drivetofive

Odometer (NSX):  106,256

Trip Distance:  50 Miles

Formula Red traffic jam!

How about a nice fall cruise to kick off our finally-bearable weather here in the desert?  It would’ve been a great day to own a targa-top-equipped NSX for some open-air cruising, but my 1992 model has a fixed roof so I made do with the windows rolled down.  It’s been gorgeous around here the last few days.

Our friend Jhae is the man when it comes to managing the NSX ownership contingent in Arizona.  On occasions I’ve had people send me photos of NSXs they’ve seen out and about.  If it’s a car I can’t identify, I send it to Jhae.  Seconds later, he’ll give me the full download:  Year, modifications, and ownership history.  That’s why we lean on him to be our local event coordinator.  He pulled through for us in a big way yesterday when we had 15 cars show up for a meet, cruise, lunch, and photoshoot.  It was like a mini-NSXPO event squeezed into a 4-hour timeframe.  And everyone had a great time!

The day started out with Kelvin, Frank, Neal, and Curt showing up at my house in two NSXs for a short staging meeting before we all rolled out to Tempe together.  My neighbor Joedee rolled by in her Honda and stuck her head out the window:  “Hey!  Park those down at my garage sale!”

It only took us about 20 minutes to get to the meet location, which was in the parking lot of a baseball stadium on Rio Salado Parkway.  Luckily we had the place almost entirely to ourselves.  The cars kept rolling in.  Pretty soon it was 11:00 a.m. and time for Jhae to round up the troops for our roll-out en masse.  There were a couple of stoplights to navigate but pretty soon we were swarming our way northbound on Highway 87 toward Payson, Arizona on a nicely improved two-laner with 65 mph limits.  It was fun to weave through traffic seeing NSXs both ahead and in the rearview.  Some brave videographers in a Honda Pilot hung out its back window for some rolling video.

We branched south at Bush Highway and went to the Lakeshore Restaurant for lunch.  Luckily, Lakeshore was able to accommodate our party of 25+ on the outside patio overlooking Saguaro Lake and the weather was perfect for dining al fresco.  The BBQ chicken sandwich was a solid 10 out of 10.  Jhae made some announcements and notified us that current NSXCA (NSX Club of America) members would receive $10 off their meals.  Sweet!  There were also some giveaways like Hot Wheels NSX scale models and posters.

A few of our attendees had to split off at that time, but the rest of us headed to east Mesa for a photoshoot at Falcon Field next to some very cool old aircraft.  Many thanks to Jhae for his planning efforts and to all the great folks who came out in support.  Looking forward to getting the gang together again soon!

Morning visit from my friend Brett who was driving through from California to Arkansas in his 2007 TL Type-S.

Here you can see the difference between Monte Carlo Blue (left) and Long Beach Blue (right)

Just prior to rolling out

Waiting at the first light

Nice view in the rearview

Looking eastward over Saguaro Lake

Lunch is served!

There IS water in the desert!

Heading back out on Bush Highway

Reds lining up at Falcon Field

This entry was posted on October 16, 2016 at 12:03 pm and is filed under Arizona, 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.