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Climb to the Clouds - Mount Washington Hillclimb

9K views 32 replies 15 participants last post by  m610 
#1 ·
This should be a great event to check out some vintage metal. There's even a 1971 Opel Ascona registered for the historic class.

ENTRY LIST | Climb to the Clouds
 
#4 ·
I confess I had something to do with talking him into it....:banghead:
 
#6 ·
so who coming to the north to see them run
I'm coming up for the entire 4 day event. I'll be helping with two cars this year.

PS, get your reservations early if you plan on staying the full weekend! Everything's selling out.
 
#7 ·
I'll have to mark the calendar for this one! I don't know where I will be then, but I will be working in either PA, NY, MA, TX, or CA. If I am in a select 3 of the 5 states, I'll make it.
 
#8 ·
I'll be going..

I'll be camping in the area and checking out the events over the course of the 4 days. This is a rare moment where I can combine two of my passions: cars and climbing. I plan to climb the mountain and check out the action at various locations along the auto road. I haven't been up since I raced my bike up many years ago. See you all there.

I guess I was naive enough to think that someone on this board wasn't the driver/owner of the Ascona.
 
#9 · (Edited)
I'll be camping in the area and checking out the events over the course of the 4 days. This is a rare moment where I can combine two of my passions: cars and climbing. I plan to climb the mountain and check out the action at various locations along the auto road. I haven't been up since I raced my bike up many years ago. See you all there.

I guess I was naive enough to think that someone on this board wasn't the driver/owner of the Ascona.
Of interest to some might be my friend Tim's attempt to be the first person to compete in every event the Mt Washington Auto Road has to offer in the same year. He has raced his car up the road 9 times, but about 5-6 years ago stopped auto racing to concentrate on his health. Pretty soon his hobby turned into a bit more than that, and he started competing in marathons, half-marathons, triathalons, etc.

He has run to the top of the mountain, raced his bike to the top, and done the 24 hour mountain bike race at the base of the mountain. This year he's doing every event! He has already done the ski-skate event that occurred earlier this year.

His blog: Mt Washington Auto Road Gravity Challenge | The challenge: Take an aging athlete and car and prepare them to race every event the Auto Road has to offer in the same season.

An in-car view from the 2000 Climb to the Clouds auto race.
YouTube - Mt Washington Climb to the Clouds 2000

Another time up the hill with a bit of rain and fog. Visibility is virtually nil near the top. This is not a hillclimb to be taken lightly, some of the most severe weather in the world occurs here. Temps have ranged from about 60 degrees F to -221 degrees F at the top of the hill!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnDJ4Edx4mo&feature=related
 
#10 ·
Wow

That in car video is intense. There isn't much room for error on that road. If you go off course, you either stop dead, or are dead!

I may be able to make it to this, thanks for the heads up.
 
#12 ·
Hopefully, someone will correct me if I'm wrong. I had asked Duane, at Carlisle, what day he was racing? He then told me that he was racing Sunday, June 26th. I was glad, because that is the only day I may be able to attend.
 
#13 ·
The full schedule: SCHEDULE | Climb to the Clouds

Basically there's practice Friday and Saturday (June 24th & 25th), and the full timed runs occur on Sunday (June 26th). We will be at the hill probably Tuesday afternoon or so. There's a lot of preliminary stuff going on.
 
#14 ·
Great to see you guys talking about the CTTC. I happen to be the President of the SCCNH which is the sanctioning club for the event and will be there through the whole long weekend. Back in 1990 when they started running the hill again (they stopped in 1961) I raced up in my 1983 Rabbit GTI rally car. This year our son is entered in his 1992 Jetta rally car.

Our club will have a tent right near the start line at the base of the hill and we'll be in charge of all the spectator areas in case you are interested in working at the event. Time is getting short, but if you do want to sign up, let me know.

On the Opel front, I just managed to get the 1.1 litre in our '69 GT fired up for the first time on Monday! It's only about 2.5 hours from our house to the hill so if I can get a few things done to it, I might be tempted to try and drive it over.

Dave
 
#15 ·
On the Opel front, I just managed to get the 1.1 litre in our '69 GT fired up for the first time on Monday! It's only about 2.5 hours from our house to the hill so if I can get a few things done to it, I might be tempted to try and drive it over.

Dave
Dave, see if you can drag Jim MacMahon out to the hill as well! Heck, I was trying to talk him into running his ITB Opel GT in the CTTC 15 years ago but he never did. Way back when the entry fee was only $275!

I'm presuming you know Jim because there aren't too many Opel owners in Unity NH!

I'll be there helping out Duane with the Opel Ascona and Tim Mather in his Nissan Sentra.
 
#16 ·
I've been trying to get Jim over to the Mt Ascutney hillclimb for the past few years, but no luck either! I need to return a carb to him anyway so I'll see if he can make it over to the CTTC at least one day.

I met Tim at the Spring Ascutney two weeks ago. Hope he didn't break the Nissan too bad.

See you in a few weeks,
Dave
 
#17 ·
I met Tim at the Spring Ascutney two weeks ago. Hope he didn't break the Nissan too bad.

See you in a few weeks,
Dave
Nothing critical. Blew out the RF strut. But of course no one in the US stocks the parts! They were made by Leda (UK company) back in 1998.

So this week I have to build two new front struts from scratch with Koni inserts.
 
#21 ·
Driving up Mt Washington tomorrow in my M4. No speed records though.
 
#22 ·
100 mph winds yesterday at the summit. We held off until today.
 
#24 ·
Yes it was. 25 Deg. with the wind chill. Driving up gives you a whole new appreciation for what Dwayne encountered in the rain and also what the top racers accomplish without driving off the mountain. If you have not watched this you are missing a great video. The really bad part was that on the way up my car came up with a message that the key was bad and not communicating and that "Car start is not possible", got to love new technology. So here I am at the top of the mountain and I am afraid to turn the car off. My wife refused to leave the car running, which I would have, and go up the steps to the summit so I went up by myself for about 2 minutes while she sat in the car. From that point on I never shut the car off until we were home in the garage 6 hours later. I never had this problem before in any of my bimmers so I was not familiar with the issue, although the message that the key was bad would still make me nervous even though I now know that even with the battery taken out you can still start the car if you hold the key up against the steering column. Putting a new battery in the key made the message go away and all is good, but that is a nasty message. I guess it comes up with that if the battery is totally dead. This is a good reason to travel with both keys if you are going to be far from home.
 
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#25 ·
Your key issue happened to my wife with her Sonata which has keyless everything. It was just the battery in the FOB but she was stranded until her cousin's husband rescued her by finding the secret port in the center console.

You must have had a great view as it was clear yesterday. Lucky you didn't hit snow.:)
 
#29 ·
The engine braking in 1st gear in my M4 was so good I didn't need to use the brakes much at all unless someone was passing us on the way up. There were some spots when I had to go into second to keep the car moving fast enough. I would have driven faster both up and down but my wife was a little concerned when she was looking over the edge :ugh:. Had to keep her happy :veryhappy
 
#32 ·
Just bumping this to the top. The 'Climb to the Clouds' Mount Washington Hillclimb returns for 2017. Dates are Friday - Sunday, July 7 - 9, 2017.

Website with information about the event is here. Subaru Mt. Washington Hillclimb - Mount Washington Auto Road, Gorham NH

Our esteemed Opeler, Duane Foley, is entered and accepted to race again in this invitational event, with his 280+ hp supercharged 1971 Opel Ascona.
 
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