red one. I didn't know where to park, so I just pulled in behind the only other roadster I could find. Beautiful day, awesome cars, and I got to meet some of my fellow roadster owners.

[bikermike]

Here are scans of some of the programs from the weekend.

Concours program - J class

2013 Marin Concours Program J Class sm.pdf

Tour program and route

2013 Marin Tour Route Program sm.pdf

[SLOroadster]

From the parking lot at Sears Point.








If you would like any of those in full size, let me know.

Will

[Ed Mason]

I finally arrived home early this evening after an 1100 mile drive home. I had a great time and met some more Roadster owners.
Got to hang out with Mike Young and Biker Mike. Also met some fellow Japanese make car owners and got to check out their rides.
Dave Primo donated some money to me- oh wait he wants some parts in return. I trailered my car to the show. After the show I drove
the car back to my motel in Suisan City via HWY 37 Sears Point Highway, about an hour away, with my daughter Marie. I had new, vintage 5.60x14 bias
ply tires on stock wheels on the car and I can say that the ride was interesting and thank god for modern wheels and tires. Those tires are
noisy and don't handle very well at all. I can say that it is hard to win an award when there are other cars worthy of that award. This award
is for all of us in our family of Datsun Roadsters. Big thanks to Mike Young and his support and help at the show. Also, a huge thanks to
Biker Mike for taking photos of all the cars, and the presentation video that my family and me will cherish for a long time to come. And
where was Alvin, I was looking forward to seeing Alvin!

[bikermike]

Alvin asked me to describe the judging process. This was my 1st time having a car judged. I hadn’t even attended a Concours before. I did see an episode of “Chasing Classic Cars” where a car was judged and it seemed pretty similar to what I experienced.

We had to show up between 7-8:30am. Judging was set to start at 9:30. There was some initial confusion on whether tops should be up or down. The judges wanted to assess the condition of the tops. It would have been a 5 point deduction for not having the top up. Luckily I drove in with the top up and hadn’t fully lowered it when Ian approached me with the news.

Owners needed to be near their cars during the judging period. There was one guy who was paged when the judges arrived at his car and he was nowhere to be found. Each car also needed to have a fire extinguisher nearby. Most people positioned it as a wheel chock.

The J class had 13 cars in a row. There were 3 judges assigned to our class, each dressed in a blue blazer and a straw hat. The judges did a walk of the row to do a quick canvas of the cars. Then they went to the 1st car, Ed’s, and proceeded to spend about 10 - 15 minutes per car going through their process. One of the judges was the leader. He introduced himself and the other two, outlined the process and then interviewed me about the car while the other 2 walked around and assessed fit and finish. The car needed to be closed up. I had the windows rolled down. I had to roll them up. One of the Toyotas had a vinyl bra on the nose. It had to be removed to assess the paint underneath.

Next I was asked to pop the hood and start the car. After hearing it run for a bit, I was asked to turn on parking lights, low beams, high beams and each turn signal. I volunteered to turn on the fogs too. One judge was up front, one was in the back and the 3rd near the driver’s door giving me instructions and marking results. I had to put the car in reverse to check the back up light and was asked to honk the horn. One judge looked into the interior. He asked if the clock worked and checked the time. With the top up there wasn’t much light or room to look at all the interior details. I was not asked to lower the top. The judges also wanted to look in the trunk to see the spare and the tools.

As they were not well versed in all the Roadster details some of the discussion during the judging revolved around things that were obviously non-stock. For example, my polished SU carb domes attracted attention. During the process the judges were all friendly and not critical.

After going over the car, the judges walked off into the field with clipboards in hand and huddled for a while to score the car. After they came to a score they moved on to the next car and started over again. I did not find out what my scores was.

After a while someone came by to place a “Congratulations” tag on 3 of the cars to indicate the cars that placed. A bit later another person came by to leave gifts in 2 of the 3 cars. Since Ed did not receive a gift on his seat it was easy to deduce that his car won the class. Since there wasn’t a lot of room at the venue to move cars around, only the 1st place cars were presented to the crowd at the front stage – as shown in the video above.

That about covers it. Maybe some of the other guys will want to chime in and share their experiences as well.

Ed's car:

judging1.JPG

Mike Y.'s car:

judging2.JPG

The results have been published:
http://concours2013.com/2013/2013/05/th ... ners-list/

[notoptoy]

That is cool. I wonder how the cars would score with a team like Sid, Alvin and Mike Young judging - three REALLY knowledgeable Roadsterfiles?!
Sounds pretty fair and unbiased though.
Congratulations again!

[Alvin]

Mike,
Thanks for the first-hand recap of the concours judging! I always wondered when Japanese cars would be taken seriously at these events an dit makes me even happier to see our beloved roadsters being considered alongside the typical US/Euro stuff. It trips me out to see the pictures you posted of the judges look at the cars...

"This our chance to show the public and the judges just how serious our cars are. I can't believe it. I joked that one day this dude would be under the frame of your Datsun…now it's a reality!"
a picture i took years ago at a concours event:



Look forward to your write-up of the tour!

@Tom, there is no way I could be a roadster judge save that for the Mike Youngs and Sid Rapers