Mountain Bridges Classic Car Show 2018 – Mesa Arizona; Other Updates
Odometer (Legend): 564,623
Eenie, meenie, miney, mo, that’s exactly how I ended up picking which car to take to a ‘Cars & Coffee’ event last Saturday morning in North Scottsdale. But apparently, I made the right choice, because I happened to pick the Vigor which led me to make a new friend who has the same model. I coincidentally ended up near Gavin who drives a 1992 GS model in Rosewood Brown. It’s an automatic with only 126,000 miles on it and he purchased it just a few months ago. It was nice to have dual representation for such quirky cars, especially in a venue that attracts mostly high-end exotics.
It’s definitely car show season now. While in some parts of the country, people are tucking their sportscars into hibernation and plugging them into the wall with battery tenders, here in Arizona it’s time to bring them outdoors and enjoy the primo weather. This past Saturday, I attended the Mountain Bridges Classic Car Show in Mesa, Arizona, which I learned about through my friend Greg. Now in its 9th year, the MBCCS is largely dominated by 1950s & 1960s American hot rods & muscle cars, but we decided to spice up the roster with a few cars from Japan. Greg took his newly-acquired 1983 Honda City Turbo II, Hy took his 1993 Honda Accord SE, and I took my 1992 Acura NSX.
It was great to spend a couple of hours admiring some of the other sheetmetal including an exceptionally rare and clean 1988 BMW M3 “Evo 2” owned by a guy named Brian. It was stunning for 30 years old. I had some pork brisket from the food truck on-site and enjoyed engaging in commentary with some of the other attendees.
Here’s a short video from the show.
The other cars have had their own time in the limelight in recent weeks, too. The Legend coupe made an 800-mile trip to southern Utah for a 7th birthday celebration for my nephew. I met up with “Honda Pro” Jason Richmond while there, who was in the area in advance of the week-long SEMA automotive aftermarket show in Las Vegas the first week of November. Here’s a photo from Pioneer Park in St. George – one of my favorite places to take car photos thanks to its scenic one-lane loop.
With the man himself, Honda Pro Jason. He has amassed over 110,000 Instagram followers (and equally sky-high reach on other social venues) thanks to his work over the years as a Honda brand ambassador. It was nice to connect with him & his family for a few minutes.
Speaking of my own Hondas, The 1990 Accord EX and 1993 Accord SE got historic tags, and I’ve already since sold the 1993.
I also burned a 16-song disc with the Billboard top hits, in descending order from 1990. It will stay in the CD changer of the 1990 EX to enjoy each time I drive it. These are some of the songs on it:
- Hold On – Wilson Phillips
- It Must Have Been Love – Roxette
- Nothing Compares – Sinead O’Connor
- Poison – Bell Biv DeVoe
- Vogue – Madonna
These were a few photos from the craigslist for-sale ad for the 1993, which in typical Tyson fashion, went into great detail about the car’s ownership and maintenance history, despite the fact that I didn’t own it for very long. I was able to get ahold of information about detailed maintenance services performed at the AutoNation Honda dealership in Tucson, including a timing belt just 4 years ago at 282,000.
I sold the car with 302,200 on the odometer. It still ran and drove great, and passed emissions test requirements with flying colors.
Maintenance binder and dealer brochure – because, duh! My asking price was $1,200 and I took $800.
Another shot from Cars & Coffee
More pics from the Mountain Bridges Car Show:
Interior of Greg’s City
With Hy and his 1993 Accord SE
Separated by 1 model year:
Following Greg’s City out.
Cruising the Legend coupe near the Strip in Las Vegas. (Bellagio in the background)
Scenery in St. George.
A visit from my friend Kevin from GA. Hi Kevin, if you read this!
Visit from my friend Matt from UT. I know he’ll see this one! Thanks for stopping by!
Group dinner with my friend Nick visiting from TX. It’s been a busy few weeks!
Quick trip to Tucson in the Legend GS
Photo from 2003 with the Legend coupe at a Burger King in Utah.
Same location (okay, one spot over) 15 years later in 2018. The main thing I noticed was that the pay phone at the corner of the building is now gone. I love re-creations.
