BCA National Meet Judging Change Proposal, as seen in "The Bugle"

[B Jake Moran]

On 5/21/2024 at 9:01 AM, Smartin said:

The 12 year-old rule has me puzzled a bit, as well.  As complicated as the class system is in the BCA, I think there should be a place for the “modern” cars…and it would be a moving target of course.  So eventually, your “new” car would be able to qualify for the 400pt classes we are all familiar with.

 

hmmmm

The BCA should now consider a hard stop in the creeping year of acceptability rule or whatever it is. 
 

Buick is an orphan company.  Like Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Plymouth. None of the 3 new Buick badged SUVs are made in America.  A halo car is never coming again, like the 1995-1999 Riviera or to a lesser extent the 2005ish Park Avenue Ultra.  
 

Can you imagine 12 years from now going to a BCA National dominated by Korean made SUVs being proudly displayed?   

[Smartin]

You just never know...

[EmTee]

 

[MCHinson]

This discussion has been very far ranging and perhaps a bit confusing to a relative "outsider" like me. I realize that the BCA is NOT an antique car club. If it WERE an antique car club, I would have probably been more excited about joining it earlier. I am an antique car hobbyist. Buying a new car and joining a club for that car does not interest me. I have been interested in antique cars since I was very young. I have some friends who no longer participate in the local Mustang Club because the local Ford Dealer now buys a club membership for each purchaser of a new Mustang and the "Modern Mustangs" have basically taken over the club and discouraged all of the "Antique Mustang" owners as the focus of the club is now no longer aligned with the interest of their old members with antique cars. I doubt a similar issue will develop in the BCA, but think it might be worthwhile to recognize that as a potential issue and perhaps it is a bit related to the common "Pre-War" vs "Post-War" discussion that seems to often come up in BCA discussions regarding the future of the club.

 

I have never attended a BCA National. The one I was going to go to in Charlotte got cancelled. I have attended many AACA Nationals. I typically have multiple opportunities to attend an AACA Nationals within an easy driving distance of me every year. I have been a member of AACA for over 25 years and a BCA member for decade. While I have previously owned an AACA Repeat Senior Grand National award winning car, I no longer own a trailer. The Buicks that I have owned in the past decade have been primarily Pre-War Buicks. They are "Drivers", not show cars. One of them is an AACA DPC certified car. The most recently purchased one (purchased in 2020) is a 1937 Model 80C, which I have not yet driven to an AACA Nationals or a BCA Nationals, and probably won't.

 

I have driven a 1937 Century from North Carolina to Indiana as well as from NC to Ohio and back for tours. I am in the process of purchasing a 1979 Riviera. It is a very low mileage original, but it has had at least a partial repaint in the past. If not for the repaint, it would have been a perfect AACA HPOF car. As it is, I will either try to do a bit of work to the chassis to overcome its almost 10,000 miles of use and enter it in AACA Class Judging, or else I could just enter it in DPC. 

 

When there is a BCA Meet relatively near me, I will probably drive the Riviera to it. With all of the reading that I have done, primarily on this forum, I still don't have a good idea the best way to register a car like the Riviera in a BCA Nationals. I have no idea where a repainted 10,000 mile car best fits in the BCA Judging system.  

[Y-JobFan]

11 hours ago, B Jake Moran said:

Laughed.  You folks won. Good for you. Glad you are a trailer club.  Still struggling to find judges who know what they are judging.  So a guy who spent $150,000 retirement money can get a plastic award his widow will toss 10 years from now while the “authentic “ 395 point Buick sits in a temperature controlled garage never to see the light of day again.  People have odd explanations of the purpose for the “soul of the club”.  The rest of us are just lucky you let us pay for the privilege. 

Of course you don't understand the value a BCA Senior Award adds to the vehicle either, you rather be flippant as usual.    The judging system is supposed to help propagate proper restorations and ongoing projects on Buicks.  You go to a show and get judged, maybe you get a silver, maybe you learn a thing or two, then you work on your car and upgrade it as needed to meet the criteria needed to obtain Senior Gold, then that car is an example that can be seen at shows all over and one that is done right so people can one that's actually done to standards.  Nobody has ever twisted anyone's arms to enter judging, you can show up with your car and enjoy the show for whatever reason you have to be there, if it makes you feel special write a big "do not judge" across your window card, it's that easy.  Of course you wouldn't know what it's like to have an actual national winner of any make.  I know of dozens of Senior and high award winning Buicks that are driven all over, certainly not languishing in a garage, they actually get used unlike yours which are never on the road

 

 

 

Edited May 27 by Y-JobFan (see edit history)

[Y-JobFan]

11 hours ago, B Jake Moran said:

The BCA should now consider a hard stop in the creeping year of acceptability rule or whatever it is. 
 

