YesA59

Here are a couple of pics from a 1960 Hershey PA Hill Climb race.

Hill climb racing seemed to be pretty popular in the 1950s and early 1960s. Do we have any hill climb racers on CF? Are there any hill climb races left for sports cars?

Russ

GreaseMonkey

They still have the Hershey hill climb every year. I'm not sure exactly when it is, but it happens...

Bill Irwin

They still ran hill climbs in the 70's. Giants Despair in Laurel Run, Pa. (outside of Wilkes-Barre) was a popular one. In 70, a Pontiac, a 67, with the big block and tri-power set a course record. 1 mile, 58.8 secs. This was a 9% grade. That was hauling AZZ with all the curves. Bill.

65Maroon_Coupe

Looks like not this year...

http://automotive.speedtv.com/articl...imb-cancelled/

YesA59

Interesting. The link also discusses vintage hillclimb racing. I wonder if there is anything like that in California. That could be kind of fun.

Russ

Qblue92

In the very 1st pic, what's that thing where the lic. plate assy goes????

YesA59

I think it is a towing setup. The tow car pulls the race car without using a flatbed trailer.

My 57 race car had a variation of the same setup back in 1967 .

Russ

john neas

Russ
I have two cars which ran hill climbs. 56#1009 set record at Haven Hill hill climb in 56. 57#3963 came in 2nd at 57 Giants Despair.
Regards

Frankie the Fink

Second picture 5th car back...is that a '59 or '60 MG ???
Talk about primitive..

I had a '59 that I started dating the wife in about 41 years ago...

Frank

Mark_Milner

Those brackets are for the tow bar. This type was called flat towing. A lot of people did it because they couldn't afford a trailer and having a trailer meant a place to store it was needed.

Remember, a lot of people lived in cities where the lots might be 50 ft or 75 ft wide, so you had a skinny driveway back to a garage tucked behind the house and a small back yard. Not like today where a lot of people live on 1/2 acre and 1 acre lots.

YesA59

I scanned in the other two pics I have from the hill climb race. look at the over-sized mirror in the 59/60 Corvette. That looks neat.

How dangerous was hill climb racing???? From these pics, I see skinny tires, wet conditions, mountain roads, and high speeds. Sounds like fun. But how did hill climbing compare to say road racing in terms of putting life and limb on the line?

Thanks,

Russ

YesA59

John-

Your cars are so cool.

Do you have any pics of your cars in hill climb races that you can share on CF? Like many here, I get a real kick seeing pics of early cars in competition mode.

Russ

narlee

How fun is that? Those old pictures are great!

Tom Hewitt

The pix are great. Good to see so many sports cars in one spot- something not common today. There are a series of hillclimbs still run by the Pennsylvania Hillclimb Association and the venues are the classics: Pagoda, Giant's Despair, Polish Mountain, Summit Point among others. Google "PHA" (spell out) for the schedule. Many classes and some Corvettes to be seen.

B&BVettes

Cool pix, for sure. What is the guy in the goofy white painter's cap (on backwards like the kids wear to day) in the previous picture holding? It looks like a bar with some kind of hose attached to it.

JohnZ

He's the starter - when the front wheels roll over the rubber hose, that starts the clocks.

1963GrayGray

My son and I both ran the Hershey HillClimb in our RP Corvette. It was quite and experience. We will be running the Polish Hillclimb, the Duryea,
and the Pagoda this year. Hopefully the Historic Hershey Hillclimb will return next year.
Dave Gray
Carlisle, Pa.

Dave1998

I can tell you that I attended and drove the course in 2008 at the 08 Hershey Hill Climb. I have lots more pics of last year's event. Here is the only pic of my car that someone else took. The path is narrow and the trees has gotten bigger. Luckily, the brakes on a C5 are quite good. Let me know if you want to see more. Dave

Tintin

In the day, Road Racing was hyper dangerous. I was fortunate to meet Jackie Stewart one time and I asked him the obvious question. His answer was that F1 had a 66% fatality rate and that he wanted to be old some day. When I heard that I asked him why anyone would have done it at all...