The Mount Washington Hillclimb is one of the oldest motorsport events in the US, first run in 1904. It utilizes the Mount Washington Auto Road which is a tight turning ascent of Mount Washington in NH. The road is much tighter than that of Pike's Peak but has many long drop offs - no place for wimps or reckless drivers. Mount Washington is known as home of the world's worst weather, in part because it holds the world record for highest wind speed recorded.

It's a big hillclimb weekend for SAABs in the northeast. Some guys are hilclimbing in PA and Pascal is competing at Mt Washington in his '85 SPG:
http://saabrally.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1822

I'm not at the event, even though it is in my home state, but I've been following the results online.

Friday Pascal was 3rd in class out of 11 cars, Saturday he was 1st in class out of 9 cars, and it looks like today he is 4th in class out of 10 cars.

Good going Pascal! You got to get to at least one of the PHA events so you can beat all of us!! Driving up that mountain at normal speeds was scary to me, you sir have brass balls.

Yeah very well done. It was great being up around 5000' and seeing the old SAAB ripping around the crag way!

Thanks guys. It was a great weekend. The new gearbox was so much fun, more on that later. It was fun getting the attention of some of the other guys in H2 during practice, and then not being too far off the pace Sunday was nice as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu5OXZB ... ata_player

That's the second run from Sunday. I have a couple other angles I might try and do something with.

KPAero wrote:Thanks guys. It was a great weekend. The new gearbox was so much fun, more on that later. It was fun getting the attention of some of the other guys in H2 during practice, and then not being too far off the pace Sunday was nice as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu5OXZB ... ata_player

That's the second run from Sunday. I have a couple other angles I might try and do something with.

Jesus F'n Christ.... Hats off to you.
The bumps and dips must make the suspension setup tough to keep power to the road, let alone carve the turns.
Well done.

KPAero wrote:Thanks guys. It was a great weekend. The new gearbox was so much fun, more on that later

More on that now!

Run 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=pd8i4_SO9UM#t=1

Excuse my obnoxious commentary, haha, I was excited!

Our Sheriff buddy up front had his radar gun going, and I won't claim it was the most accurate thing, but most of the cars around Pascal were going by around 34-36mph. According to his gun Pascal came out at 38mph!!!

And Run 2, again, excuse my exciment, haha. My lady in the green down front was just as excited!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=fFsxyoYpdSA

Ok. First gear is tall, but its easy to deal with around the pits etc. I never did figure out how to launch it though. But wants you get moving off the line it is great. You can see in the video I used first around the hairpin type corners. It is definitely a usable gear.

The shifting during around town type driving is not bad. At speed it is easy. It was really nice being able to hammer through the 1-2 shift. Downshifting was also easy. I did use the clutch shifting. The only shift I struggled with a bit was 2-3. Without a centering spring in the box you have to really guide it through the gate, but it was sort of hard to feel it at speed. I did manage to grab first instead of third on one run. This also was not really an issue by Sunday, so I don't expect it to be a big deal long term.

The ratios seem to work really well. Like I said, first is usable. The rest of the time I was using 2nd and 3rd. I expect to use 4th during some of the other hill climbs. Going into the event I had thought I had fixed a boosting issue, but had not. So the car was only making 10-12psi at the start of the runs, and on the full course based on watching the gauge in the video it looks like its around 5psi at the top. I really was enjoying driving the car, and given those issues, a lot of it had to do with having proper gear ratios meant for competition.

squaab99t wrote:Jesus F'n Christ.... Hats off to you.
The bumps and dips must make the suspension setup tough to keep power to the road, let alone carve the turns.
Well done.

X2!

Only what, a 2500 foot drop off some of those edges? No big deal.

1st is pretty tall in the S&R set. When I was watching the video I saw that the start in 1st seemed a little slow and then after a little bit the RPMs rose and you took off. I said to myself, "Looks like he got the new box in!" What were you running for a ring and pinion? 6:31 (S&R) or stock 4spd?

Geoff wrote:1st is pretty tall in the S&R set. When I was watching the video I saw that the start in 1st seemed a little slow and then after a little bit the RPMs rose and you took off. I said to myself, "Looks like he got the new box in!" What were you running for a ring and pinion? 6:31 (S&R) or stock 4spd?

Do tell. and the primaries too. What engine speeds are you running at?

Stock 4 speed ring an pinion. with the 31/30 primary. My rev limiter is set a few hundred rpms higher than a stock T5 ecu and I tend to use all of that.

It works well with the turbo motor. Getting off the line was the only issue. Before the event I did try launching once with my direzza street tires, and it was easy to do, just needed to go at a higher rpm than normal. I was a bit more hesitant with new r-compounds for fear of breaking something, so I decided to just roll off the line during practice. After doing that it was hard to adjust on race day. Not a huge deal, but leaving the line slowly is a good way to go at least a second slower, so I do want to figure out whats needed for when it counts.

A great shot of Pascal coming out of the Crag way in this album too!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mtwashing ... /lightbox/

Geoff wrote:

squaab99t wrote:Jesus F'n Christ.... Hats off to you.
The bumps and dips must make the suspension setup tough to keep power to the road, let alone carve the turns.
Well done.

X2!

Only what, a 2500 foot drop off some of those edges? No big deal.

Well...not 2500 feet straight down...but at a pretty steep grade.

Good shot here! (not mine)