A number of club members and spouses traveled to the Mount Washington Valley in NH for this year’s running of the VSCCA-sanctioned Hillclimb. This event has a history going back a hundred years, and had been on-again, off-again over the last couple of decades. It can be a dangerous event; some folks even have trouble navigating the often sharp, steep, two-lane road, complete with sharp drop-offs and no guardrails, even at a slow pace; racing up it is definitely taking your life in your hands. Thus, the VSCCA event, in an attempt to avoid the likely harsh consequences, runs the “race” as a consistency event. In other words, you are really competing against yourself, as it is not the fastest time of day that takes home first prize, but the driver who is able to keep his two timed runs closest (in time) to each other. For example, a driver with two scores of 4:32 each will beat a driver with a 4:30 and a 4:28. That, and the cars must be pre-1960 (with one exception I’ll get to).

So even yours truly in his green ’74 Spider and his Alfa caravannin’ buddy Gene Durso in his yellow ’74 Spider would need other cars (as well as a mental competency examination) if we were to run the event. Thankfully, the road leading up to the base (Route 16) is a glorious, climbing, wide roller coaster of a road with enough passing lanes in the uphill stretches to keep the slower traffic from raining on your parade. Over the two days of the event, driving up and down from Jackson was fast becoming the most fun part of the weekend. Sunday morning, for example, had Gene and me charging uphill after finally reaching the passing lanes when a new Honda S2000 came up behind us and finally passed. About a half mile later, we both got by him on a sharp right downhill and he followed us the rest of the way to base start line.

Joining us in the event was new AONE member Mike Torrusio and his wife Rebecca, driving their newly-acquired ’88 Spider; Steve and Diana Thomas in their ’69 Duetto; Randy Wilkins in his red ’74 Spider; and Endel Koppel in his pretty plum-colored GTV. Near the spectator fence, we said hello to Ellen Silverstein, Steve’s wife, and their two young children. Steve had a problem just then during his run, which was broadcast over the marshall’s walkie talkies, so everyone was on pins and needles waiting for a glimpse of Steve and his car, which soon appeared. Steve said that a wire had come loose on his ’64 Sunbeam Alpine, and then he readied for his next practice run. On that run, Steve and the car did not come back down the mountain together. Steve was fine, but his car had experienced a sudden and potentially catastrophic loss of oil when the gasket between the oil filter and the block had suddenly let go, squirting a high pressure stream of 30-weight all over the mountain road near Turn 2. Once it was towed back, Steve, Gene and I set about begging and borrowing quarts of oil from our own gear bags and other friendly faces until we had six—enough for the Alpine. Needless to say, Steve was ready for the record runs Sunday morning and did okay (results not in yet).

I came across an interesting older driver by the name of “Stutz” Plaisted whose ride was a beautiful, original-looking dark blue late-50’s Cooper Formula 2 car, complete with Coventry Climax 4-banger and huge dual Webers. The practice runs had tired him out quite a bit (it was “warm” for a change this year) and I did not see him again on Sunday. The field included a couple of beautiful Cadillac-powered Allards, an old MG-TC vintage racer (which was rumored to be a frequent “consistency” winner), an old 30’s vintage Bentley race car, a couple of early bathtub Porsche specials, and more, but it seemed like there were slightly fewer cars than last year. That could have been due to the nasty weather on the way up Friday, which soaked us through. We got pounded with rain again on Sunday’s ride home, but managed to dry out in the last 100 miles. We were sure to take in West End Road on the way back around North Conway—great, no traffic, and the scenic Cathedral Ledges soaring up from the road as your car tucks in and follows the winding pavement around their bases. We’d love to see you there next year—if you want any information, check out the Climb to the Clouds web site.

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