Virtual show rules

Who can enter

• You must be 18 or over.
• You need a Car Show Expert account with a verified email address, and the car must be in your My Garage. You cannot type in a car, enter without an account, or be entered by someone else.
• You must be allowed to share the photos you submit.
• One entry per person per virtual show. Each show may also limit entries in total or in a class. The show page says so.
• Some shows are part of a qualifier chain (for example regional shows that lead to a final). You can enter only one car in the whole chain. If you enter one show in a chain, you cannot enter another show in the same chain. See “Qualifier chains and finals” below.
• You can enter a car that is private in your garage. Entering makes only that entry's page public. You can choose to also show the car on your public garage. That is optional, and the entry form explains what it does.
• We may reject or remove an entry if we cannot be satisfied that it fits the show's division and these rules.

Divisions

Each virtual show has exactly one division. Shows never mix divisions, and each show has its own winners. Every entry must be a car in your My Garage. The car type on a garage car (Owned, Liked or AI) is set when you add it and is locked once you enter it in a show.

• Cars you own. Real, unedited photos of a car you own. “Own” means you are its owner or a co-owner, or you lease it, or you have the owner's permission to enter it. A car you have sold does not count. You do not need to prove ownership to enter, but you do need it verified before you can win a place (see “Proof of ownership” below).
• Cars you like. Real, unedited photos of a car you do not own. You must have the right to use the photos, and you must give a credit for them. The credit is shown publicly with the entry. No proof is needed.
• AI cars. AI-generated images are allowed. They are identified as AI and are judged only against other AI cars. The rules below on people, children, nudity and offensive content still apply. No proof is needed.

Proof of ownership (Cars you own shows only)

• You can upload one proof photo: the car with a note showing the show name and date, or a dated VIN plate or dash shot. You can upload it until voting closes.
• You can enter and receive votes before your proof is verified. Until a moderator verifies it, your entry is not eligible for a place or award.
• When results are published, an entry whose ownership is not verified is not eligible for a place or award. The next verified car moves up. The entry stays listed, marked as not eligible, with its vote total where the show shows vote counts.
• If the car in your garage matches a car you checked in at a real Car Show Expert show, we may accept that as proof instead of a proof photo. A moderator still approves the entry.
• “Verified” means a moderator looked at your proof and was satisfied. It is not a legal finding about who owns the car, and we may withdraw it if we later learn it was wrong.
• Proof photos are private. Only site moderators see them, a person reviews them, and they are never shown publicly. We delete them about 30 days after results are published (or about 30 days after voting closes if results are never published), or straight away if you withdraw the entry or we remove it. See the privacy notice for details, including what we keep.

Photo rules

• In Cars you own and Cars you like shows, photos must be real, unedited photos of the car you are entering. Only light adjustments are fine, such as cropping and brightness. No retouching beyond that, no renderings, no AI-generated or composited images. In AI cars shows, AI-generated images are allowed and are identified as AI. If you use an AI tool, you must be allowed to use its output in this way under that tool's terms.
• No identifiable people, in any division. Do not include anyone's face (including a reflection), name tag or other clear way to tell who they are, and especially not children. This includes AI images of real people.
• No number plates. Hide or blur them. The entry form has a blur tool.
• Nothing that shows where you live: no house numbers, street signs, or your or your neighbours' homes and driveways.
• Only photos you took or have the right to use, including the right to give us the licence below. No stolen photos. In Cars you like shows, give the credit the entry form asks for. A credit does not mean the photographer or the car's owner supports the show or your entry.
• No nudity, and nothing offensive, sexual or violent, in any division.

The no-plates rule does not apply to a proof-of-ownership photo, which may show a plate or VIN. Proof photos are private. We remove hidden location data (such as GPS) from photos, but we cannot see everything in a picture, so check each photo before you submit it.

