"What looks better a fresh restored or a Unrestore?"
Well.........if we were comparing an original muscle car to a custom resto-mod ( I believe that is the correct term for the 68Z28, not a fresh restore) I would have to say the orginal factory muscle car with all it's original muscle equipment is more of a candidate for Muscle car of the year.
I am also sure the Z28 is entitled to awards in it's own class.
However, Hemmings seems to leave the door open for anything...."So how do we determine which cars get to show up on the ballot? Several criteria are considered, the most obvious being the condition of the car. But then, we tend not to feature cars that aren't quite nice, so that doesn't always help all that much. The rarity of a certain car can factor in if other elements are in order, and sometimes just the story behind a featured muscle machine might sway us. Feedback from the readership in the form of e-mails and letters after the story on a particular car comes out can also have an influence.
The 12 cars from the 2008 issues we've published so far this year exemplify the range of reasons that land a feature car on the MMOY ticket, with some concours-restored cars, an original unrestored example, some factory skunk works specials, a couple drag racers,
and even a never-was creation.