Does your Challenge car wear a neutral color?

You bring SHAME to the Bosozuku!

Got it add more color. I’ll just have my father come up with the paint scheme he has a wild color taste. 

I has an idea. Why don't yall rule that the first $100 in paint and stickers is budget exempt.

I am sure that you get way more interesting paint schemes that way. Would make for a more interesting read in the mag for sure.

David S. Wallens said:

Duke said:

Dusterbd13 said:

Also, what would constitute "too loud"?

Well, the Mumpkin wasn't too loud, so I don't know if there is a practical limit:

 

Funny, earlier today JG and I were discussing some kind of possible trophy for the best retro visual package. If that becomes a thing, bonus points for screaming chickens. 

Patrick said:

Hey i threw the tail stripes on this year so i would have a shot at the cover!  Plus my car is white AND black(and red and blue now)

ed literally said “please don’t paint the corvair black” to me.  It’s black already.  You can have your bright colors for the $2020 and $2021 cover cars I plan on bringing.  

David, you’ll get this punk reference.  Originally I planned, if it needed filler work and paint immediately, to paint the Corvair orange(Agent Orange) because corvairs are <Insert song title here Mr Wallens>

Mine will be from the TSC colour pallette .........think Kubota.

Soooooooo now I gotta buy paint? Ugh 

Sorry for the black on black on black on black car 

Daeldalus said:

I has an idea. Why don't yall rule that the first $100 in paint and stickers is budget exempt.

 

I am sure that you get way more interesting paint schemes that way. Would make for a more interesting read in the mag for sure.

Nah, part of the challenge is deciding where to spend that last $100.  I had about $100 in paint/stickers give or take, there really isn’t much else I could have done with that money to better my finish position in any of the 3 venues of competition than making the car not look like it did when I picked it up.  I possibly could have gone faster, but looked horrible doing it.  Some people pick look horrible go faster.  It’s all part of the game.  I’m going to allocate a certain lump for looks on every build but if it’s the difference between paint or another 150hp at the push of a button i’m picking more powarrrrrr almost always 

There are three events. Dedicate 1/3 your budget and time to preparing for each. 

Not that I have ever been able to follow my own advice.

The challenge is budget exempt on safety. Thats because you want everyone to not cut corners when it comes to being safe.

The challenge is budget exempt on the first set of tires. That's because you want everyone to be on an even playing field when it comes to the quality of rubber they can bring.

If you want people to all bring crazy  and unique liveries then I think a small free budget for it would go a long way towards that goal. 

Hmm...

Pretty sure you guys kinda avoided the Mumpkin with the cameras when I brought it!

I didn't think you had much love for it! 

Nope man up and paint your car with budget. Says the man that brought a bedlinered black Q45 the last two years.

Patrick said:

 I’m going to allocate a certain lump for looks on every build but if it’s the difference between paint or another 150hp at the push of a button i’m picking more powarrrrrr almost always 

4 out 5 people would pick more power too. That is what this thread is about. The staff sees that more than most participants decided to leave stock bland paint and use the budget for more performance. 

I just don't see that changing unless they are given a bit of room dedicated to it.

Well, I bet my lucky stars that good looking bright cars will score well in concours this year.

Daeldalus said:

The challenge is budget exempt on safety. Thats because you want everyone to not cut corners when it comes to being safe.

 

The challenge is budget exempt on the first set of tires. That's because you want everyone to be on an even playing field when it comes to the quality of rubber they can bring.

 

If you want people to all bring crazy  and unique liveries then I think a small free budget for it would go a long way towards that goal. 

As the guy who executed the Mumpkin livery completely inside the budget, I couldn't disagree more.  

It took hundreds and hundreds of hours. But the total cost was probably under $100. 

A budget concession is not what would encourage better liveries. More cover shots on the magazine are what it would take. 

We had clear goals when we built that car. We wanted:

- Overall win

- 1st place autocross by a full second

- Beat Andrew Nelson's autocross by 4 seconds

- Win the Concours

- 12 second 1/4 mile

- cover photo on the magazine

We didn't make any of those goals. That's why we placed 3rd instead of 1st. 

But the cover was absolutely one of our goals, plain and simple. 

In reply to SVreX :

I certainly understand your points on this as well. It isn't impossible or even very hard to budget for looks in the challenge. 

What I am saying is that it won't be a priority for most challengers. Especially when the winner (this year at least) did almost nothing in that respect. 

