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Tribute to Million Mile Joe, Home Improvements, & Car Updates

Posted in Arizona, Blog, ILX, Integra, Legend, Milestones on August 6, 2016 by tysonhugie

Odometer (Legend): 544,118

Odometer (Vigor): 105,807

Only in Arizona could a church use this as an advertising ploy! I’m tempted to convert.

First, a tribute to a man who inspired many. “Million Mile” Joe LoCicero of Maine became a hero of mine when he and his 1990 Accord reached a million miles back in the fall of 2011. Coincidentally, that was right around the same timeframe when my Legend reached half that distance. Unfortunately, Joe recently passed away but he will be missed. As Jason of Driven for Drives put it, “That was a good run.” Joe, we salute you!

I was able to track down the VIN to Joe’s Accord, and (nerd that I am) I couldn’t resist running a Carfax report just to see what it looks like when a car’s 6-digit odometer effectively resets itself to zero.

As expected, the title history shows ‘branded’ since the odometer mechanically can’t even show a 7th digit. (Reminds me of my 1986 Celebrity which only had FIVE digits on the odo).

The Accord was in for service in April 2011 at Berlin Honda in Portland, Maine at 970,333 miles. The next time we saw an odometer reading, it was almost two years later, at Auburn Motor Sales when the readout was 2,707 miles. Mileage Inconsistency, says Carfax. Well, duh!

The most recent Carfax entry on Joe’s old Accord was in December of last year, at 3,341 miles, when the car was purchased by someone in Jefferson, South Carolina. I’m not sure where the car is today nor who’s driving it, but I hope it’s still getting some time on the open road and not mothballed to a museum where it will dry up and deteriorate.

On the subject of Carfax, I was glad to see that my recent Integra’s emissions pass now shows up, so it’s no longer tarnished by that failure when I brought the car to Arizona earlier this year.

My apologies for sporadic blog posts in recent weeks as I’m still underwater with home and career activities. It seems the road tripping has taken a back burner. My home in Scottsdale, Arizona is on the market and I’ve taught myself how to do some basic repairs.

I was quite proud of some drywall repair results, and I spent an entire evening doing a repaint on my guest bedroom which turned out pretty flawlessly. Here a friend captured me attempting some bathroom updates whilst multi-tasking with my work laptop.

I ended up with more paint on my hands and shorts than on the wall, I’m pretty sure.

It’s yet TBD if I’ll be getting the “dream house” I have my sights set on, but I’m crossing fingers and hoping so. It would be great news from a car-parking perspective as it has lots of garage space.

I had an electrician at my home correcting a few small things on Friday afternoon. I was in the kitchen and he was in the other room working on a light switch. “All those cars outside yours?” he asked. “Yeah, I have six cars.” He responded, “What’s that, you fix cars?” “Uhh, yeah, that’s right,” I said. Sometimes I’d just rather not explain the car-collecting craziness.

This week I visited my friend Mirel at his new shop where he’s started a used car dealership. On site were 3 Legend coupes and a 1992 Dodge Stealth (I’ve always liked those).

Cool plate!

All these Legends are 6-speed manuals. Mirel has the right idea!

My friend Chris in Maryland has a “twin” car to my Legend sedan. Awhile back we both decided to go out for a special treat in our own way. Though separated by 2,009 miles, I enjoyed my iced caramel macchiato and Chris enjoyed his strawberry shake. My photo on top, his on the bottom. It’s interesting how the lighting conditions can change the color so much. In person, they’re identical “Desert Mist Metallic” paint codes.

I extend THANKS to a couple of my friends and readers! Jason recently had this awesome canvas print made up from my photo at the Arctic Circle back in May.

And Tim mailed me these sweet posters from a Honda museum in Ohio capturing the race team. Looks like I have plenty of art to adorn my garage now!

The Legend is getting ready for its trip to Atlanta this September. I’ll be gone for a full week.

And the ILX is in the hands of a couple of friends this weekend in Boise, Idaho.

Green with envy. These ones want a road trip, too.

The NSX is still in southern Utah and my brother had his friend Grant from Renu Auto do a full detail on it. The paint is finished off with an “Optimum Gloss Coat” paint coating. Results speak for themselves!

Looking forward to bringing this one back to AZ later this fall.

Lastly, you all know I have my “Spy Shot Roundup” posts on a regular basis. In all my years of collecting spy shots from people, I’ve had the same car submitted by multiple people before. Like twice. But in recent weeks, FOUR DIFFERENT SPIES have sent me this 1992 Legend L sedan wearing Wisconsin plates! The owner has to be wondering by now why she’s being followed by such a skilled group of paparazzi!

