Just to clarify: Is THEME included in the $500 dollar budget? (Page 1 of 2)

Yes.  But if you have a totally awesome theme (Cannonball Bandits, Eyesore, etc) you won't get as much heat, unless you have a totally cheaty car and/or are a bunch of d!cks. Focus on fun, take your laps if they think you cheat/spent more than $500.  Don't worry.  You won't win so don't worry about laps.  We had a professional paint job on our Gone in 60 Laps Mustang but the polyester clothing, bitchin 'staches and bribes went a long way. 

4.1: Total Investment in Vehicle Can Not Exceed $500: Except for items described in Rules 4.2 and 4.3, the total spent to purchase and prepare any car may not exceed $500.

4.2: Safety Equipment DOES NOT Count Toward $500 Total:

4.3: Registration, Insurance, and License DO NOT Count Toward $500 Total:

Yeah, make the theme good and we'll look the other way. Rattle-can the whole thing flat black and we'll want to see receipts for the paint.

I was planning to just go with the 50 year old paint and rust combination.   Total material: zero.   Total labor: zero.

We spent more on theme then we did the car, and parts combined.  Nobody even asked us about it.

We felt the need to put some time and effort into our theme and other wise bland car. Kind of thought that was one of the points of the race...

We need to put Judge Phil's comment in bold across the top of this forum.  Every race, someone asks.  That, or someone who is better at coding than me should make a script creating an automatic reply.

Just sayin'

+1

I would say no but then again I been in 2 cars and 7 races with a generally on going single theme and we really don't too involved with doing up the theme. Last year we upped it a little on the second car but tried staying within a certain budget.

If it does count against you then you probably got too serious. Focus on the fun side of things and people will just shrug and laugh. Kinda like my brother's Buick (Track Pillagerz!) with the viking ship theme and team dressed in generic viking costumes.

It turned out to be a huge hit at Southern Discomfort last year and each race we been too we get several families stopping by with kids... makes it well worth it.

I will warn you though... If you are attending any of the Detroit-ish/Michigan races watch out there is a team of GM design engineers that have taken themes to a new level. Flat RocK 2007 Team 88 "It's the Libyans" (Back to the Future themed car) 2008 Toledo Team First Blood Sly-Stalone/6x6 GMC.... I dont recall a 2009 appearance from them but they did Gingerman in 2010 as car 666 Sleigher (Demonic X-Mas theme) they are good people with crazy over the top themes but I dont think they really got docked anything.

One can do a decent theme without the need to sink a bunch of dough.  We pick the cheapest latex paint at the home depot, last time out went with the $5 "someone mixed the wrong color" black they had on the shelf for the Real Housewives car.  Throw on some $2.99 fabric for the Burqas from the local craft store.  Add little time, effort and creativity and ta da, a theme. 

We showed up to our first race with 0 theme and were immediately sent to a corral next to the BS inspections and were told to come up with a theme on the spot with some rattle cans. Not gonna happen again.

+1. Nothing makes this event more boring than crap themes -- who cares if you're driving an XR4ti at this point. Unless it's uber-old and unique and the found-in-a-field patina is sufficient theme alone, there's no excuse for not working up something interesting. And covering the car in "contingency" stickers from every parts maker you can think of so that it looks like a "race car" does not mean that you have themed the car, BTW. (replica-tribute cars like the Galaxie are a different story altogether)

On the other hand, even an e30 can be made to be entertaining with a good theme. Preferably something that adds a prop to the car (by which I don't mean a propeller) to add some visual interest to it on track.

This +1000!

I've rarely had more fun in my life than building the bee theme for our Civic.  Our first race out we learned a few things.  One was how much the judges, racers and spectators appreciate a good theme.   Another was how over-the-top a theme needs to be to work.  It has to be visible.  It has to be easily recognized.  It has to be in-your-face.
After recognizing that our Civic will always be considered cheaty, no matter how terrible it really is, we figured the next logical step was to go big on the theme.  50-100lbs of metal, wire mesh and paint tacked onto the back of the car might make you slow, but damn if it isn't fun!
Judge Phil was sweating our engine and suspension a bit during BS, but he and Jay both said "you did make a huge bee out of it..."  Judge Mike did ask me what the material costs were on the theme, and I was straight with him.  I had somewhere north of $100 in it.  We got 1 lap that we bribed down with 10 year old single malt.  Not only were the theme costs not included in our BS laps, I'd say some amount of perceived cheat was ignored (in reality we had no cheat, but appearances are everything).

I'm with speedycop.  Last thing I want to see is yet more rules, but there are some nice unwritten rules involved in the BS process anyhow.  Show up with no theme or a weak theme and get some laps!
Remember, pick your car wisely and it can be a theme all by it's self (the Fury comes to mind).

Hey, they gotta read the rules anyway. Might as well start out on the right lemony foot, and get in the spirit of things. I stand by my rule change request.

/nazi