Sons pursue dad's dream of reaching new heights in old car

BEDFORD — Russell Kluender and his three sons attended the Newport Antique Auto Hill Climb on and off over 30 years. They never had a car eligible for the competition, which times vintage cars as they drive a third of a mile up a steep hill.

Kluender did purchase a car at an auction one year, a 1972 two-door Oldsmobile Toronado, brown with rust around the edges. He paid $800 and drove it home.

“No one bid, then Dad raised his hand,” his son Andy recalled. “That car was a tank.”

His father died this past November, and his sons found themselves reminiscing about those autumn trips to Newport. Held the first weekend in October, the hill climb attracts hundreds of cars and 100,000 spectators to the tiny town of Newport, north of Terre Haute.

“It was always a dream to ‘run the hill,’” Andy Kluender said. Before long, he and his twin brother, Luke, started looking around for a car worthy of the hill climb. It had to be old, but not too heavy, with an engine that could maintain some speed on a steep incline.

Looking on eBay this spring, Kluender found a car.

“It was time to take matters into our own hands, so we purchased a 1953 Packard Clipper and have prepared it for our October assault on the hill.”

The 3,600-pound two-door Packard is blue, with a white top and massive grille. It was not far away, in the town of Washington, and the price was within the brothers’ budget.

“The guy told us it needed a gas tank, and that he could drive it 25 to 30 miles before it would just quit,” Kluender said. “So we drove over with some tools and got it started up, and we made it as far as Shoals. Then we worked on it there by the side of the road and got it home.”

They refurbished the interior, fixed the drum brakes and repaired the gas tank. The car is pretty mechanically sound and has appeared at a few car shows this summer. It’s always the lone Packard.

“Compared to other manufacturers, Packard didn’t produce that many cars,” Kluender said. “Ours is a two-door sedan, and in 1953, they only made 6,700 of them.”

I’ll be looking for this car Oct. 7, when its ascent begins. The front axle will be aligned with the starting line and when the green light comes on, several cars will take off. Scoring is based on the time in seconds multiplied by the cubic inch displacement of the car engine. The regulations advise participants to “use any gear, any way — just get to the top in the fastest possible time.”

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