I sorta promised Luke and Jordan I'd post these videos when I talked to them at the SOC last weekend...
I did the Mt. Equinox Hillclimb last year in the Sonett. Having never been to the hill before, I was thrilled with the 5th best time of the weekend (in the dry) and 2nd best time on Sunday in the wet.
Best dry run (Saturday Aug 21, 2010): http://youtu.be/UhvfiJiwTQA
Only wet run (Sunday Aug 22, 2010): http://youtu.be/ogbCjJNQ-9M
We had so much fun, we went back again this year. The Sonett was undergoing some surgery however, so I took the Formula S. I learned quickly that the Formula S, in its current configuration, is a hopeless hillclimber. The gearing is just all wrong. Plus, I found out Sunday morning that we had low compression in one cylinder. So I parked it. When you only have three cylinders, a single under-performing one is fairly crippling.
Dad let me take the Lotus up though!
http://youtu.be/Qzw4IGtv4rQ
I made a TON of driving mistakes. Missing my turn-in points for the hairpins were the most egregious of my errors. But the one-handed driving necessitated by a transmission that would jump out of gear made things a little extra challenging. Then, as you see, there were yellow flags in the last sector. So turning in the 3rd fastest time for the weekend (and beating my Dad in the same car by 3 seconds) wasn't too bad in the final tally.
That's 15% max incline, 6% minimum incline, and 3650 feet of altitude gain over 5.2 miles.
Mt. Equinox Hillclimb
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Re: Mt. Equinox Hillclimb
Nice! And those Rocky Mountain people think we don't have any hills!
What's that 3 wheeled contraption in the first picture?
What's that 3 wheeled contraption in the first picture?
The kind of dirty that doesn't wash off
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Re: Mt. Equinox Hillclimb
Looks like wicked fun, though I am noting the lotus fought you a lot more, seemed a bit twitchy to me, then again I'm used to road racing.
Driver: 2000 9-5 5spd wgn B235R swap stg 1 tune
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Toy: 1970 Saab 99 Coupe GT3/GTU, 99 Viggen stg 1 tune
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Re: Mt. Equinox Hillclimb
Thanks for posting Stefan, sounds like the sonett needs a closer ratio box on some of those sections....
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Re: Mt. Equinox Hillclimb
Geoff wrote:What's that 3 wheeled contraption in the first picture?
Old Morgan?
http://www.morgan3wheeler.co.uk/home.html
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Re: Mt. Equinox Hillclimb
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Re: Mt. Equinox Hillclimb
Jordan wrote:Thanks for posting Stefan, sounds like the sonett needs a closer ratio box on some of those sections....
You 're not kidding.
That's why I have one in the works!
After years of looking, I finally found a "Special 2" gearset over in England and it arrived this summer. Now, I just need to get the 'box built.
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Re: Mt. Equinox Hillclimb
AGT3SAAB wrote:Looks like wicked fun, though I am noting the lotus fought you a lot more, seemed a bit twitchy to me, then again I'm used to road racing.
Yup!
As the Lotus is probably very close to 1000 lbs with me in it, has a live rear axle, and very... Um... Shall we say, "simple" suspension... Bumps are not its strong point.
As my Dad says about racing the Lotus up Mt. Equinox... "You aim for the center of the road because you never know which way it is going to jump next, or how far."
Or, as I say... "Anything between the green is a solid a success."
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