Buick is an orphan company.  Like Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Plymouth. None of the 3 new Buick badged SUVs are made in America.  A halo car is never coming again, like the 1995-1999 Riviera or to a lesser extent the 2005ish Park Avenue Ultra.  
 

Can you imagine 12 years from now going to a BCA National dominated by Korean made SUVs being proudly displayed?   

You really don't have a clue, do you?  Buick is anything but an orphan company you obviously don't even know the definition of that.  More of your blathering and bloviating 

 

[MotiveLensPhoto]

12 hours ago, B Jake Moran said:

None of the 3 new Buick badged SUVs are made in America. 

So explain why that matters. I'm on my second Enclave (good deal in trade from first to second, otherwise I'd probably still have the first) and I could care less where it is made. BTW, final assembly at least is in Lansing, MI, according to GM.

[Y-JobFan]

1 hour ago, MotiveLensPhoto said:

So explain why that matters. I'm on my second Enclave (good deal in trade from first to second, otherwise I'd probably still have the first) and I could care less where it is made. BTW, final assembly at least is in Lansing, MI, according to GM.

Exactly

 

[old-tank]

14 hours ago, B Jake Moran said:

Laughed.  You folks won. Good for you. Glad you are a trailer club.  Still struggling to find judges who know what they are judging.  So a guy who spent $150,000 retirement money can get a plastic award his widow will toss 10 years from now while the “authentic “ 395 point Buick sits in a temperature controlled garage never to see the light of day again.  People have odd explanations of the purpose for the “soul of the club”.  The rest of us are just lucky you let us pay for the privilege. 

 

[NTX5467]

The BCA is not the AACA and should not be expected to act like it, period.  AACA looks at all makes and the BCA is focused ONLY on Buick-branded vehicles.  I say "Buick-branded" as the Buick Division of General Motors ceased to exist MANY years ago.  If "Buick Division-built" Buicks were the cars the BCA focused on, that would easily limit the newer cars since then to "display only" and make the 400 Point judging much easier and quicker.

 

I have observed that a correctly-restored car CAN drive cross-country to BCA National Meets.  @old-tank and @5563 have proven that for decades and I applaud them for that.  In many cases, it is helped by choosing correct finishes and coatings to replicate OEM finishes and such, which also makes them more durable and cosmetically correct.  Not everyone wants to trailer their cars to the meet, but in the modern weather, that could well be an option as things progress.

 

Many people restore their vehicles to varying levels of accuracy and authenticity for varying reasons.  IF they do it themselves, doing it right, that counts for more to me than if they had somebody else do all of it for them.  I also understand why the "somebody else do it" orientation can work, too, for a price.  In general, if they can afford the pickup truck and enclosed trailer, they can probably afford to pay somebody to do it for them.  BTAIM

 

I can see and understand both sides of the "trailered" or "not trailered" conversation.  Everybody has their own sensitivity points in that conversation.  IF I had spent years and trunk-loads of money on restoring or building ANY vehicle, IF I was going to take it cross-country, putting it in a trailer is "protecting my investment" to me.  Might be great to drive it, too, if the weather was good and the meet was near me, though.  There are JOYS in both situations!

 

In one respect, the argument about Buicks made in non-U.S.A. GM factories rather than in the USA, might be akin to saying that all Buicks which were not built in Flint, MI "were not real Buicks", in earlier times.  ENJOY THE BRAND and the vehicles IT IS AFFIXED TO, period.

 

As to the BCA's future survival, it needs to accept ALL BUICK vehicles, made where ever, in all years of production, in order to survive.  Which means the orientation NEEDS to be "I like Buicks and what they represent" to the motoring public and others., no matter if they are rotisserie restorations, 110% correct and accurate, unmolested originals, or "enhanced" in several ways.  If the vehicle has a relationship with "Buick", then the BCA needs to have a class for it to be shown or displayed in at the National Meets.

 

The more the merrier, although this can expand and strain all judging activities.

 

Enjoy!

Willis Bell 20811