From Beau, July 16th, 2016

From Jack, July 20th, 2016

From Matt, July 21st, 2016

From Kyle, August 1, 2016

Unreal! I’m bound to run into this one eventually!

Check out our wacky late-summer “monsoon” weather. This 17-second video shows a courtyard at my office on Friday. First, getting torrential rains, and later – within a couple of hours – with blue skies and sunshine. Make up your mind, Mother Nature!

15 Comments »

The Heat Is On

Posted in Arizona, Blog on June 23, 2016 by tysonhugie

Odometer (Legend): 543,536

Odometer (ILX): 173,250

Please start playing this video before you read today’s post. Let it give you some background music.

Okay, you know the heat is bad when twice in one day, you see cars on fire on the side of the road. It happened on Monday. First, this red Corvette and then a white Altima later in the day near my house. I guess these extreme temperatures are taking their toll on more than just us human beings!

You haven’t lived until you’ve felt 120 degrees on your face, or burned your hand on a metal shift knob.

My buddy Sunny was in town from Utah this past weekend and my friends and I enjoyed showing him around a little. One of the stops we made was to my storage unit in Glendale where I keep the 1994 Legend GS. We pulled it out and went to lunch nearby at a neat place I discovered called “Kiss the Cook Restaurant.”

Hours are 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Kiss the Cook has some of the best omelets in the Phoenix Valley. I actually went with a grilled cheese and it was tasty.

Funny thing about the menu is that it does promise a kiss with every meal. Our kisses were indeed delivered after paying our bill. However, as soon as I got outside I realized what a horrible idea it was to take them. My eyes scanned the parking lot for the nearest dumpster and I promptly threw them away. Can you imagine putting a Hershey Kiss in your pocket – or anywhere – and getting into a vehicle that’s been baking in 120 degrees? No thanks!

I sold my 1993 Legend L sedan this week. Details will be shared at a later date, but it’s going to a very worthy home and my final mileage on the odometer was just a bit under 179,000. I only had the car for about a year and I had big plans for it, but just never had enough time, money, or space to really make anything happen with it. It’s better off going to someone who will actually put it to use.

The transport truck has already arrived on the other side of the country! It took only 2 days in transit.

Getting loaded up:

I wanted to share a few photos that I received from friends this week. First off, my friend Scott who worked for American Honda once attended an Acura NSX preview event in 1990 when the first generation NSX debuted. Here are photos of him with that car. I also enjoyed seeing the other (now-vintage) models in the background.

Scott has aged just as gracefully as these Acuras in the last 26 years. Wink wink! Notice – if you look closely at the license plate in the above photo, it reads: “YOU’RE FOLLOWING THE MOST SATISFYING CAR ON THE ROAD.”

Speaking of RED cars, my friend Paul sent me this yesterday. Did you know that for the 2017 model year, Acura is (finally) offering a bright red color on the ILX? It’s called San Marino Red, and I think it looks fantastic. I would have opted for that color if it had been available in 2013! My Silver Moon is kind of “blah” in comparison.

And finally, check out these beauties. My friend Ira’s TLX and my friend Anthony’s TL-S.

Stay cool out there!

27 Comments »

Salton Sea, California Road Trip Part 2: Slab City, East Jesus, & Niland Mud Pots

Posted in Blog, California, ILX, Road Trip on March 21, 2016 by tysonhugie

Odometer (Legend): 542,248

Odometer (ILX): 158,038

Trip Distance: 266 Miles

“Uhh, guys. We have a problem,” said Jason with a look of despair as we were just getting ready to hop in the cars and continue our Southern California tour last Saturday. I couldn’t think of what could possibly be the problem. My eyes immediately went to the tires of his car thinking he might have a flat. “I locked my keys in the trunk,” he told us. My mind started rushing with the complexity of the situation. Here we were, 4 miles down a dirt road in a teeny town with only 1,000 people, standing in a field next to some geothermal mud pots.

If it had been 30 years ago, we might have had to go into town and summon help the old fashioned way. But the solution was pretty clear and pretty flawless: James hit the OnStar button on the overhead console of his 2016 Chevy Malibu and summoned help. The representative was able to patch us through to an available locksmith about 30 miles away in Brawley. Meanwhile, we had about an hour to kill, so I sat in the backseat of the Malibu and took advantage of its WiFi hotspot and air conditioning vents since it was 90 degrees outside. Technology has really made even an emergency situation feel pretty dang convenient. Help came to the rescue:

We pick up today’s story after our visit to Salvation Mountain near Niland and take it even deeper into the “weird category.” Imagine a place where you can take a vehicle, tent, trailer, or even corrugated tin and pop up a dwelling and just stay there as long as you want. It’s the “last free place in America,” say some.

