Climb to the Clouds 2011

This hillclimb was first run in 1904, making it one of America's oldest motorsport events. The Mt. Washington Auto Road is the most extreme road I've ever been on, including those in the Rockies and California. How one can race on it, is beyond me. I was out there with some quattro people and displaying my rally car. Some of the RED Rally guys showed up including Gytis, Jim G and his son Mason, Dana, Jens, and Heidi (they were all in a strange foreign land filled with Audi quattros! :eek: ). A few pics from my buddy Tim .... there's a reason they call it Climb to the Clouds.

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Porsche content! The 1961 record holder. A tube-frame Beetle with a 4-cam Carrera motor:

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More Porsche content: a matte-black 928

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One of the wildest entries was the 1900HP Freightliner complete with Gulf livery. I don't know how he made some of the switchback turns but he was setting incredible mid-field times.

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Holding up the Audi flag was not Frank Sprongl and his Group B quattro A2 (more on that later), but the 'Audi Super Chicken'. Built by one of Buffum's mechanics it was essentially a 5-cylinder turbo quattro drivetrain and suspension tied into a frame. At first, it drew laughs. Then they saw it launch off the line and changed their opinions. On raceday, he cooked the clutch on the first run. I offered the clutch out of my rally car, but there wasn't time to do the swap. The solution? Pour a bottle of CocaCola on the clutch. The result? A perfectly operating clutch and 3rd place in Open Class!

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Here's Buffum (in the white pants) laughing his ass off as the Super Chicken takes its first practice run:

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And the full in-car:

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It's like a bass-ackwards 911 with that engine hanging way out in front of the front wheels. Must make for understeer on tarmac.

There was an amazing and eclectic paddock of cars at this event. From the blindingly fast Super Chicken ( I'm still grinning that he got third) to a 1933 Alfa 8C Zagato built for Nuvolari, and winner at the 24 hours of LeMans, Spa, the Vanderbilt Cup, and the 1937 Mt. Washington Hillclimb. Whew.

Mason had a ball going up the mountain in Tim's rally car, now he wants to drive out to Michigan for the LSPR and Sno Drift Rallies. I feel him drifting (bad pun intended :D) over to the dark side - and I blame you Curt.

Great to see everyone, and any weekend that includes Bear Notch and Hurricane Mountain with no traffic is a good weekend. :D

That was some launch, though. And I wish the camera angle extended a little further down so I could see more of that suspension working.

This may have been the first time that a turbo Quattro driver (in the Super Chicken) didn't have to worry about overheating. ;)

that super chicken run freaked me out the higher he got.. get got past tarmac which was awesome, then it was gravel/dirt (how the heck is he getting grip!) then cliffs off the side of the road.. then steeper cliffs.. then you couldnt see in front of you let alone what was over the side! man has huge stones (then again i am deathly afraid of heights) all in all though, that was fantastic. what a drive!

Jim/ Curt,
Makes me wish I drove a little farther North on Saturday! Which road is that? Did we drive it on the rally?
Luke

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Originally Posted by Flieger

It's like a bass-ackwards 911 with that engine hanging way out in front of the front wheels. Must make for understeer on tarmac.

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It's a ridiculous design, much like the 911. It shouldn't work. But it does. Understeer is an understatement.

Here's some video I took of the Freightliner. Launches like a turbine car, but gets up to speed quickly.

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Jim posted a couple pics of Michele Mouton's 1982 Audi. She won in Portugal with this car. Then it was brought back to Audi Sport and rebuilt for Jo Hoppen at Audi North America. It was shipped here a couple of weeks later and John Buffum drove the car here in 82 and 83, including the RAC and Pikes Peak. I watched the car rally in 1982 and it was awesome to see the car again, 30 years later.

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Originally Posted by Macroni

Jim/ Curt,
Makes me wish I drove a little farther North on Saturday! Which road is that? Did we drive it on the rally?
Luke

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Luke,
No, this is the toll road to the top of MW. On the other side of the mountain from the MW Hotel, we drove by it on Saturday going down to Hurricane Mountain.

Thanks for heads up Curt.

Had a great time from beggining to the moment I rolled into my driveway on sunday night.

Nothing beats time with all of you knuckelheads:)

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Originally Posted by idgaf27

Nothing beats time with all of you knuckelheads:)

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Man ain't that the truth.........

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Originally Posted by Jim Garfield

Luke,
No, this is the toll road to the top of MW. On the other side of the mountain from the MW Hotel, we drove by it on Saturday going down to Hurricane Mountain.

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Next year???????

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Originally Posted by CurtEgerer

The Mt. Washington Auto Road is the most extreme road I've ever been on, including those in the Rockies and California. How one can race on it, is beyond me.

