Car Show Judging: How to Set Up a Fair System That Owners Will Actually Respect

People will forgive a lot — rain, a food truck running out of food, a sound system that cuts out — but they will not forgive car show judging that feels unfair. And "feels unfair" is doing a lot of work in that sentence, because owners are emotional about their cars. A system that is actually fair can still feel unfair if it isn't explained. Transparency is not optional.

Here's the foundational principle: write down your criteria, publish them to entrants before the show, and follow them without exception. Every judgment call you make on the day should be traceable back to something in writing.

Judging only works if you're comparing like to like. A stock, numbers-matching 1967 Mustang should not be competing against a full custom street rod with a modern fuel-injected engine. They're both great cars. They're not comparable.

At a minimum, your class structure should separate stock/original from modified, pre-1970 from post-1970, street rods and customs from factory-correct restorations, and trucks from passenger cars.

The more classes you have, the more awards you give out, the happier your entrants are — but the more judges you need. At the Great Lakes Invitational we run about 28 classes. A 100-car show might run 12–15 classes. A 50-car show could run 8. Size it to your entrant base and your judge capacity.

For any serious judged show, I recommend the 100-point system. Here's a breakdown that works:

This structure forces judges to evaluate every part of the car, not just the paint. It produces a number you can show to an owner who disputes the result. And it catches the judge who gives 10 out of 10 for everything because he's not paying attention.

Here's the honest truth about judge recruitment: most people who volunteer to judge at car shows are enthusiasts who want to look at cars, not methodical evaluators. That's fine — enthusiasm is good. But they need to be trained.

Before the show, give every judge the scoring rubric in writing, a brief walkthrough of what each category covers, instructions on how to handle ties, and one rule they must follow without exception: no talking to owners while judging.

That last one is the hardest to enforce. Owners will approach judges. Some will be subtle about it, others will just start telling you about their restoration the moment you get near the car. Your judges need to be able to politely redirect them. "I can't discuss the car during judging, but I'd love to hear about it after the ceremony" is a line worth rehearsing.

Two to three judges per class is the right number. One judge is a dictatorship. Four or more is slow and produces its own arguments. Two judges with a chief judge who breaks ties is my preferred setup for most classes.

Judges should not judge a class that contains a car they have a personal relationship with. This sounds obvious. You'd be surprised how often it gets ignored.

Every show needs a chief judge. This person doesn't judge individual classes — they float. Their job is to resolve ties using a documented tiebreaker process, handle disputes from entrants before results are announced, ensure judges are moving through classes on schedule, and collect and verify all score sheets before results are compiled.

The tiebreaker process needs to be decided in advance. "The judges confer and pick one" is not a process — it's an argument waiting to happen. My tiebreaker is a focused re-score of the exterior category only, by the chief judge independently. Simple, fast, defensible.

Paper score sheets work. I used them for 20 years. But collecting 60 sheets at the end of judging, checking them for legibility, and manually totalling the scores while the crowd is waiting for the ceremony is its own kind of stress. I've had sheets blown away by wind. I've had a judge write car numbers wrong and contaminate two classes worth of results.

Digital scoring — judges entering scores on a phone or tablet, results compiled automatically — solves every one of those problems. You still need a backup paper process in case signal fails, but digital is faster, more accurate, and lets the chief judge see results in real time rather than waiting for paper collection.

Whatever system you use, have the results compiled and verified before the trophy ceremony starts. Not while it's starting. Before.