James brings up a good question regarding competition judging standards. There does not seem to be clear guidelines on this, so it's a bit open to interpretation. The following are my personal views on this (probably does not reflect others' views). There are 4 points for tires in the DMC judging manual. In my view a score of 4 requires original NCT's in as-new condition (no noticeable wear) properly cleaned and prepared for show. A score of 0 would be warranted for non-original tires, with noticeable wear, and not completely cleaned for show. The elements for this item consist of 1) Correct tires on car 2) Condition of the tires 3) Preparation of the tires for show My inclination would be to award the 4 points according to these three categories as 2 points for correct tires, 1 point for wear, and 1 point for preparation. My feelings for this weighting is due to the degree of difficulty involved in getting good condition correct tires versus the difficulty of preparing them, etc. Thus, assuming the tires were all prepared properly for show, a worn set of NCT's would rate a score of approximately 3, while a new set of Yokahamas would rate about 2. Note, that worn tires are also much more difficult to get to look nice, so would be more susceptible to deduction for good dressing/preparation. Worn NCT's might therefore in practice get scores closer to 2.5 even if prepared well for show. These are just my own thoughts on this -- as most folks already know, I'm pretty picky about finding things to deduct for in these competitions (otherwise all the cars would end up with the same score). James is the master at this and I trust his judgement and guidelines on judging standards. Knut __________________________ From: James Espey <james@xxxx> Date: Sat Dec 30, 2000 3:15pm Subject: NCT's in Concours This brings up an interesting question that I would like to present to the past and potential future judges of the Millennium Concours...how would you score two DeLoreans in a concours, one with worn NCT's, and other with say, new Yokohamas? James