drivetofive

Odometer (Legend):  535,296

Odometer (ILX):  140,911

Trip Distance:  861 Miles

How does a lowly Legend owner get a VIP invitation to a car show with over 200 Honda S2000 sportscars?  Luck of the draw, I guess!  It happened to me and I made a special trip to Honda’s North American headquarters in Torrance, California this past weekend to celebrate the occasion.

It’s been almost exactly 5 years since I attended the last s2000 meet-up of this magnitude.  That one was called “Homecoming II” and was organized by the same individual who put on this year’s shindig.  I shared a write-up, photos, and short video of that event on the Acura Legend forums at the time (it occurred just 6 months before I started this blog, or you would have seen it here).  One of the many highlights of that event was the chance to personally meet Mr. Shigeru Uehara, the father of the NSX & S2000.

My Legend had just 441,000 miles on it at that time, so it’s taken me 5 years to add another 94,000 miles.

“Homecoming III” was slated to be even bigger and better than the prior event.  I took off from work last Thursday afternoon and hit Interstate 10 westbound.  Well, not right away.  Interstate 10 in Phoenix is a bit of a danger zone right now, with about a dozen random “car shootings” taking place over the last couple of weeks.  I detoured around Loop 101 until I got to Avondale before hitting the 10.  The 430-mile drive was smooth sailing and it reminded me of how I racked up so many miles on the Legend in the first place: Low revs on the highway (fewer than 2500 at 75 miles per hour), smooth ride, and a great stereo.  It was sundown by the time I rolled LA town via I-10, Highway 60, I-605, Highway 91, and I-110 to my exit on Sepulveda Boulevard.  Welcome to Los Angeles.

Friday was an action-packed day including meetings with key contacts at Acura regarding next month’s NSXPO convention in Palm Springs.  By late afternoon, my ‘hired driver’ (AKA, trusted friend) Peter had arrived at our hotel in Torrance with the NSX which would also be attending Homecoming, so both cars were safe and sound on location.  I worked up a sweat doing some last-minute detailing in the parking lot (LA is experiencing a heat wave and the humidity is killer!), but both cars ended up glistening with some Meguiar’s quick detail spray and a little tire shine.  My friend Ira had arrived from Portland in his 2002 Acura NSX in Long Beach Blue Pearl, as seen here in the background.

Game day (Saturday) came quite a bit earlier than we’d hoped.  My alarm went off at 3:15 a.m., in fact.  By then, I’m sure Peter was regretting his decision to volunteer as my second driver for this crazy adventure.  We had a 4:25 a.m. meet-up with others from our hotel, a 4:45 meet up 2 miles away with the 12 other “showcars” in the Homecoming event, and a 5:05 arrival at Honda’s huge campus where we staged the showcars in a “mock” situation.  I’m telling you, the ENTIRE DAY had timing laid out with that kind of precision.  Exhausting.

In the meantime, Event Director Mike Trinh put us to work – breaking ice bags, filling up the cargo beds of two Ridgeline pickup trucks, and throwing in bottled waters and iced teas.  By 7:30, we were ushered into hiding with our cars around the backside of the building while the row after row of Honda S2000 rolled onto campus and into their designated (by color) parking areas.  If you’re afflicted with a moderate to severe case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder like I am, you’ll greatly appreciate that the fact that every section of the parking lot was perfectly color coordinated.  See what I mean?

The S2000 model has a huge enthusiast following, as do so many other Honda models.  The “S2K” (as it’s lovingly been named) sold over 66,000 units in total from its first year in 2000 through its final year in 2009.  I know a few of my loyal readers are lucky enough to own such a vehicle, including Conor.  This is his baby:

I talked for a bit with Chris Martin from Honda Public Relations and he asked me to help him pull a 2016 Honda Pilot out of the garage and bring it over to the showcar area.  I happily obliged, and though my drive distance with the Pilot couldn’t have been more than 1/2 mile, it was my first time in the all-new redesigned model and I liked what I saw.  Chris also had an Accord coupe and an HR-V on display.  The HR-V was a 6-speed manual!  It seemed like it would be a blast to drive.