Slab City, USA. If you want to live in the middle of the desert, the land is yours for the taking. Jason, James, and I headed eastward on a dirt road from Salvation Mountain and entered a wide expanse of land that was littered – literally – with peoples’ belongings and makeshift residences. A man playing guitar atop an entrance sign looked like he might have been a permanent resident.

I’d seen a hand-painted sign promoting a library of some sort, so I decided to head that direction and see what we could find. The washboard road was dusty and I lost sight of James in my rearview mirror as I left his white Malibu in a cloud. But soon I saw a big painted arrow which pointed me in the direction of the library’s parking lot. “24 hour Library,” it said.

Here we met some locals. While browsing the books in this open-air shack, I saw a couch and a couple of chairs set up around a chess set. An old man in a cowboy hat came up and greeted us, cigarette in hand. “John,” his name we later learned, proceeded to give us a warm welcome to Slab City and provide the run-down on everything we possibly wanted to know. “You guys skateboard?” he asked. “You guys want to float the canal?” His stories were endless. The library, as it turns out was operated by a one-legged woman and her boyfriend named Caveman, who weren’t there that day. (“But don’t ask about her leg,” he said. “She lost it train-track hopping and that’s about all she wants to say.”)

For being set up in a shack, this library was remarkably well organized by topic or theme. A “Google Tree” contained the encyclopedia / reference section. John, and another guy who surfaced who was also named John, extended an invitation to the upcoming Prom Night in Slab City where they’ll have live music and other entertainment along with a “formal” (tongue in cheek) dance. There was a table spray painted “Free” with all sorts of garbage up for grabs. I asked John & John if it ever rained in Slab City (wondering how all the books are so well-preserved). They said it only happens a couple of times a year. They both heartily recommended we take the time to visit a place called East Jesus, down the road, so we headed that direction after getting our fill of the library.

“EJ” the sign led us, so I stirred up another clout of dust in my ILX and my fellow road-trippers and I entered the next quirky phase of our day’s journey. There was a literal fork in the road. I hit the brakes so quickly out of excitement that I activated the ABS system and skidded to a stop on the dirt road.

In East Jesus, it’s art for days. People have taken garbage and made things out of it. An old Honda Civic sedan at the entrance was covered in circuit boards and bullet shells. There was a wall of television sets with messages painted on them.

This was perhaps the most oddball collection of “stuff” I think I’ve ever seen. I’ll let the pictures and video tell the story here.

Jason, James, and I had lunch back in Niland at the Buckshot Deli & Diner. The hamburger meat is homemade and delicious, and I chugged two huge glasses of their lemonade. A sign on the wall read: Food choices: 1) Take it. 2) Leave it.

The last place on my “to-see” list was something I’d read about online called the mud pots. Just 6 miles from where we had lunch, but about 4 of those miles were on a dirt road. That had never stopped us before, so we decided to check them out. Mud bubbles up from the ground and sometimes shoots into the air. Over time, it has formed little mounds of dirt. It reminded me a lot of the geothermal activity at Yellowstone National Park.

I got a little too close to a fresh mud stream and ended up ankle-deep in it. My shoe was so heavy afterward. The other guys had a good laugh about it. The good news was that I had a pair of flip-flops in my trunk ready for just such an emergency.

Mud pot video:

It was around this time when we were just getting ready to part ways and Jason had his keys-in-the-trunk incident. A nice man in a pickup truck gave us bottled waters while we waited. I was surprised it took the roadside assistance guy no more than 5 minutes to get access to Jason’s car and get us back on our way after he’d arrived. James and I headed east on Highway 78 while Jason made his way to Interstate 8 and we split up the threesome. Our route took us through the Imperial Sand Dunes – also called Algodones Dunes – which span 45 miles in length by 6 miles in width.

There were lots of people out in off-road vehicles enjoying them. The highway itself was a bit of a roller-coaster with lots of dips posted 55 miles per hour but a lot of fun when taken at about 10 mph over that.

We dined in Blythe, California – reunited with Interstate 10 and our favorite diner, the Courtesy Coffee Shop. The grilled cheese was just what I needed to fuel me sufficiently for the final 2 hours of the drive back into Arizona and home to Scottsdale.

