Ahh, clamps and Concours!!! My favorite subject!
I am learning by reading the rules; going to judging school; and trying to stay close to the events.
The MBCA rules for Concours judging are quite clear. In the engine bay section, you can have the original clamps--whatever that might be, or MB-USA replacement clamps w/o deduction. (Nitpickers: Section 6.5 Paragraph C) So go buy a clamp at the dealer and see what they give you; it will be OK even if it isn't a banding style clamp.
They will deduct points for corrosion, so anything galvanized might be good when new, but won't stand up for the long haul. Even the zinc plating done on my car's engine bay parts like the steel fuel lines isn't standing up like true CAD would. So, it will start to lose points here.
What's the tie-breaker? Mileage. Higher mileage car wins. Every time. Section 6.4
It's sad that Vince has had such a terrible time with MBCA Concours events. Here in the midwest, it has been pretty good in my obviously limited experience. People like Joe Alexander and Ted Gottfried have judged events in this area. We all know Joe; Ted was an MB mechanic for decades and is quite well known in the Cleveland area, and as familiar with the 113 as anybody. It was many of his pointed comments that had me make corrections to my engine bay.
Judging isn't consistent however, because humans are involved. That's one reason why the judging is done by vehicle parts: one judge or two does ALL the engine bays, so you don't have one judge making a clamp ruling on one 113, and another doing it on another 113. At least the thought is that one judge would be consistent from car to car as they do the engine bay, for example.
Pete Lesler, one of our own, is the Chief Judge for many MBCA events and is very familiar with the rules and our cars. In the two times I've seen MBCA national events--Starfest and Gemuetlekeit--the judging was accurate and professional. There was a school beforehand, and a judges meeting as well to lay out the ground rules.
Judges can be fooled however. At Starfest, there was a 113 that had an "ersatz" tar-top battery created by cutting the top off an old useless battery and grafting it on a modern one. Unless you really looked hard it looked like the real thing. That same car while looking original with this "foam at the mouth" patina that everyone loves was actually restored 24 years before! So, the judges thought they were looking at "original" patina and it was just an older restoration that gave the appearance of originality! The owner revealed this after the judging...he won first place.
I respectfully disagree with Tom Collitt. The banding style clamps were cheap and inferior to the modern German style clamps we have talked about. Back in the old days, manufacturers were more concerned with materials cost versus labor cost. The Norma and Gemi clamps, though inexpensive for us today, were most likely much more expensive then a cotter pin and a band of galvanized steel. The labor to put them on was not a big issue back then, it would be today. Read in detail some of the website links I posted earlier and you can see that there are some notable features to these modern clamps, including uniform clamping from all sides, rolled edges, etc. These modern clamps really are better then the band clamps. Again, I suggest that the only reason to use a band and cotter clamp on our cars is if you are trying to achieve a certain look. It won't help you in MBCA Concours, at least according to the rules.
At Meadowbrook, they didn't even open my hood or look at the engine bay. So, clamps in this case are irrelevent.
Bottom line? Use the clamps you want to. We've pointed you to sources for the banding clamps (part numbers coming from Vince); German style clamps such as Norma, Wurth/Zebra, Gemi, ABA, etc. and of course you can get fat American clamps anywhere. The judging rules for MBCA have been pointed out, too. So, hopefully everyone has "complete information" when it comes to making clamp choices...
Michael Salemi
1969 280SL
Signal Red w/Black Leather
Restored
