Easter Weekend 2018 in Utah; Integra Sedan Update Video; IMSA Race Event Invitation
Odometer (Legend): 560,138
Odometer (ILX): 204,370 – Slowly still creeping!
Odometer (Integra Sedan): 117,545
Trip Distance: 832 Miles
I’m exhausted. I drove over 4,800 miles over the last 4 weekends in 4 different 24+ year old cars with > 100,000 miles on them – not counting any of the weekday miles that I accumulated on Mondays through Thursdays. It’s time for a break, for me and for my cars. The good news is that all of those miles were achieved with little or no drama. And the other good news is that I’m actually recovering and taking it easy today.
For the Easter holiday weekend, I took the Legend coupe to southern Utah. On Saturday I had a reservation at the best breakfast restaurant in town: Grandma’s House. The menu consisted of crepes with fruit toppings and whipped cream, with a side of sausage and a glass of milk to wash it all down. It hit the spot.
I attended an annual car show in the city of Hurricane (pronounced hurri-cun if you’re a local) and spent a couple of hours decorating eggs with the nieces and nephews. A grand ol’ time indeed. My brother Payton took me for a spin in his customized 2002 Lexus IS300 — a car that I’ve featured here before but that seems to get more and more extreme each time I see it. Currently its motor produces in excess of 700 horsepower. Here’s a quick video.
I’ve been progressing little by little with the 1992 Integra LS. Hon-Man and his talented repair crew dug in wholeheartedly this week and started tackling some of the car’s key needs. First and foremost, they attended to some of the routine maintenance needs (fluids, primarily). Without having any records on the car, I’m really just driving blindly here – and because of that, I wanted a careful eye to inspect the key mechanical components to make sure it’s roadworthy.
New (aftermarket) floor mats make the interior a little more cozy.
The electrical issues appear like they could be related at least in part to a faulty fuse box, and for that we’ve sourced a part which will arrive next week. Everything else is taken care of: We replaced a few hoses in the engine bay that were extremely soft and old, replaced both axles, and got some of the bulbs working again. Marker lights, license plate lights, cruise control, and power antenna are all now working again, which is awesome. The two front tires were directionally facing backwards, so those are fixed now too. It’s all about those little details.
Yesterday, I took the car to the Arizona emissions station to have the exhaust gases evaluated. The car passed, and then I went ahead and got registration taken care of, including special “Historic Vehicle” tags (made available to any vehicle > 25 years old). Finally. It’s been a long road getting that car purchased, transported, maintained, and formally relocated to its new home. In the coming weeks we’ll finish up the mechanicals and probably have windows tinted & some dings removed.
Blog buddy Jason Pawela of Driven for Drives came out to Phoenix to visit this weekend and we took the Integra siblings out for a little drive this morning to Dreamy Draw Park off Northern Avenue.
Here is an 8-minute video capturing some of the latest happenings in the progress with the Integra LS, followed by some other photos of recent events and sightings. Scroll to the bottom for one more feature – an invitation and offer for some free race tickets! Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!
I’ve always liked these Lexus SC coupes. This 1999 SC300 was in my mom’s neighborhood.
Scenery in Washington, Utah
My friend Ryan who has the Jurassic Park Explorer (see Radwood 2017) will appreciate this.
Sunday morning quick photo at Pioneer Park on the Red Hill in St. George
Two 2013 models: Dad’s MDX and my ILX
Easter egg hunting with nephew Locke. That egg was easy to find.
Milestone on the way home to Phoenix on Sunday!
For reals: Look at the size comparo between a Dodge Challenger and a G1 NSX.
Beauty shots of the siblings this morning at Dreamy Draw Park
Special Feature Opportunity: Invitation to IMSA (International Motor Sports Association) Races.
OH, NY, CA, GA Acura owners: I’m posting this invitation from Acura Motorsports that I received. Free race tickets and the chance to show your car:
Acura owners are invited to attend a weekend at the racetrack with Acura Motorsports. At four IMSA race weekends this year, Acura will be hosting an Acura Car Corral, where owners and enthusiasts can display their ride and enjoy the on-track action. Acura will be providing complimentary parking passes for the corral along with weekend passes to the race for the owner and a guest. Space is limited, so passes will be distributed by RSVP date. Acura Car Corral will be present at these four IMSA races:
1. Mid-Ohio Sports Car Showdown; May 5-6, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
2. Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, June 30-July 1, Watkins Glen
3. Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix, September 8-9, Monterey
4. Motul Petit Le Mans, October 12-13, Road Atlanta
To RSVP for one of these events, e-mail Kyle Ginty at kginty@chargegf.com with the following information:
– Name and name of guest
– Event you wish to attend
– Vehicle model/year
– Mailing Address
– Phone Number
drivetofive 
April 7, 2018 at 6:09 pm
Blog readers seeing this, Tyson does pay top dollar to his crew. 😀 Great write-up and thank you for the hospitality as always. Love the Tegs and can’t wait to see how the LS comes out in the coming months!
