In the Corvette world, "matching numbers" doesn't mean "born with components" which is bull. I believe that "original cars" should be judged differently than "restored to original" cars as cars are only original once.
Neither the NCRS nor Bloomington Gold (the two primary Corvette judging organizations) uses or recognizes the term "matching numbers", as that phrase can mean many different things to different people.
Both of those organizations have completely separate judging policies and procedures for unrestored vs. restored cars. Bloomington Gold Certification and NCRS Flight Judging consider both the appearance of originality and condition, and are open to restored cars AND unrestored cars, although most in these categories are restored cars. NCRS Flight Judging is done based on the extent to which the car deviates from a published standard (each year Corvette has its own highly-detailed 150-page judging guide), and Bloomington Gold judging generally follows a similar process, although not to the same level of detail.
Unrestored original cars are judged in the NCRS in the "Star/Bowtie" category, which ONLY considers pure originality (Is that the part originally installed on the car at St. Louis?), and there is NO "condition" judging. All four areas (Interior, Exterior, Mechanical, and Chassis) are judged independently, and each must score as 80%-85% original to earn a "Star" award for that area. If all four areas pass, the car earns the "Bowtie" award.
The Bloomington Gold "Survivor" judging criteria are different - the car needs to score at least 50% original for a pass in each of the four areas, but it only needs to pass three of the four areas to earn the "Survivor" award; one area can fail completely and the car can still earn "Survivor".
