drivetofive

Odometer (Legend):  521,840

Odometer (ILX):  35,000

Here’s a family portrait if I’ve ever seen one!  These people are as crazy about Acura as I am.

There aren’t quite enough Acura ILX owners to get a meet together in my area yet, but I’m still hanging out frequently with the old Legend crowd.  I’ve been going to Legend meets for over 10 years.  This weekend, I got together with a bunch of other Acura fans and we took a scenic drive to lunch.  Final stats:

• 8 Legends
• 2 Miatas

Trip Distance:  192 Miles

This was our initial meet-up in Casa Grande, Arizona.

 

We made our way via Florence Boulevard to Interstate 8 which would’ve led us to San Diego, California if we stayed on it about another 5 hours.  Exiting at Gila Bend, this sign gave an idea just how close to the Mexican border we were.

As the entrance sign at the west end of town announces, Gila Bend is home to fewer than 2,000 people.  Or, more specifically, “1,700 friendly people, and 5 old crabs.”  Thankfully, we didn’t meet any of those crabs during our short visit.

Gila Bend was founded in 1872 and named for a 90-degree bend in the Gila River near where the town is located.  The Space Age Lodge and Restaurant opened in 1963 and has been a signature landmark on the main road through town ever since.

On Saturday, our group took over part of the dining room and enjoyed the space-themed decor as well as the cuisine.  The chicken quesadilla was most excellent, and if my friend Ari’s chocolate milkshake tasted half as good as it looked, I bet that was tasty too.  The restaurant itself is also known as “Outer Limits.”

If it’s offbeat, I’m probably going to want to eat there!  The theme here reminded me a lot of the Red Planet Diner in Sedona, Arizona where I went with some friends back in January.

Joe, Michael, and Ari

Tyson, Robert, and Gabe

Kelvin and Ian

There was a special occasion for our Legend meet.  Long-time Legend enthusiast Rosalinda chose to spend her 29th birthday with us.  Mark and Rosalinda have shared many of their special days with their brothers and sisters from the Acura family.  Even their wedding in 2009 had multiple individuals from the Legend forums invited.

Here’s a video of our group’s talent (or lack thereof) at singing happy birthday to her:

Back outside, it was time to line up the cars for a traditional photoshoot.  This looks like we’re preparing for some type of group huddle but we were really just shooting the breeze and talking cars.

Here are the individual rides and a little bit of information on each.  First is Austin’s 1987 Legend sedan. This car is was the oldest in the bunch but still ran amazingly.  Austin swapped the transmission on this car from an automatic to a 5-speed several years ago.  He also owns a Sherwood Green 1994 Legend GS.  Legend owners, I’ve found, often prefer to own multiple versions of the car.

This is Gabe’s 1992 Legend LS coupe:  yet another Legend that has at one point in its life undergone major surgery.  This car is special because the motor itself is in fact out of a 1997 Acura 3.5 RL.  Gabe’s car is equipped with a 5-speed manual transmission and he’s got a lot of nice upgrades both inside and out.

Here’s the newest member of our Arizona Legend owners club:  Joe.  Joe picked up this 1995 Legend LS coupe just a couple of weeks ago from a local craigslist listing.  It’s a Cashmere Silver Metallic automatic with about 150,000 miles on it.  Joe is glad to be onboard with the Legend family and aside from an intermittent ABS light illuminating on the dashboard, says that the car is running great.

Here’s Jordan’s 1991 Legend L coupe.  Jordan’s done some motor work on this one.  Instead of being equipped with a “Type I” 200-horsepower engine, it’s been swapped to a 230-horsepower “Type II.”  Jordan has a full exhaust system and some other performance upgrades to keep himself ahead of the pack when it comes to acceleration.

And this is Rosalinda’s 1993 Legend sedan, with the appropriate license plate “93LEGND.”  This is a custom two-tone paint job that is one of a kind.  The car is running on 17″ wheels from a 2004 Acura TSX.  This is actually a set of wheels that I used to own and I told to the Bandonis a few years back.

Here’s Michael’s 1994 Legend LS sedan. This car is painted pearl white but it used to be Desert Mist Metallic like mine.  Michael’s got some suspension upgrades like Koni red struts and he does all the work himself.

This is my 1994 Legend GS sedan 6-speed.  I’ve had it for 5 years but it usually gets driven fewer than 2,000 miles per year.  When I picked this car up, the intent was to have a replacement for the Legend coupe, which at the time had over 300,000 miles on it and I thought might be nearing the end of its useful life.  As we now know, that Legend coupe never ended up dying.  The sedan turned over 144,000 miles on its way to the meet.

These are some rolling shots from our drive westbound on Interstate 8 from Casa Grande to Gila Bend.

The abandoned gas station where we took our pictures was a destination in itself.  Anyone who follows my blog knows that I have a fascination with creeping around abandoned places, so I couldn’t resist taking a peek inside this one.

The roll-up door on the side of the building was already open, but inside it looked like just a bunch of junk.

Rosalinda’s 1993 Legend definitely won the award for the cleanest engine bay.  Immaculate!

It seemed only fitting that Mark wore his “I void warranties” T-shirt, based on the Miata he was driving.

Here’s Mark (and his steering wheel) goofing off in the Space Age parking lot.  Mark’s Miata packs quite a punch.  It’s got over 270,000 miles on the body but the entire drivetrain has been enhanced.

Turbo!  Mark’s 5-speed Miata would undoubtedly out-accelerate and out-handle any of the Legends at the meet.  He’s also equipped it with a full rollcage.  This is a race-ready ride if I’ve ever seen one.

And, it’s tradition for Mark to sprawl out across the hood of my car at meets so we carried on that legacy.

This is Ian’s 2012 Mitsubishi Lancer.  Ian’s been a part of Drive to Five since I first met him over a year ago and he was driving a Civic Si at the time.  The Lancer is a nice replacement!

A few other pictures from throughout the day.

Gabe captured this picture of me driving back to the Phoenix area via Highway 238.

It was great to once again reunite with old friends and share our love for these great cars.

Today, I did a little junkyarding in the 2013 ILX.  There’s a local “pick & pull” yard in Chandler, Arizona where you can pay $2 (and bring your own tools) and help yourself to any parts you’re looking for.

Among the treasures I walked out with, I found a “Type II” badge from the intake manifold of this 1994 Legend GS sedan automatic.

It looks right at home placed on the 2.4 liter powerplant of the ILX, right?  Ha!

I have always loved the bodystyle of the 1987-1990 Acura Legend coupe like this:

I found one of those cars in the junkyard, too.  It was in pretty sorry shape.

However, the taillights looked good and they are particularly rare, so I grabbed them.  The 1990 model year was the only year when the lenses were clear / red as opposed to amber / red.  I’ll clean these up and re-sell them.

Gotta love scavenging.  Hope everyone’s had a nice weekend!

This entry was posted on April 21, 2013 at 3:15 pm and is filed under Arizona, Legend, Road Trip. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.