Newport Hill Climb

[Jerry Forrester]

BP, you have such a way with the pen. I stand in awe of your writing abilities. I am starting tomorrow making plans for Newport 2008.

Jerry Forrester
Be sure to check out my eBay store
http://stores.ebay.com/CHROME-CHROME-CHROME_
for your shiny Stude stuff

[Lark Parker]

The old cars needed intelligent driver management this year because of the extreme heat.

One of the big attractions to me is the variety makes of cars that appear at Newport. Bugatti, Case, Hupmobile, Elcar, Marmon, Hudson, Jeep, Kaiser, Essex, Oakland, Plymouth trucks, etc. (The $1.5M Bugatti was slow.) I have never seen a Duesenberg or a Tucker run the hill. There is a steam powered class.

The judges are single minded sometimes(?). I talked with a man that had a Muntz that they wouldn't allow to run. When built, Muntz used a large Lincoln engine in the light weight car and the judges determined that the car was modified (because of the factory engine). The car was clearly a threat to the Ford fastest car title at that time.

A good thing is that the event is clearly not a beauty show and a poor boy with a shabby looking old car/truck is welcomed and can have a lot of fun.

Another phenomena is the amount of power that can be brought from engines and cars that appear to be completely as the factory made them. These guys are just great tuners I guess.<g>
I have seen Ford Hot Rods brought over from the show area that wanted to run (knowing they would be docked penalty points) but thinking they would show the climbing Ford hicks a "real fast car". They found out they should have stayed in their lawn chairs.
I think that some equated the times they heard to a 1/4 drag strip -- but a 200 lb passenger will add a second to a strong car on the hill. Clearly, 1800 feet -- uphill -- is bad equating to drag times and the "stock cars" were stronger than they appeared.

A good condition Champion six can make it over in high gear but shifting back down to second will cross the drivers mind.






If at first you don't succeed you will get a lot of advice.

Lark Parker

[Lark Parker]

The old cars needed intelligent driver management this year because of the extreme heat.

One of the big attractions to me is the variety makes of cars that appear at Newport. Bugatti, Case, Hupmobile, Elcar, Marmon, Hudson, Jeep, Kaiser, Essex, Oakland, Plymouth trucks, etc. (The $1.5M Bugatti was slow.) I have never seen a Duesenberg or a Tucker run the hill. There is a steam powered class.

The judges are single minded sometimes(?). I talked with a man that had a Muntz that they wouldn't allow to run. When built, Muntz used a large Lincoln engine in the light weight car and the judges determined that the car was modified (because of the factory engine). The car was clearly a threat to the Ford fastest car title at that time.

A good thing is that the event is clearly not a beauty show and a poor boy with a shabby looking old car/truck is welcomed and can have a lot of fun.

Another phenomena is the amount of power that can be brought from engines and cars that appear to be completely as the factory made them. These guys are just great tuners I guess.<g>
I have seen Ford Hot Rods brought over from the show area that wanted to run (knowing they would be docked penalty points) but thinking they would show the climbing Ford hicks a "real fast car". They found out they should have stayed in their lawn chairs.
I think that some equated the times they heard to a 1/4 drag strip -- but a 200 lb passenger will add a second to a strong car on the hill. Clearly, 1800 feet -- uphill -- is bad equating to drag times and the "stock cars" were stronger than they appeared.

A good condition Champion six can make it over in high gear but shifting back down to second will cross the drivers mind.






If at first you don't succeed you will get a lot of advice.

Lark Parker

[BobPalma]

quote:Originally posted by Jerry Forrester

BP, you have such a way with the pen. I stand in awe of your writing abilities. I am starting tomorrow making plans for Newport 2008.

Jerry Forrester

Thanks, Jerry; you'll not regret your plans!

Dale McPhearson makes a good point: the unbelievable variety of vehicles at Newport every year is what gives the event such color. Anything and everybody is welcome...and comes! There is an accompanying car show for participants who can't run the hill or don't want to; over 300 additional cars were formally entered in that show this year, on top of the 303 Hill Climb participant entries!

Post-WWII cars permitted in the formal Hill Climb are limited to model year 1955 orphans and earlier. Hence, there are many Hudsons, DeSotos, Kaisers, Packards, Willys, etc, 1955 and earlier, in addition to the Studebakers. Of course, the 1955 year specification allows 259/4-bbl Studebaker V-8s to run the hill, which is why they are normally the fastest cars there.