Video (optional)

• You can add one YouTube video to an entry, in addition to your photos. It must be a short clip, under 3 minutes, of the car you are entering and nothing else. The photo rules apply to it too: no number plates, no close-ups of people, nothing that shows where you live.
• You must own the video or have the right to use it, and you give us the licence below for it as well. YouTube only: we do not host videos.
• A moderator watches the video before approving it, and can remove it. If you add or change a video on an approved entry, the entry goes back to review. If the video is later deleted, made private or changed on YouTube after approval, it is hidden on the entry page until a moderator looks at it again; the entry and its photos stay.

The licence you give us

You keep ownership of your photos and text. By submitting an entry you give Car Show Expert a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to host, display, copy, resize, crop and share your photos, caption, car details and the first word of the public name you choose. We may do this on the show pages, the results, winner cards and links people share, and to promote that show. We may let our hosting and service providers do it for us, only to run the service. The licence ends when you withdraw the entry or we remove it, except that we may keep the show's results history, which names the car and its place. Copies that others have already saved or shared may remain outside our control. We will not use your photos for wider promotion of Car Show Expert without asking you first. You confirm that you have the right to give this licence, that your entry does not infringe anyone's rights, and you will cover our reasonable losses if it does.

How review works

A person reviews every entry before it appears. We will attempt to review entries within 48 hours. That is an attempt, not a guarantee, and we do not promise any other time. Photos are also checked by an automatic service first, and an entry is held for a person if that check cannot run. See the privacy notice.

We approve an entry, reject it with a reason and the photo to fix, or remove it. Your entry page shows its status, so come back to it. We do not email you about it. A rejected entry can be fixed and resubmitted until the late-join cutoff below.

Editing, withdrawing and removal

• Any change to an approved entry (photos, video, caption, name or class) sends it back to review. You can only edit an approved entry before voting opens. While voting is open it is locked, so the car cannot change under the voters. In a show with voting switched off, an approved entry stays editable until entries close.
• You can withdraw an entry until voting closes. Votes it received are released and those voters can vote again. After voting closes you cannot withdraw it. In a show without voting you can withdraw until entries close.
• We can remove an entry at any time, for example if it breaks these rules or the car is not as entered. A removed entry loses any award, and places are updated. When you withdraw an entry, its photos and any proof photo are deleted. When we remove an entry, its proof photo is deleted straight away and its entry photos are deleted when results are published.
• Asking friends, family and followers to vote is fine. Manipulating the vote is not: paying for votes, or using fake accounts, bots or addresses made for the purpose, can lead to your entry being disqualified. Our decisions on this are final.

Classes and place awards

Each show has classes, and you pick one your car fits. Voting and awards are per class. A class with fewer than 3 entries gets no place awards, so a car never wins just by being alone. A car with no votes does not place.

Dates

Each show page lists its own dates. Unless it says otherwise, entries close on a Sunday at 23:59 UTC, review carries on through the following Tuesday, voting opens on the Wednesday at 00:00 UTC, and voting closes the Sunday of the following week at 23:59 UTC. Results are published after an integrity check, no earlier than the Monday evening after voting closes. An entry still waiting for approval when voting opens can join as soon as it is approved, up to the late-join cutoff, which is the Sunday at 23:59 UTC at the end of the first voting week. Voting ends at the same time for everyone.

An entry that is not approved by the late-join cutoff is not included in that month's vote. We do not carry it over to a later show automatically, and we do not promise that it will be. You can enter a later show if it is open.

Some virtual shows are linked in a chain, for example local heats that feed a regional round that feeds a championship. A chain has at most 3 rounds, and the organiser of the chain names each round. The show page says whether a show is part of a chain, which round it is, and how many places advance. This section applies to every show in a chain.