Here are the rest of my pics from our adventurous day!

Inside the library at Slab City

Lounge area inside the libary

“Google Tree”

Bathroom break in the middle of nowhere along the dirt road

Not even sure what this thing is

Acura “Periscope” Event – Tomorrow!

Posted in Blog on December 9, 2015 by tysonhugie

Odometer (ILX): 148,877

So here’s something a little different. Anybody free tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. Pacific?

If you have a smart phone, you’re going to want to download the free app “Periscope” if you haven’t already. The logo looks like this.

Here’s the idea behind Periscope: You’re able to pop your head into the life of a random person (or to follow specific people) across the world for a glimpse into what they’re doing in real-time, with photo and video. I was first introduced to Periscope by none other than Jason Richmond, better known as HondaPro Jason, when he was streaming live video from the SEMA Show in Las Vegas in November. I’ve since seen it used as a powerful and engaging way to entertain viewers! It’s the next best thing to having all those attendees there in the flesh.

I gave Periscope a test-drive for the first time this week, and I’m a little hooked. I decided to see who was online in my general neighborhood and randomly clicked a broadcasting user. “Thanks for joining, Tyson,” the guy on the screen said. A total stranger! He knew my name because it had shown up on his screen that another viewer had joined the feed. Awkward for me, but funny at the same time. Later I went global and selected a live feed from a Periscope user in Buenos Aires. The guy’s message was entirely in Spanish, but the funny thing was, his background music was “Creed” with that classic “With Arms Wide Open.” Thousands of miles away and enjoying Creed. Who’da thunk it?

Point of all this – tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. Pacific there will be a special charity event to benefit the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation that involves Periscope and slot cars. At this time that’s about all I’m at liberty to say, but here’s the official announcement:

Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines. The Slot Car Holiday Heats are live this Thursday. Join @Acura on Periscope on 12/10 at 10:30am PST for a charity race. Benefiting the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation. #RaceYourHeartOut

More details tomorrow! For now, get your phones ready for race action.

The 90’s Are Back

Posted in Blog, ILX, Legend, NSX, Road Trip, Vigor on July 12, 2015 by tysonhugie

Odometer (Legend Coupe): 534,030

Odometer (Legend Sedan):

Odometer (Vigor): 104,384

Odometer (NSX): 100,807

Odometer (ILX): 133,489

Total Combined Miles: 1,019,680

Time warp. If you drove down my street last night at 7:40 p.m., you would have seen me standing on a step ladder in the middle of the street to capture a picture that embodied the essence of 1990’s Japanese car design. The Vigor, Legend, and NSX parked on my driveway were three of the four vehicles marketed by Acura Division of Honda Motor Company in the early 90’s under the “Precision Crafted Performance” slogan. I’m pretty sure the neighbors were peeking out from behind their blinds and making fun of me.

Some 20-plus years after they were introduced, each of these vehicles have aged well and are well on their way to becoming classics.

Ranked in order of price here, the Vigor was $28k, the Legend, $41k, and the NSX $65k when new. That’s $134,000 worth of cars, that I paid a total of $36,500 for. Did I get a deal or what?

In the background here were two “hiding” Hondas – my neighbor’s black Accord and my 2013 ILX.

Thanks for putting up with my craziness but this was a photoshoot I’d been wanting to do for some time now.

Today I have a grab-bag of features to share – no real “theme” but rather just a a few updates on what’s been going on this past week.

Automotive journalist Jeff Koch who did the photos for my Hemmings feature last November invited me to check out a car he was testing. It’s this 2015 Dodge Charger Hellcat in “TorRed” paint job. It’s an absolute monster of a car, with a 707-horsepower V8 engine that left me grabbing for a handle when Jeff gave it a little gas on the Loop 101 onramp.

Even just while parked outside the pizza joint where Jeff and I grabbed lunch, the Hellcat drew a crowd of Mopar fanatics.

Sometimes I wish I had 700 horses at my command, but then I realize that my 201-horsepower ILX is getting 34.8 over miles per gallon. I’ll take the fuel economy. You all know how much I drive.

On Thursday, my friends Chris, James, and I went over to check out a sweet custom home owned by our friend Shelly. Look at that lineup of garages! Real estate goal of mine, for sure.

Meanwhile, I’ve made some great progress this week with my “new” 1994 Vigor GS. I had to laugh when Chuck from Acura’s Public Relations team in Torrance, California made a comment on my Instagram post about picking up the Vigor. “You own more cool Acura cars than we do — and we’re Acura, for crying out loud!” Well, Chuck, come borrow the keys any time!