But if it was free( to a point) then you'd have to be daft not to put in the effort to make your car look good. Instantly you would double or triple the amount of liveried cars at the challenge. 

If that is something that GRM finds to be a priority then I think it would be effective to do it.

In reply to Daeldalus :

Mentioning the Wreck Racing car doesn't help your position.  I was the judge. 

I've posted long explanations of why I think the Wreck Racing car deserved to win the Concours based on the current rule set. 

And I would suggest that the one thing the Wreck Racing car and my car (the Mumpkin) have in common is that they are both enormously photogenic and editorial worthy. 1 is pretty, 1 is not. Both could deserve the cover. 

No one will put in the effort I did for an appearance package just because it is free, because most people here are not willing to spend several hundred hours worrying about appearance. 

The only 2 things that would increase the efforts in appearance are:

1- Cover shots

2- A rule change which made the Concours about "pretty", instead of being about "creative". I would not be in favor of this. 

In reply to SVreX :

I never meant to belittle the winner. it was very creative and showed amazing workmanship. it just wasn't easy on the eyes(and a neutral color) Was it cover worthy? heck yes! Interesting? also yes! but, they are the poster against what this thread is about. my point was that people looking at it will see a car that put in no effort for paint and livery and see that they don't need to do any of that either.

I don't think that any amount of incentive will be enough for people to put in as much effort as you did. I do think that people would go from absolutely zero effort to putting in enough effort to make things interesting. which I think would be a good thing for the Challenge in general.

fYI I spent over 100 hours on bodywork and painting/detailing on my 2017 car.  I just so happened to really want it to be white and black, for me.  I have things I’d like to attain challenge wise but number one goal on all fronts is build the car I want to build that makes me happy to drive.  Sometimes concessions are made to the budget but in the end i’m building it for me to like, not for other people.  

I’m not sure if you’ve ever been there but very few cars get zero effort in the looks department.  It just doesn’t come across well in a little magazine blurb.  

In reply to Daeldalus :

I think we disagree. 

This is the same group that embraced the minimum Concours scoring this year so they didn't have to do ANYTHING about the appearance. 

I don't believe a few dollars in the budget will motivate. I do believe more features in the magazine pictures will. 

There's been a trend in the magazine the last few years to do less feature coverage of Challenge cars. Maybe for good reasons. Hard to say. There was even a Challenge winner that never got a feature. I'm not judging this, but it's true. 

Maybe it's a chicken or egg problem. Maybe the cars are not photogenic, so they don't get featured. Or maybe they don't get featured so no one bothers with the appearance. Doesn't matter. If GRM wants more feature worthy Challenge cars, they are going to have to feature more Challenge cars. 

There were some great looking cars there this year. Their pictures should be featured. 

In reply to Patrick :

Your car is one of the ones I think should be featured photographically from this year. 

i haven't ever been. i would like to but both money and time get in the way( i know I could come to spectate but that kinda feels wrong to me somehow)

more than 2/3rds of the entire field was a neutral color last year. I am also willing to bet more than half were the stock color. the staff was just talking about livening that scheme up a bit. if you were given free room only towards livery would you ignore it and leave your car faded beige metallic? of course not. 

In reply to Daeldalus :

Yes I would. 

Explanation...

If I got the sense that the magazine was unlikely to feature a picture of my car, and I didn't need the Concours points, I wouldn't waste my time. 

SVreX said:

I think we disagree. 

This is the same group that embraced the minimum Concours scoring this year so they didn't have to do ANYTHING about the appearance. 

I don't believe a few dollars in the budget will motivate. I do believe more features in the magazine pictures will. 

There's been a trend in the magazine the last few years to do less feature coverage of Challenge cars. Maybe for good reasons. Hard to say. There was even a Challenge winner that never got a feature. I'm not judging this, but it's true. 

Maybe it's a chicken or egg problem. Maybe the cars are not photogenic, so they don't get featured. Or maybe they don't get featured so no one bothers with the appearance. Doesn't matter. If GRM wants more feature worthy Challenge cars, they are going to have to feature more Challenge cars. 

There were some great looking cars there this year. Their pictures should be featured. 

You do make a good point. if putting in more effort won't get you noticed why do it? if it won't help your concours points why do it? 

maybe they SHOULD start by making a concerted effort to at least show and talk about the people and cars that make the event.