hill climb

[horizenjob]

"most hill climbs do not run on mountains that go higher than tree lines" Pikes Peak does...watch the video. PP is 14k feet high.. Mt.Washington is 6k feet.

They are the exception. In New England there are at least Mt. Ascutney, Burke Mountain and Okemo. There is a hillclimb association in PA too and other places on the east coast. I don't think those mountains go above the tree line.

as a driver you just have to hope they move . it's just the way it is

I guess you're right. They don't allow spectators at Mt. Ascutney and at the Duryea ( Reading PA) it's in the center of town and policed so they keep people back a bit.

I think I would rather go over the edge at Pikes Peak then hit an oak tree head on.

I made one mistake at Mt. Ascutney in my Formula Ford. The car failed to turn in, I spent no time trying to catch it or try again, instantly converted to looking for a hole in the scenery. I went between two rocks on the edge of the road and that took all four wheels off the car. The car took a graceful arc out over the edge and hit a big tree some 20-30 feet onward some distance above the ground head on. It really hurt. I got out of the car and walked up the hill to the edge of the road. I couldn't go any further and just stood there till they came and got me.

Oh, the odd thing is none of the fiberglass on the FF was damaged. How did that happen?

A big hardwood tree and a cement wall are about the same thing in a car accident. Except the tree is more likely to split the car into two pieces.

[962porsche]

i too was thinking about doing the new england hillclimb event at mt. ascutney VT.
i used to do hill climbs years ago they were a total blast . but no most of then were not run higher than tree lines .
the climb to the clouds event is but that is the highest peak in the north east . having a off and hitting a big ass tree can hurt just as much as rolling down a big ass hill . it's all how fast you go from speed to a stop .

[horizenjob]

i too was thinking about doing the new england hillclimb event at mt. ascutney VT.

This is a really great event. I don't remember the details anymore, but it's something like 40 turns on a 2 or 3 mile course. It's a state campground with good camping facilities. The have tent sites, lean-tos and RV sites. It's a great hill and a real challenge. It has 2 pretty good size straights. You start at a pretty good angle facing upwards with a "15 MPH Speed Limit" sign on the right and a short straight to the first corner. I am guessing but I think my FF can get up to around 90 or so, obviously some street cars would go faster.

This was a popular event for COM members back in the day. People like Ken Duclos, Ken Hablow, Al Salerno and others made it a regular battle. The folks who run the event are great people.

There was a great picture of a Formula ( Vee? ) car that had been upgraded to a Corvair engine crossing a short bridge. With 2 feet of clear air under the wheels. There was another time someone crossed the finish line upside down and also 2 feet off the ground in a Camero. I've seen people crash after the finish line due to mental exhaustion from the run... Of course you don't have to do any of these things to have a good time!

I'd like to get up there again even if just to work a corner. The next event would be a week or two after Labor Day.
http://www.hillclimb.org/

[dradernh]

This a Mt. Ascutney video posted by SCCNH: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYyrb50p ... r_embedded. Dave Estey told me they generally get 6-7 runs over the two days.

[962porsche]

i have been checking out the new england hillclimb asso. .i signed up for the forums were they want you to ask questions about the events . there is a good in car video i watched like 100 times now . it's been 30 years sence i have done hill climbs they were a lot of fun .
i think i have the teething pains all done with the diasio ?????????????????? i did a crap load of work on the car with a total redesign of how and were the motor was sitting in the car . the guy that swapped out the yamaha motor to the gsxr motor really did a crap job . if it holds together at the next comscc event i think i will sign up for the hillclimb event . if it doesn't i have a motor and trans out of a porsche boxter S that just may go into the car .

[horizenjob]

David, which is the video you like?

It's really interesting what the different camera perspectives do to the look of the hill. The link a couple of posts above makes the whole length look like a couple of straights. This video from the spring http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2fMNuBn ... =endscreen makes the thing look like a forest of turns. It's a huge difference. In real life if feels more like this video. Lots of turns and even the straights have some little kinks in them.

Notice in the video posted 2 links above there is a car in the ditch after the finish line. Severe brain fade. It's not a dangerous spot, but I've seen it happen before there. You must make sure you have the car really slow or better parked before you relax. Considering it's after the actual run, it would be the easiest turn on the course.

There are turn numbers posted on the side of the road. At 2:48 in the video I posted you can see a "23" sign, then there is a bridge you go over and that's where the Corvair powered formula went airborne. Got just a little too close on the inside and hit a little rise to the bridge.

There is a film of my Formula Ford going up the hill, It was taken with a Super 8 movie camera that Dave Burden taped to my roll bar. Some day he will put it on VHS. Hmm, I guess those days are gone too, LOL. Maybe it will get to YouTube - I would love to see it again.

[dradernh]

About as different as two videos of the same course can be, aren't they? Other than lighting & noise, the only visible difference I see is that the first video uses a very wide-angle lens. Besides making the trees look extremely bowed in, maybe it makes the course appear elongated along the path of travel, and therefore the turns are not as evident. If I didn't see the same waypoints, I wouldn't recognize this as the same course. The first driver appears to be blasting along at semi-warp speed, and the second seems noticeably slower, and sometimes tentative, except that he finishes ten seconds faster!

[962porsche]

i don't have a favorite video i'm watching . i have watched the one with the silver car (vw? ) in the ditch the most i guess .
i'm just trying to get a good idea of the course lay out . that is a real good thing about gopro's ! you can see tracks and study them before you get there .
it would be good if you could prerun courses in some thing like a video game format before you go to them . techknowedgey is not there yet . there has been some tracks i run on games before i went to them just to get a better idea of the layout . some were good but others not at all close to what they were in real life .
i think the worse was the tremblant track on a ferrari game i have the best has to be VIR and road atlanta .

[cuda6666]

Inthe early '90s, COM ran Ascutney as a points event. Being a serious competitor in the 'Cuda at that time, I went up to the hill with a video camera in the early Spring to check it out (there was no Youtube in those days) The road still had snow on it, and the barriers were in place - so I couldn't drive my car up the hill. However, the park ranger happened to be driving by, and after I convinced him not to arrest me for trespassing, he offered to drive me up in his off-road vehicle. I filmed the trip, studied it for weeks, and eventually scored points in the event - I think. I remember getting in a couple of good runs before I went wide at an exit and plowed into a concrete culvert, did a 360 in mid air, and landed in the midst of scurrying corner workers.

[brucesallen]

ten percent of the COMers crashed that day. We never went back.