May Featured Member

Cam Tally 1965 Convertible and his story of the NCRS Mid-Atlantic Chapter's Gettysburg NCRSRegional Meet

Thurs, May 6^th, I drove my 65 Convertible to 396 miles to PA to participate in the NCRS Mid-Atlantic Chapter’s Gettysburg NCRS Regional Meet.  This was to be my first judged event for my car which I have had for 3-1/2 years. I purchased it in Maine – it had been in one family and it was claimed to be all original: it came with original keys, owner’s manual and related documents, a hand written bill of sale and registration cards.  Not truly knowing what was and wasn’t original I had been “planning” to have it judged for a point of reference and personal information to help me decide on what, if anything, I should do to “fix up” the car. So here was my chance.

After having driven the last 250 miles on the original 45 yr old tire (folks thought that was a tale unto itself), I arrived in time to change over to “correct” tires and put the car on the judging field.  Before the judging even began I met four guys who had driven down from Canada just to be “observation judges” and one of them discovered a rusted out “hide-a-key” in the rear bumper that upon being forced open contained another set of original keys that still had the coded knock outs!

Judging Friday morning moved right along with the five sets of judges completing their critique on my car before breaking for lunch.  They were mostly pleasant and, it appeared to me, very thorough – I tried to stay within earshot and kept overhearing “aged” with a “sagging” thrown in, which prompted my muttering “well no kidding, she is only 45 years old”!  So the wait was on until results were announced at Saturday evening’s awards dinner and banquet held at the Gettysburg Museum – only because I didn’t “know” to keep a running tally as the different judges gave me their results.  And MUCH to my surprise, and admittedly, delight, we got a Top Flight designation. And I also must admit we would not have made that grade if the car had not been driven and received a few points for mileage.  But now with the score sheets in hand I know what to try to address in order to seek the same award level without the mileage points.

I would like to thank the support, work and advice offered to me by our fellow TCC members Denny Clodfelter, Sam Hollis and George Spangler. THANKS Guys. That definitely is an added incentive and perk for being a member.