Have a great rest of the week! Stay tuned for a drive this Saturday to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in southern Arizona. I’ve been itching to get out of town and explore something new.
drivetofive 
November 8, 2018 at 12:52 pm
As one of those sad people facing impending winter car storage blues, I’m envious of your ramping-up show season. Always fun to read your automotive adventures… and I want the full 1990 mix track list, since that was my high school era in a nutshell.
November 8, 2018 at 2:56 pm
You’ll get to hear the glory of 1990 in due time! The disc will go out in the mail tomorrow. I was surprised how many great hits came out that exact year.
November 8, 2018 at 1:19 pm
Thoroughly enjoyed attending the car show with you and Greg. The weather was near perfect and the event was a blast with far too many great cars… Thanks again for inviting me.
November 8, 2018 at 2:57 pm
Certainly – it was a great time! We’ll have to keep our eyes and ears open for other / similar events in the area since it’s getting to be that time of year.
November 8, 2018 at 3:37 pm
That playlist looks promising! Would love to know what the rest of the tracks are on it! Very cool to see the NSX representing the “Rad” generation among all that 50’s-60’s American steel. Did you get any comments?
The interior color of the City Turbo is the exact same blue plastic as was on my ‘84 Accord. Memories!!
How did the Legend coupe hold up during that drive?
November 8, 2018 at 3:43 pm
Gotta love the blue plastic finishes on those interiors! Overall the reception for our Japanese cars was warmer than I had anticipated considering the other types of cars entered in the show. Legend coupe did exceptionally well on the trip to Utah – one failure – my left rear turn signal bulb burned out! Easy fix. Here is the list of songs I put on the disc.
1 Wilson Phillips Hold On
2 Roxette It Must Have Been Love
3 Sinead O’Connor Nothing Compares 2 U
4 Bell Biv Devoe Poison
5 Madonna Vogue
6 Mariah Carey Vision Of Love
7 Phil Collins Another Day In Paradise
8 En Vogue Hold On
9 Billy Idol Cradle Of Love
10 Jon Bon Jovi Blaze Of Glory
11 Bell Biv Devoe Do Me!
12 Michael Bolton How Am I Supposed To Live Without You
13 Technotronic Pump Up The Jam
14 Paula Abdul Opposites Attract
15 Janet Jackson Escapade
16 Heart All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You
November 9, 2018 at 5:04 pm
Love the updates and car show footage. Nothing like that around here for me to participate in so one of these days, I’ll have to head over to PHX to get my fix. So glad you’re hanging on to the 1990 Accord. See you tomorrow!
November 9, 2018 at 5:14 pm
C’mon over any time! Yeah we’ll see how long the 1990 EX sticks around – it’s a fun cruiser and runs great for being almost 30 years old. I may or may not have peeled out a couple of times today in it on my commute home from work. It probably hadn’t been driven like that in its entire ownership history, haha. Clean out a little carbon. See you tomorrow afternoon!
November 11, 2018 at 12:30 am
I vote for you to hold onto the EX for a while longer, it’s one of those cars that holds a bit of a soft spot for me. We had one back in the early 90s. I’ll hunt out some photos and send ’em through! Looking forward to your trip to the National Park.
November 11, 2018 at 8:32 am
Thanks Adam! I just saw your email and will respond – it seems that the 4G Accord holds a lot of memories for virtually everyone (probably because Honda sold them in such high volumes). I hope you’re having a great weekend!
November 12, 2018 at 9:37 am
I drained the water out of the racecar’s cooling system yesterday and swapped it for antifreeze in preparation for the off-season and it being parked in my trailer during the cold months. Definitely jealous that the car show season is just getting started for you all!
That 1990 CD is pretty wild, lots of good hits on there. I agree with the others on keeping the Accord for at least a little while longer. Maybe until we find you a nice Acura SLX to round out the collection?
November 12, 2018 at 9:43 am
And even as I type this, there’s a “SearchTempest” website (basically, craigslist nationwide) hunt underway for a 1996-97 SLX. I check about once a week for new hits, haha. Maybe we should do a car-swap where you send the racecar here for the winter so I can keep the fluids going and take it for occasional trips to Starbucks and my pedicures. Hahaha.
November 12, 2018 at 9:48 am
You’re welcome to take it, although there’s no way to play the Billboard hits from 1997 in it at this point!