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Words really don't describe this road. It is totally relentless in pitch. The average grade is 12-13% with many sections much steeper (at the very top it is almost 20%!). There is no place that is close to flat. Coming around some of the hairpin turns all you see is pavement directly in front of you and there are no breaks after these monsterous turns.

I raced this road on my bicycle last summer, which was actually one of the coolest events I have ever done, but I can't even imagine racing this in a car. Those drop-offs above the treeline are absolutely terrifying. Bravo to these guys.:)

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Originally Posted by fryardds

I raced this road on my bicycle last summer

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Stud.......

Curt, great report and photos as always. You da man for the epic drives, awesome urq support. I wanted to be there but, was in SoCal instead. I made the best of staying at Mom's and dragged the wife down for a visit to San Diego to Autobahn meet Tony and ogle over seats.

Curt you are sick! and that's why we all love you and your Quattro posts.

Luke, it was on the list of optional drives to do this year, but they pretty tightly regulate the speed as cars are going up and down at the same time. It would be fun just to go to the top though.

Brian, riding a bike up MW is incredible to me. I have climbed it a couple times, but it would be unrelenting on a bike. How do you think it compares to some of the unclassified climbs in the TDF? Heidi has done the race to the top twice on a bike too, I would say she qualifies as a stud too!

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Originally Posted by Jim Garfield

Heidi has done the race to the top twice on a bike too, I would say she qualifies as a stud too!

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No doubt....... Ask Gytis or Monde........... They are unabashed fans!

Yeah, I pretty much got this Michigan to New Hampshire route dialed in :eek:

Luke - it's a 15MPH speed limit with not much margin for error. It would have been good for some photo ops, but not that much fun for our type of driving.

Check out this pic: it's a tube-frame Sunbeam Tiger. I snapped a quick pic of it because I have 2 friends who own them. As he went by me (about 200 yards off the start) his wheel let loose. You can even see the lugnut spinning in the foreground. He's damn lucky it happened where it did and not up the mountain.

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You'll figure it out. I know you will.........

scramble...........

peekaboo.......

though to start. atmosferic pressure to blame........

"objects in the mirro......." hell with that, it is too late. move over:)..........

Gytis and Jim were leaving the mountain late one night in his 'slightly' modified 930 Turbo. I was standing in the parking lot with my buddy (who is a Sheriff) looking up at the road. I said watch Gytis light this thing up. He did not disappoint :D

The visor: Michele Mouton/Hannu Mikkola/John Buffum/Stig Blomqvist

I sold my 81 urq a couple of months ago to a friend. He let his 18 year old son drive it to the event as a graduation gift. It did not end all that well for him. He was screwing around with something and forgot to latch the hood pins. At about 50MPH, he suddenly remembered this little detail. Oh well, it was a nice car.

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Wow... great, great photos.
Man, am I ever feeling crappy to have missed this event.:(

... but it's good to know you guys got together and had such a great time.

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Originally Posted by Mark Morrissey

Man, am I ever feeling crappy to have missed this event.:(

I am however really happy you guys got together and had such a great time.

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I was only forty minutes away.... no excuse.....

Hey, cool. It's Woodstock (the BMW 2002). :) Perennial class winners at the Targa Newfoundland.

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Originally Posted by Macroni

Next year???????

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Not likely that this event will run again for years. Subaru and their team Vermont Sports Car organized and sponsored this event. Their goal was for David Higgins and Subaru to set a new record and they did that. They have nothing to gain by running the event again.

Here's the general conspiracy theory: The event was scheduled the same weekend as Pikes Peak. Coincidence? Don't want any of those pesky open-class cars from PP ruining the fun for Subaru, right? The event was invitation-only. Current record holder Frank Sprongl was disqualified from the event, despite the organizers billing this as a showdown between Audi and Subaru. He set the record 11 years ago in his S2 quattro. That car is being rebuilt and when the organizer's found out Frank was bringing his much faster Group B A2 quattro, it was quickly disqualified for the bolt-in cage. Nobody is saying VSC cheated, they just stacked the deck in their favor.

Curt, I think you hit the nail on the head with this theory. 4 cyl against 5 cyl not a chance, too bad they didn't let Frank run.

Curt

Thanks for the photos and the report on the event. It was a great time and good to see You and everyone. I've been wanting to attend one of these infrequent events for many years. Meeting up with everyone just made it all that much better. Now that you know the way, I hope we'll be seeing you out this way again soon.


Dana

Dana, that was really an added bonus for me to have all the Porsche boyz show up :D I'd like to make it to Limerock next weekend, but 3 trips in less than 2 months might peg me as a drug runner with the border patrol!

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or a lifelong honorary friend of the border patrol Curt

An interesting foto sent by a friend. This is Frank Sprongl and me commiserating about the disqualification of his Audi. In the foreground is the Mouton/Buffum car and in the background, the enemy - the Subie paddock! :rolleyes:

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