---
title: "Ride Along with Team O’Neil at the Mount Washington Hill Climb"
description: "Andrew Comrie-Picard flies up the mountain in the team's Ford Fiesta ST."
date: "2017-04-08"
modified: "2017-04-08"
authors:
  - name: "Kyle Cheromcha"
    job_title: "Editor-in-Chief"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/kyle-cheromcha"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/watch-this/9116/ride-along-with-team-oneil-at-the-mount-washington-hill-climb"
categories:
  - "News"
tags:
  - "Fiesta"
  - "Ford"
  - "Hatchback"
  - "Hill Climb"
  - "Onboard"
  - "rally"
  - "Team O'Neil"
  - "video"
---

# Ride Along with Team O’Neil at the Mount Washington Hill Climb

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/2017/04/hill-climb.png>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

Pikes Peak gets the glory, but those who know will tell you that the infamous Mount Washington Hill Climb in New Hampshire is serious business. In addition to featuring a steeper climb and more corners per mile, the Mount Washington Auto Road is much narrower and in far worse shape, making the 7.4 mile dash all the more insane. Last run in 2014 and [coming back this July](<https://mtwashingtonautoroad.com/events/climb-to-the-clouds>), it's one of the oldest motorsport events in the country—and you can get excited for its return by experiencing the whole thing firsthand in this unedited onboard video recently posted by the fine folks at [Team O'Neil.](<https://teamoneil.com/>)

The event was created in 1904, seven years before the first Indianapolis 500, and winner Harry Harkness finished in a blistering 24 minutes and 17 seconds in his [60-horsepower Mercedes.](<https://digitalcollections.detroitpubliclibrary.org/islandora/object/islandora%3A199971>) More than a hundred years later, competitors were rocketing up the mountain in all manner of Subarus, Audis, and even a Hyundai Elantra, posting times between six and seven minutes. It hasn't been run every year—in fact, it took a 29-year break between 1961 and 1990 before being revived by Tim O'Neil himself—and there's more pavement than there used to be, but what hasn't changed are the unpredictable conditions and all the dangers lining the narrow, twisting road.

In 2014, Canadian 2WD rally champion [Andrew Comrie-Picard](<https://rally-america.com/drivers/view/ra-1762>) was behind the wheel of Team O'Neil's Ford Fiesta ST for the aptly-named "Climb to the Clouds." That's another thing that differentiates this race from Pikes Peak—instead of purpose-built hill climb cars with huge wings and splitters, here the drivers rock more traditional rally machines, upping the intensity even more. This video comes from his second run that year and does a great job illustrating the crazy course and the vision needed to get to the top safely. We think you'll agree he and that Fiesta earned their "This car climbed Mount Washington!" bumper sticker.

https://youtube.com/embed/gaU8_naccI0

## Author
Overseeing an expert staff of writers and editors from his lair in Los Angeles, Kyle shapes The Drive’s singular approach to covering the automotive industry and car culture. He’s been with the site as a writer since 2017, taking over as editor in 2019. On a daily basis, Kyle is responsible for directing The Drive's editorial news and car review content strategies, setting special coverage priorities, managing complex reporting projects, and ensuring what you read on the page meets our high internal standards for quality and trustworthiness. He is also the executive producer of The Drive's YouTube channel, which was relaunched in February 2024 to great acclaim and has accumulated over 14M new views in its first year back on the scene. He hosts a biweekly series on the channel where he breaks down fascinating and complicated stories from the automotive world.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/kylecheromcha.bsky.social>)  
[Instagram](<https://www.instagram.com/kylecheromcha>)  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-cheromcha-1550248a/>)