drivetofive

Descending order mileage update time!

Odometer (Legend Coupe):  534,345

Odometer (Legend Sedan):  147,000

Odometer (ILX):  136,629

Odometer (Vigor):  104,540

Odometer (NSX):  100,859

My buddy Dave flew in for a visit this week from the Seattle area, so I had to roll out the ‘Formula’ Red carpet for him.  We took this car to get drinks at Tempe Marketplace.

Dave is a long-time friend of mine who I originally met via the Acura Legend enthusiast community.  This was the airport shuttle.

On Tuesday night, we took a ride in the Legend coupe for some BBQ dinner at “Bobby-Q’s” off Interstate 17 & Northern Avenue in Phoenix.

Cruising to dinner.

The pulled pork was indeed delicious.

Dave also borrowed the ILX for a bit.  He sent me a text message later on:  “This clutch is 180 degrees different than your coupe’s!”  Thanks, my friend, for making time for me in your vacation travel schedule!

Huge thanks are going out to my friend Beau who snagged me some snazzy new profile photos a week or so ago.  I used the pictures for my Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram accounts.  For laughs, we took this one too.  I couldn’t resist getting the car in just one shot!

That Vigor is now officially an Arizona resident.  First order of business was an emissions test on Tuesday morning at the facility on Evans Rd in Scottsdale, not far from my office.  That test ran me $20.  Results are here:

Summary:  It passed with flying colors!

• Hydrocarbons in grams/mile:  Standard = .8;  my Vigor = .36
• Carbon Monoxide in grams/mile:  Standard = 12; my Vigor = 4.25
• Oxides of Nitrogen in grams/mile:  Standard = 2; my Vigor = .78

I then spent two hours at the Tempe DMV office near my house.  Luckily I’d taken my work laptop so I could multi-task while dozens of other people made their way through the process.  For $92.28 I was issued new tags with a 2-year registration, good until August 2017.  So cheap!  And it would have been even cheaper, but $50 of that total was for my personalized tags which are on order.  I won’t spill the beans, but I’m excited for what they’ll say.  In the meantime, I’m riding around on a generic looking one.

As all of you know, I’m big on “car history.”  I like to know where my vehicles have been – and what they’ve been through – down to every little detail.  That’s the whole reason I track my vehicle maintenance on Excel spreadsheets.  When I purchased my Vigor from an AutoNation dealership in Denver, it came with its owner’s manual inside the glove compartment.

The original owner’s name was handwritten on the inside of the manual’s front cover.  It only took a quick Google search to locate her current whereabouts and contact information.  I sent her over a quick note.  Within 12 hours, she’d responded – gratefully – and was glad to hear that the car she’d driven for 21 years is still in good hands!  Check out her email:

That made my day.  I’ll keep Kathy in the loop as things progress.

It’s been a super busy time here.  I’m still actively engaged in NSXPO planning activities, in preparation for our 250-car NSX celebration the weekend of October 8-11 in Palm Springs, California.  I’m taking a “practice” drive through that area soon.  Here are a few coming attractions.

• Aug 22 – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
• Aug 29 – Palm Springs & Idyllwild, CA
• Sep 23-27 – National Acura Legend Meet – Houston, TX

A few final pics to close out the week.  I test-drove a coworker’s 2005 Porsche Carrera S.  Loved it!

Rainbow!

Drive to Five reader Joe saw this in the local paper.  Someone stole my tagline.

Legends out on Saturday

And the Vigor out on Sunday

The end of the road, and the end of this epistle!  Until next time.

This entry was posted on August 9, 2015 at 3:05 pm and is filed under ILX, Legend, NSX, Vigor. 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.