Who is invited

• When a show in a chain publishes its results, the top places in each class (or the top places overall, if the show page says so) are invited to the next round. The number is shown on the show page. We send no emails, so check your entry page and My Entries once the organisers have sent invitations.
• If cars tie at the cut-off place, all of the tied cars are invited. A round can therefore be slightly larger than the number shown.
• A class with fewer entries than the show's minimum (3 or more entries, the number is set per show) advances nobody, in line with the class rule above.
• In a Cars you own chain, an entry whose ownership is not verified does not take a qualifying place. The next verified car is considered instead.
• You can enter only one car in the whole chain, in any round and any show. The finals take no direct entries. A place there comes only from an invitation.

Accepting or declining

• Accepting is your choice. We send no emails about invitations and a missed deadline passes your place on, so check your entry page and My Entries often once a round has finished. Your invitation shows a deadline, which is a number of days after your invitation is sent (5 days unless the show page says otherwise). Your invitation is sent when the organisers open invitations, or when a place is passed to you. Accept or decline on your own entry page.
• To accept you must tick two boxes: “I accept the finals rules and I am 18 or over” and “I accept the photo licence for the finals”.
• If you decline, or the deadline passes, your place goes to the next car in line, who gets a fresh deadline. Declining cannot be undone. A round can end up slightly larger when tied cars in line are invited together.
• We invite cars in line only while at least 24 hours of the finals entry period remain and before voting opens. After that, a round simply runs with fewer cars.

What carries over

• The same car, its photos and its caption go into the finals as a new entry. Your photos are copied, so the finals entry has its own files.
• Votes do not carry over. Voting in the finals starts from zero, with one vote per class per voter, as in any show. People who voted in an earlier show can vote in the finals.
• The result of the earlier show stays as it was published.
• A carried entry cannot be edited. You can withdraw it until voting closes in the finals, and votes it received are released. Withdrawing is final: the place is not offered to you again. While we are still allowed to invite cars in line (see above), your place may go to the next car.
• The ownership status of an entry carries over with it. A verified entry stays verified.
• Every show in a chain has the same division. The finals show is for that division only.

The licence for the finals

The licence you gave for the earlier show stays as it is. When you accept a place, you give the same licence, as described under “The licence you give us” above, for the finals show, covering the copies of your photos in it. The same rules on withdrawal and removal apply to the finals entry.

Changes by the organisers and to the chain

• An invitation is not a guaranteed place. The organisers can replace or remove a finalist, for example if an entry is not eligible. They record a reason each time. You see a short message, and you can email competition@carshowexpert.com with questions.
• The chain is set up before its first show opens for entries. After that, its rules can change only if the organisers unlock it and record a written reason. The finals page then shows a note that the rules changed. The number of places that advance cannot change once the list of qualifiers has been worked out.

What other people can see

• The finals page lists the finalists who have accepted, and a count of places still awaiting confirmation. It does not say who declined or let an invitation lapse.
• Results of each show are public, so anyone can see which of its top places did not go on to the next round.
• Other entrants and the public cannot see your invitation.

The privacy notice says what we keep about invitations and decisions. Questions about a chain: competition@carshowexpert.com.

• You must be 18 or over. By voting you confirm that and agree to these rules.
• Anyone with an email address can vote. No account is created, and you never need a password.
• One vote per class per person, however you confirm your email. Using the code, a signed-in account or Google on different devices counts as the same person. You cannot vote for your own car, and show staff cannot vote for entries in their show. Different spellings of one address (for example dots in a Gmail address, or a +tag) count as the same person.
• You can change your vote in a class until voting closes. On the same device it takes one tap. On a new device, confirm your email again.
• A vote counts if it is confirmed before voting closes. After that, no vote or code is accepted.

How the email code works

1. Tap Vote and enter your email address. A security check from Cloudflare runs first.
2. We email you a 6-digit code. It works once, expires after 10 minutes, and allows a few tries.
3. Type the code on the same page. Your vote counts at once.

The email says only that someone entered your address to vote. If that was not you, ignore it. We send nothing else, ever. We do not accept throwaway email addresses.

After you confirm, your device remembers that you are verified for that show, so you can vote in other classes with one tap. That uses one cookie, described in the privacy notice.