April 7, 2018 at 6:36 pm
Haha, the least I could have done is paid for your breakfast! Especially after all the effort and expense you made to come visit us (and the fact that we cost you an Uber ride last night, haha). Glad you made it home safe and sound. That 6 is on the verge of a pretty monumental milestone itself.
April 8, 2018 at 12:41 am
700+ HP in any road car is a little crazy, it’s a long way off what the car had when you originally collected it for him. Congratulations on the 560k rollover in the Coupe too. The red/maroon font on the historic plate looks like a pretty close match colour-wise to the Integra. Good stuff.
April 8, 2018 at 7:10 am
I know! I was pretty thrilled with the color match of the license plate. Actually, I’m pretty thrilled with how the whole car is coming together. Crossing things off my checklist one thing at a time. Have you thought about picking up a ‘project’ car sometime? 🙂
April 8, 2018 at 12:52 pm
It does look like you’ve got the Integra coming back to A+ shape – especially if Hon-Man can sort the last of the dodgy electronics. I do indeed have a project car tucked away in a shed – in fact I had my four year anniversary with the car last week. It also marks a new milestone – four years of owning a car without ever having driven it… The car in question is my 1970 Mk2 Cortina. I had been hunting for one for a few years and managed to track this one down that had the features I was after (4-door, bench seat in the front & 4-speed column shift). The column shift was the hardest thing to find, as most people have altered the cars to be floor shift. The car is slowly progressing and I managed to find some missing chrome trim pieces last month. Engine is currently at the engine builders being assembled and once I get the car mechanically sorted, I’ll get a fresh coat of paint on it. All going well, I should have the car roadworthy by September. Heck, maybe I should do an update blog post on it at some stage!
April 8, 2018 at 6:35 pm
Awesome post Tyson… 560,000 miles!! Wooohooo!! Wow, that is awesome. I suppose I am on the opposite end of the spectrum: my 2003 S2000 had a milestone too: it turned sweet-sixteen (16,000) this past weeekend!
April 8, 2018 at 7:12 pm
15 years old and 16,000 miles! That S2000 is a time capsule! Congrats on the milestone. I’m going to head over and read up on your latest 🙂 Thanks for reading, Joe!
April 9, 2018 at 10:00 am
I’m constantly amazed at how awesome that Legend coupe looks, despite 24 years and 560,000 miles! Congrats on the new milestone.
The red ‘Teg looks like it’s coming along nicely. The new plates are a great fit. Hopefully the new fuse box will fix the electrical gremlins.
How’s the Legend sedan holding up? Perhaps your readers can get a video tour of that car sometime soon? (hint, hint)
April 9, 2018 at 10:10 am
Your request is timely because I have a video tour of the Legend sedan planned for the first week of next month. I will be celebrating 10 years with that car. Anniversaries all around!
April 9, 2018 at 8:16 pm
It’s something to see a 90s Lexus SC coupe next to your Legend coupe because it’s obvious how directly they were competing with each other. The front and rear designs are a little different, but the shape and proportions look nearly identical. Have you driven an SC before to see how it compares?
April 9, 2018 at 8:37 pm
I know! I thought it was worth taking a picture considering those cars were direct competitors. I have driven the V8 SC400, but never the straight-6 SC300. The 400 had torque for days and a nice growl to it. Interior fit & finish were top notch, and I remember thinking how heavy and solid the doors were, and how they closed with a resounding thunk. I don’t see that generation of SC around very often but I’d love love to find a Royal Sapphire Pearl version with a manual transmission. Rare x 10!
April 9, 2018 at 8:41 pm
By the way, it’s worth noting here (and if this surprises any of my readers, they don’t know me well yet, haha). I went to that house and asked who owned the SC. Turns out – a lady there told me she bought it 3 weeks ago for $3,000 from the original owner for her 16 year old daughter who’d recently totaled a Corolla. Ugh! I gave the lady my number in case they ever sell it, but I’m not sure I’ll want it after it’s been through a 16 year old.
April 10, 2018 at 6:54 am
Fun read with lots of variety and great subjects to photograph! I guess we will see you again in early June? Make Justin drive this time. 🙂
April 10, 2018 at 6:57 am
Still not sure on that, I haven’t heard from Justin in a few weeks and he doesn’t make a lot of effort to stay in touch. He may end up making the trip solo!
April 10, 2018 at 7:16 am
Solo is okay. It’s his trip really. Hey, I don’t want to see any more exhibitions of speed like that in Payton’s car…. not on any city streets or even country lanes. This mama doesn’t like the thoughts of what could result (hefty ticket or, far worse, an accident). YIKES!
April 10, 2018 at 5:23 pm
I need to attend one of those 90’s car shows sometime. Gimme back my VehiCROSS dagnaget! Looks like so much fun. What a wild month though, 4800 miles. Sit the heck down!
April 10, 2018 at 6:22 pm
There will be a Radwood show in December in Anaheim. I’ll probably be going to that. But yes, time for me to enjoy some seat time in a different kind of driver seat: the couch.