With the SCI-backed New England 1000 heading for its fifthe anniversary, John Paulding explains the charm of the event. Jean Constantine photos.
New England is different from the rest of America. I'd say it's prettier, classier, greener. This part of America is like...well...a younger version of England. And that makes it great sports-car territory. Soon after World War II, enthusiasts were already flogging their MG-TCs and V8-powered Allards up hillclimbs like Mt. Washington in New Hampshire, Mt. Battie in Maine, and Mt. Equinox in Vermont. The Northeast's quirky 2-lane backroads, which were often laid down over the trails of deer-chasing Indians, just called out for sports cars.
SCI contributors Rich and Jean Taylor carry on this tradition every spring with the New England 1000, an event we've adopted as our own. Each year, the "Thousand" brings an eclectic group of minimalist sports cars, elegant GTs, and out-and-out racers to the grid, all of them built before 1974. Five days of TSD rallying, high-speed special stages, and glorious scenic touring follow, with everything from 4.5-liter Bentleys to Ferrari Daytonas, 1920s Bugattis, and rip-snorting Mustangs all jockeying for awards.
The 1996 edition lured drivers and cars from the US, England, and Mexico. Among the prewar standouts were five gorgeous Bugattis-two Type 55s, a 57, a 44, and a Type 51 GP car. Tom and Bea Hollfelder's awesome Alfa 8C2300 Monza also made the prewar field, as did a glorious Aston Ulster, an Alvis Speed 25, and the well-known Delahaye 135S Le Mans racer of Marc and Renee Perlman.
Among the coolest postwar rides were the spotless Ace-Bristol of John Whitney Payson and his daughter Heather; the Kurtis Sport (forerunner of the Muntz Jet) of Jimmy and Ann Marie Dobbs; Bob and Sally Stockman's Aston DB4GT Zagato; and the Ferrari Daytona Spyder of Bruce and Sandra Lustman. Porsche 356s, Ferrari 330GTCs, and everything from a Jaguar C-type replica to a Lamborghini Urraco filled out the rest of the field. Sponsor Oldsmobile even got into the act with a '66 Toronado and a 1970 Olds 442 from their Lansing museum.
There are four serious driving days on the NE1000, and during these the 40-odd entries covered 1097 transit miles across Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. The circuit began at the posh Basin Harbor Club in Basin Harbor VT (a fancy 1886 resort right on the shore of Lake Champlain), and subsequent overnights found racers at the equally upscale White Mountain Inn in North Conway NH, Samoset Resort in Rockport ME, and Sugarloaf/USA in Carrabassett ME. Mid-day checkpoints and lunch stops took place in Woodstock VT, South Paris ME, Owls Head ME, and Mount Washington NH.
Check a map and you'll see that reaching all these sights meant criss-crossing New England from Lake Champlain to Penobscot Bay and back again. The elevation ranged from sea level in Maine to the top of Mt. Washington, which at 7500+ feet is the highest point in the Northeast.
In addition to the TSD sections, rallyists donned helmets to race flat-out up the time-honored hillclimbs at Mt. Washington and Mt. Battie. A modern track outside North Conway called Hale's Mountain was added as well-this was where the Boston Globe's John White fried the brakes on Oldsmobile's Toronado and went straight into the woods, but we promised we wouldn't talk about that. (We lied.)
So how do you describe a vintage rally like this in one breath? According to Rich and Jean's pal Ralph Whaley, the New England 1000 is, "Drive, drive, drive, look, look, look, eat, sleep, repeat." As for the looking and eating, we slurped down clams and lobster at the Owls Head Transportation Museum while admiring the old cars and airplanes, lunched at Bob Bahre's fabulous classic-car collection, and enjoyed tea and steam-car rides in a 1911 Stanley at the Stanley Museum. My own favorite coffee break was at Andy Rheault's exquisite Bugatti collection outside Camden ME. A lucky few even got to ride in a 1931 biplane at Owls Head, on a day when the air was gin-clear at 1200 feet and 92 mph.
Thanks to sponsors like Oldsmobile, Hemmings Motor News, Sports Car Market, DeGrazia Vineyards, the States of Vermont and Maine, and Sports Car International, the Taylors raised over $21,000 for various New England charities in 1996, primarily the Gary Gaboury Fund of the Vermont State Police. There were also trophies galore at the victory banquet (though as far as I'm concerned, the real reason to do these things is to have a bunch of fun with a group of fellow old-car loonies).
Canadian racer Ron Goldsack and SCCA Pro Rally champ Tom Grimshaw won the event overall, earning the Vermont Governor's Cup and Maine Governor's Cup, respectively. Wielding an immaculate vintage-race Ford Cortina Lotus, they drove like demons and still beat the competition by mere seconds after four days of TSD and special-stage rallying. Tom and Bea Hollfelder (Alfa 8C2300) received the Vintage Motorsport Vintage Spirit Award; the irredeemably likable John Burton and Helene Wickett (Lotus Europa) received the New England 1000 Cup; Frank Filangeri and Clark Nicholls (Jaguar E-type) clinched the New England Hillclimb Cup; and vintage-rally regulars Peter Williamson and Doug Cushnie (Bugatti 51 GP) snatched Oldsmobile's Aurora Cup.
That was the 1996 event, and since this is a spring rally, the next one is coming up fast. This year's New England 1000 begins Sunday, 18 May 1997, and runs through Friday, 23 May. Rich and Jean are promising a special fifth-anniversary celebration for this running, and the primary sponsor will again be Oldsmobile, whose Aurora support and loaner cars have been so popular with the crowd that a few regulars have even bought one. SCI will be there too, of course, sending yet another masthead hack who's convinced he's Stirling Moss. No doubt the Vermont State Office of Road Safety will have a thing or two to say about that.
The 1997 route kicks off from the Basin Harbor Club and stays overnight at Stowe Mountain Resort in Stowe, the Woodstock Inn in Woodstock, and the Old Tavern in Grafton VT. Special stages will take place at Mt. Ascutney, Mt. Equinox, Mt. Mansfield, and Smugglers Notch.
The price for this next round of lunacy is $2995 per car, including everything but gas. (They even send someone to lug your bags to the transporter every morning-it's competition at its laziest.) Oh, and every entry gets a free 1-year sub to SCI, too. (When you look at it that way, the price falls to a paltry $2984.) Special-rate trucking can be arranged in advance through sponsor Ed Dalton's Classic Car Carriers, so plan ahead if you can. Call 800-645-6069 for more info, or write New England 1000, Jackson Hill Road, Sharon CT 06069.
Canadian racer Ron Goldsack and SCCA Pro Rally champ Tom Grimshaw won the event overall, earning the Vermont Governor's Cup and Maine Governor's Cup, respectively. Wielding an immaculate vintage-race Ford Cortina Lotus, they drove like demons and still beat the competition by mere seconds after four days of TSD and special-stage rallying. Tom and Bea Hollfelder (Alfa 8C2300) received the Vintage Motorsport Vintage Spirit Award; the irredeemably likable John Burton and Helene Wickett (Lotus Europa) received the New England 1000 Cup; Frank Filangeri and Clark Nicholls (Jaguar E-type) clinched the New England Hillclimb Cup; and vintage-rally regulars Peter Williamson and Doug Cushnie (Bugatti 51 GP) snatched Oldsmobile's Aurora Cup. 