From his wireless microphone, Mike T kicked off the opening ceremony and announced the originating city and owner’s name for each of the “showcars” as they filed in during a parade.  Peter and I were sandwiched into the middle of the pack, but in line next to one another.  I took the lead in the NSX and Peter followed in the Legend as we pulled into the main event parking lot amid a cheering crowd.

One of the key highlights of the morning was getting to visit the Honda “secret museum” down the street a few blocks on Van Ness.  I think this marked my fourth time going in there, but it never loses its appeal to witness the preservation of such neat low-mileage examples of important Hondas of the past.  Best of all, I reconnected with pioneer Acura founding executive Kurt Antonius and the Manager of Auto Shows & Exhibits, Dave Heath.  Kurt is pictured here.

This is one of the vehicles on display:  A 78-mile (yes, 78!) example of the 2004 Acura NSX.

We were starving by this time, so our first stop when we got back to the S2K Homecoming location was to get in line for the Habit Burger food truck.  It was worth the wait!  Italian ice was served up for dessert – a perfect remedy for the extremely humid weather that left us all chugging water and looking for any slice of shade we could find.  Around 2:00 p.m., Mike kicked off the closing ceremony which included a raffle of dozens of items that were donated by event sponsors, many of which were quite high in value.  I laid low for the rest of the afternoon back at our hotel, and made the return drive to Phoenix bright and early on Sunday.

One bonehead moment to share from the 6-hour drive home:  I stopped briefly to use the restroom at the Love’s gas station in Quartzsite, Arizona just after crossing in from California.  As I shuffled through paperwork and garbage on the passenger seat to collect a pile for the trash, I inadvertently threw my $80 sunglasses away in the trash bin.  It wasn’t until I was a mile down the freeway that I went to grab for them on the seat and realized they weren’t there.  I debated about whether I should return, but decided it was worth it.  So, the folks fueling up at Love’s gave me a few weird looks when I returned to the station and took the lid off the trash bin so I could root around in there.

Yep, found the glasses.

Many thanks to the friends who made this memorable weekend possible!  Here are the rest of my photos and a 4-minute video.

Someone else’s video:  My parade entrance starts around 5:50.

Friday meeting location at Honda’s main office in Torrance.  This is the lobby.

Found a random place for dinner that evening.  Looked a little retro.

A 2016 ILX was improperly parked in the showcar area bright and early.  So, it got towed.

Die-hard Honda fan, Steven, trailered this race-ready Honda S800 all the way from Dallas, Texas for Homecoming.

Lining up – Peter in the Legend, me in the NSX.

Parade fanfare.  I’m still trying to track down video coverage of this.

Ira’s gorgeous Long Beach Blue NSX with 28,000 miles.

The crowd assembled for the opening ceremony.

Interior of a 39,000-mile red NSX on display.

Lineup of yellow S2000s

And silver ones…

And black ones…

Visiting with my friend Ben (left) who’s a fellow Legend owner, as well as Mike (center), the guy in charge.

The S2000s were led into he facility by Acura NSX “Pace Cars” which each wore this decal.

Interior of the HR-V 6-speed.

The 2016 Accord Coupe.

NSX + Legend

NSX + Legend again

Abandoned roadside Legend spotting this morning on I-10!  Looked like it had seen better days…  It had already been tagged by Highway Patrol.

By the way, I had a couple of neat features happen this week.  First, this photo share from music artist “Fabolous” who has 2.5 million followers on Instagram.  He posted an old (2007) photo of my Legends in Logan, Utah on his page on Thursday and it’s up to almost 27,000 likes now.

The second share was from Acura HQ when they featured a photo of my coupe for #FanFriday.  Sweet!

Thanks again for coming along on this adventure!

This entry was posted on September 13, 2015 at 2:41 pm and is filed under California, Car Show, Legend, NSX. 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.