Richard King and passenger in the Alfa RLTF.
Story and photos by Charles Seavey
The Vintage Sports Car Club of America should need no introduction. Founded in Boston, MA, in 1958, currently headquartered in New Britain, PA, it is all about cars produced up through the 1950s.
But the club’s Castle Hill Hillclimb may not be as familiar. Castle Hill is the centerpiece of the Crane Estate in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Built by Chicago industrialist Richard T. Crane in 1928, the 59 room mansion has a commanding view of the ocean and the Great Salt Marsh of the Massachusetts coast. It is roughly 140 feet above sea level. As it happens, the starting line for the hill climb is at about 5 feet above sea level. Thanks to the efforts of VSCCA members, the hillclimb was re-established in 2021, after an 18 year hiatus from an earlier concours canceled in the early part of the century,