Skipping the code

• Already signed in. If you are signed in to a Car Show Expert account with a verified email address, tap Vote and your vote counts in one tap, with no code. The address from your account is used only to recognise one vote per person.
• Continue with Google (where available). This is a vote-only step. It does not create a Car Show Expert account or sign you in. Google confirms your email address, we use it only to recognise one vote per person, and we keep nothing else from Google. The button is usually hidden in the built-in browsers of apps such as Facebook and Instagram, where Google blocks sign-in. The emailed code always works.

Whichever way you confirm, the address is kept only as a one-way code until results are published, then deleted with the rest of the voter list. The same person using different ways still counts as one voter, with one vote per class. The own-car and show-staff blocks apply on every path. The privacy notice has the details.

Voting limits

To stop cheating and protect the email service, we limit how often codes can be requested for one address, from one network and for one show, and how often a vote can be changed. One-tap votes (signed in or Google) are limited in the same way, per network address and for changing a vote. If you hit a limit the page says so and you can try again later. We do not publish the exact limits.

Held and voided votes

• Held. If a vote trips a warning sign, such as a burst of votes for one car from one network or from one unusual email domain, we save it but do not count it while it is checked. A vote cast by one of the shortcuts is also held when the security check could not run. A person decides. If nobody has decided when its hold period ends, it counts. You will not be emailed. Come back to the entry page on the same device, or confirm your email again, to see its status.
• Voided. Votes we find to be cheating, for example from bots or from addresses made for the purpose, can be voided and are not counted. A voided vote is removed from the totals. We cannot tell you by email, and once results are published we cannot tell you at all, because by then votes are no longer linked to anyone.
• Withdrawn entry. If the car you voted for is withdrawn, your vote is released and you can vote again in that class.

• Raise a concern before results are published. Use the Report this entry link on the entry page, or email competition@carshowexpert.com. A person reviews it with the full vote data still available. A reported entry may be hidden while it is checked.
• If we suspect rigging, a moderator may void votes, and may remove or disqualify entries, before results are published. We may also hold back publishing results while we check.
• After results are published, the only correction is a documented adjustment. For a specific problem, such as credible evidence of a bot attack, we may subtract a stated number of votes from an entry's total or remove an entry, with a written reason. The results page then shows an updated note. Otherwise, published results are final.
• Why we cannot do more after that. When results are published we delete the voter list and every detail that could link a vote to a person. After that, a disputed result can only be corrected from the totals, not checked vote by vote. We think that is the right trade for voter privacy, and we want you to know it up front.

Virtual show awards are recognition only. Winners get a place on the results page, a winner card and a badge on their public garage if the car is public there. There is no cash prize and no prize of any other kind. A show with voting switched off has no results page, winner cards or awards.

• If a photo shows you, your home or your property, or is your own photo used without permission, email competition@carshowexpert.com with a link to the entry and we will review it promptly. For a copyright complaint, include the work you say was copied, where it appears, your contact details, a statement that you believe in good faith that the use is not allowed, and a statement that your notice is accurate and that you own the rights or act for the owner. We may remove an entry that infringes.
• Use Report this entry for anything that breaks these rules. Several separate reports before the late-join cutoff hide an entry until a person has looked at it. Hiding an entry is not a finding that it broke the rules.
• Entrants can withdraw their own entry before voting closes, and we can remove any entry.
• For any other complaint, email competition@carshowexpert.com. We will reply, but we cannot promise a particular time.

We may change these rules. The date at the top shows when they last changed, and we will post the change on this page. We cannot email voters, who have no account, so check the date before you vote. We will not change the rules for a show that is already open for voting in a way that affects its results, except to fix a problem such as a rule that is unclear, unfair or unlawful, or to stop cheating. If we change these rules materially, using the site after the change means you accept the new rules. If you do not accept them, withdraw your entry or stop voting.