True, you can run a 4-bbl 1955 DeSoto hemi, but no one has yet to field one seriously threatening the Studebakers. (The show sponsors recently had to add the rule that the orphan limitation is for makes discontinued prior to 1970. Otherwise, people would now start bringing postwar Olds 88s and V-8 Plymouths to compete. The show has to somehow limit the number of competitors on the hill or the event would become unwieldly.)

The accompanying car show sprawls all over the streets of Newport. You'll see gorgeous muscle cars and grandma's nice old 1957 Mercury Monterey 4-door mixed together in an eye-popping display of motorama. One oddity that's always warmed my heart is a white/silver coves 1960 Corvette with dual quads and a three-speed(!), IIRC. It was sold new at little Clark Chevrolet in tiny Cayuga IN just 9 miles up the road from Newport. The original owner's widow brings that unrestored Corvette every year with its original window sticker and all supporting documents. It's probably the only Corvette Clark sold that year, and here it is for us to appreciate almost 50 years later. Where else but Newport would you see such a time capsule?

'Hope to see you there next year, Jerry...and others. [] BP

[BobPalma]

quote:Originally posted by Jerry Forrester

BP, you have such a way with the pen. I stand in awe of your writing abilities. I am starting tomorrow making plans for Newport 2008.

Jerry Forrester

Thanks, Jerry; you'll not regret your plans!

Dale McPhearson makes a good point: the unbelievable variety of vehicles at Newport every year is what gives the event such color. Anything and everybody is welcome...and comes! There is an accompanying car show for participants who can't run the hill or don't want to; over 300 additional cars were formally entered in that show this year, on top of the 303 Hill Climb participant entries!

Post-WWII cars permitted in the formal Hill Climb are limited to model year 1955 orphans and earlier. Hence, there are many Hudsons, DeSotos, Kaisers, Packards, Willys, etc, 1955 and earlier, in addition to the Studebakers. Of course, the 1955 year specification allows 259/4-bbl Studebaker V-8s to run the hill, which is why they are normally the fastest cars there.

True, you can run a 4-bbl 1955 DeSoto hemi, but no one has yet to field one seriously threatening the Studebakers. (The show sponsors recently had to add the rule that the orphan limitation is for makes discontinued prior to 1970. Otherwise, people would now start bringing postwar Olds 88s and V-8 Plymouths to compete. The show has to somehow limit the number of competitors on the hill or the event would become unwieldly.)

The accompanying car show sprawls all over the streets of Newport. You'll see gorgeous muscle cars and grandma's nice old 1957 Mercury Monterey 4-door mixed together in an eye-popping display of motorama. One oddity that's always warmed my heart is a white/silver coves 1960 Corvette with dual quads and a three-speed(!), IIRC. It was sold new at little Clark Chevrolet in tiny Cayuga IN just 9 miles up the road from Newport. The original owner's widow brings that unrestored Corvette every year with its original window sticker and all supporting documents. It's probably the only Corvette Clark sold that year, and here it is for us to appreciate almost 50 years later. Where else but Newport would you see such a time capsule?

'Hope to see you there next year, Jerry...and others. [] BP

[Son O Lark]

I wanted to get some discussion on this event, thanks to all that responded. I have probably hundreds of pictures from Newport over the years. Mercer Runabout,1938? Bugatti,Curved Dashed Olds,Stanley Steamers,Auburn just to name a few. To watch this small town become a huge car show-flea market-swap meet is incredible. This year, an absolutely beautiful Hudson convertible was raced. The owner said he had been to many car shows this summer and had always won 1st prize (judged by owners, not judges)just because of the amount of interest in Hudsons since the Pixar movie "Cars". Too bad Studes weren't featured in the movie.

[Son O Lark]

I wanted to get some discussion on this event, thanks to all that responded. I have probably hundreds of pictures from Newport over the years. Mercer Runabout,1938? Bugatti,Curved Dashed Olds,Stanley Steamers,Auburn just to name a few. To watch this small town become a huge car show-flea market-swap meet is incredible. This year, an absolutely beautiful Hudson convertible was raced. The owner said he had been to many car shows this summer and had always won 1st prize (judged by owners, not judges)just because of the amount of interest in Hudsons since the Pixar movie "Cars". Too bad Studes weren't featured in the movie.