I had a few visitors this week coming to check out the car. One was Joe who drives a 1995 Legend LS.

One was my friend Armando who drives a sweet Subaru SVX.

And one was Phil who drives a 1992 Legend LS. Thanks to all you guys for stopping by!

The Vigor got some detailing this week. I took to the undercarriage with a high pressure wash so I could clean out 20 years’ worth of dirt & gunk that the car had accumulated during its lifetime in Colorado. Then I hit the paint with a hand-wax of Meguiar’s carnauba wax and buffed it off with a microfiber towel. It turned out nicely.

The interior doesn’t need much but I’ll probably condition the leather soon.

Exhaust tip polish: Before & After

Freshly painted wiper arms in black satin Rust-Oleum.

Oil change and full inspection at Acura of Tempe (couldn’t resist a photo with a new TLX)

And looking pretty shiny now.

Ben from AutoNation where I purchased the car sent me a follow-up email. It’s clearly a “form” email, but I had to laugh at how he offered to help me understand how to operate the “technology.” Thanks, Ben, but I can handle 1994 technology just fine!

In other Acura news, my younger brother Payton picked up a sweet ride for his daily driver. He’s now in a 1993 Legend L coupe 6-speed with just 135,000 on the odometer. He sent me this text earlier in the week to share the news.

After some fresh window tint and a quick wash, he had it looking great already. Congrats Payton!

Yesterday, a few friends and I went to Sedona for a day. It’s a nice escape from Phoenix – only about 120 miles each way – and offers cooler temperatures and nice landscapes all around. I’ve blogged about Sedona multiple times, including most recently in a Toyota & GMC pickup truck comparo back in May. James captured this photo of the ILX northbound on Highway 179.

Scenic viewpoint in Sedona

Couldn’t sit here long – parking not allowed along that stretch, and the lot was full with tourists!

Dating back to 1993, this McDonald’s on Highway 89A is the only one in the world with its arches painted turquoise instead of yellow. The city mandated the color change in the interest of preserving the “desert” color scheme of the town. Even the homes blend in. Here I’m with Jack and Donald, two of my road trip partners. Thanks to James from Six Speed Blog for taking the photo.

Rolling back into Phoenix on Interstate 17 southbound

And lastly: I don’t know where or how this photo was captured (and it wasn’t by me!) but isn’t that new NSX sweet?

Have a great week!

36 Comments »

Carfax Reports and Smog Checks

Posted in Blog, ILX, Legend, Maintenance on May 7, 2015 by tysonhugie

Odometer (Legend Coupe): 533,379

Odometer (Legend Sedan): 146,786

Odometer (ILX): 124,503

Some people buy a vehicle as a disposable appliance – a sheer means of transportation to get from A to B. Others hold their vehicles so near and dear that they’ll rebuild them – twice – after catastrophic collisions. Where do you fall within that range of car owners?

One of my favorite things to do on rare weekends when I stay in town is to visit the local Ecology “pick & pull” auto junkyard, plunk down $2 for my entry fee, and simply wander around through the aisles of parted-out cars. I like to eyeball the interiors and look specifically at the gauge clusters to see just how many miles each one traveled before being put to rest in the graveyard. Occasionally I’ll come across something with fewer than 100,000 miles on it. Most of the time the odometers are between 200,000 and 300,000. And every once in awhile, I’ve seen them beyond that – but never anything in the 400’s or 500’s.

The thing that I wonder about, though, is what kind of story each car would tell if it could talk. How many of those vehicles have ever had “Just Married” painted on them? How many were driven by a zealous 16-year-old as his or her first car? How many ever took a cross-country trip from one coast to the other? How many of them were ever stolen? Or, a more somber thought, how many of them became witness to their driver’s death in a collision?

Many people today buy a car without ever having thought of its prior ownership history. For me, such history is a hugely important part of how “good” a used car is. I go crazy for a clean car for sale by its original owner, with a stack of detailed maintenance paperwork, a clean title, and some original floor mats. Mmmm. It’s scary to think of buying something without any kind of record. There are, however, ways to at least know something about where any car’s been.

Carfax and Autocheck are companies in business to provide that kind of reporting. Carfax has been around since 1986. The company has access to 10 billion records from 86,000 sources (motor vehicle departments, auctions, insurance companies, repair facilities, etc). With just a VIN or a license plate (and a credit card), regular consumers can pull vehicle history reports from those billions of records. Carfax is certainly not a complete record, and it should only be considered for a used car purchase in combination with other research.

