Armstrong Siddeley Car Club Concours d'Elegance

based on original text by Barbara and Garth Pennington

The Australian National Armstrong Siddeley Concours d'Elegance is held during the Federal Rally each year and all Club members are encouraged to participate. It aims to formally recognize cars of a high standard and in doing so, assist members by documenting the originality and restoration-state of their vehicles.

Points are allocated to each vehicle in the defined categories by a team of judges who strictly adhere to the club's formally documented Concours judging procedure. A number of judging schemes have been trialled over the years but the 1,000-point scheme which allots 775 points for condition and 225 points for originality has prevailed. The vehicle is divided into five sections: interior, exterior, under-car, engine bay & boot. Each section is individually marked for both condition and originality. Since 2001, Garth Pennington's electronic spreadsheet version has been used. Based on marking categories and scores devised by Ian Bell and David Armstrong, it reduces the skill required to allocate points, therefore automatically increasing the pool from which to choose judges. The scoring becomes more objective and a better comparison of results from year to year is possible. Tallying of results is much quicker and accuracy is automatically improved.

Although there are guidelines for novice judges, members who have detailed knowledge of specific vehicles are encouraged to be part of the judging process as this allows the transfer of their knowledge to other members. Whilst the condition of many vehicles has continued to improve over the years, collective and first-hand knowledge of originality of particular vehicles has sadly been lost. The role of the National Concours d'Elegance is increasingly important as the years pass by to maintain a level of vehicle knowledge amongst Club members.

As a Concours d'Elegance is usually held at a public venue, publicity for the marque is automatically achieved. Being mindful of the many benefits that result from the Federal Concours d'Elegance, State Branches also held their own local Concours that were promoted as a key event in the Branch calendar for many years. It is unfortunate that Branch Concours events are now not conducted by all branches.

Perpetual Concours d'Elegance trophies are presented to the winners during the rally's closing dinner.

Other non-concours trophies such as Greatest distance travelled to the event in an Armstrong Siddeley and Most miles driven in the past year in an Armstrong Siddeley are also awarded, and the Club Person of the Year is also acknowledged at the closing dinner.