As I’ve been casually in the market for a 1992-94 Acura Vigor, I grabbed a $45 Carfax account and started running reports on a few prospective cars, including the above pictured beauty (sarcasm). My account gives me access to UNLIMITED reports by license plate / state, or 5 reports by 17-digit Vehicle Identification Number (VIN). I had some fun with this.

One Vigor showed record of a whopping 13 owners in its lifetime. I ran some of my friends’ cars for the heck of it, too. I also checked out some of my “old” cars to see where they ended up. I was intrigued by the report on my first car: the 1986 Chevy Celebrity that was my pride and joy from 1997-98. I laughed the other day when I saw this picture on Instagram because the keys shown there are exactly what the keys to my Celeb looked like (square for the ignition, round for the door & trunk locks – I think).

I know my parents bought the car new in 1986 from Axtell Chevrolet in Logan, Utah. But the first record on Carfax wasn’t until March 1994 with an odometer reading of 555 miles. Say what? Yes. The odometer on that Celebrity only had 5 digits. So, by the time the car was only 8 years old, it had already turned over to 00,000 and made any future readings erroneous. Utah noted that fact on the Celebrity’s report. The car’s title was branded with “Exceeds Mechanical Limits.” Can you imagine if my ILX only had a 5-digit odometer? It would have rolled over once already and it’s a 2-year-old car.

By the time I got the Celebrity, it had around 194,000 miles on it. But of course, the odometer read only 94,000.

That Celebrity dropped off Carfax reporting a decade ago, since the last record was a purchase reported in March 2005. I’m sure the car has long since been crushed and turned into scrap metal.

I thought it would be interesting to go ahead and share the detailed Carfax reports for my Legend and for my ILX. The Legend’s history is tainted so it’s a little unnerving to post it here, but it’s all in the interest of a good history lesson. Some of you may know that I hit two deer with the Legend in summer 2007.

It took almost six years — until early 2013 — before that insurance claim started showing up on the Carfax report! My car’s title today is clear. There are a whopping 77 service records, and oddly enough, Carfax thinks my Legend is actually worth about $2,600 MORE than retail book value! That means I could price it at about $4,700 since “excellent” condition value is $2,173.

It took me 11 screen captures to get the full Legend Carfax report. Here you go!

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Then there’s the ILX. Clockwork maintenance from Acura of Tempe, and not much else.

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There’s one more Legend record that’ll be showing up soon. I got a $41.23 oil change on Wednesday with 5W30 synthetic blend oil at Acura of Tempe. It had been over 6 months since my last service, but only 1,703 miles. I really hadn’t driven the car much since last fall! Here’s the latest snapshot from my Excel maintenance record showing service and repair costs since about 512,000 miles.

The technician did note a number of leaks, including the differential, transmission, driver side inner CV boot, and rear main seal. This all does come as a bit of a surprise though since my garage floor is squeaky clean and I’ve never noticed a drop in any fluid levels.

Today during lunch, I took my Legend GS sedan for its emissions (“smog”) testing. The test is required once every two years and it evaluates the levels of pollutants in the exhaust output. The wait was only about 20 minutes.

Here are the numbers:

Hydrocarbons in grams/mile: .49 (applicable standard = .80)
Carbon monoxide in grams/mile: 7.65 (applicable standard = 12)
Oxides of nitrogen in grams/mile: .66 (applicable standard = 2)

It passed, I was issued my certificate for a $20 fee, and I went on my way. My 2-year renewal registration with the State of Arizona was only $95, and $50 of that was because I have a personalized tag. It really is a cheap car to hang onto. I gave the car a bath before putting it back into storage.

Oops, should have pulled out the vacuum.

Happy Friday!

15 Comments »

Readers’ Rides: 3 Dedicated Honda-Fans

Posted in Blog, Reader's Ride on May 1, 2015 by tysonhugie

Odometer (Legend): 533,300

Odometer (ILX): 124,015

It made my day yesterday to get this instant message from a coworker. He’d seen that instead of the ILX, my Legend was parked in my “regular” spot at the office.

Let’s talk today about other people who take just as much pride in their cars as I do. I swear, my friend Josh’s TSX is immortal. His tried and true road warrior has endured many years of Idaho blizzards, varying road conditions, and now: Not one, but two “total loss” accidents. And it’s still running strong at around 450,000 miles on the original engine and transmission. Well, sort of. We’ll get to that in a minute.

I first posted a feature on Josh’s then-375,000-mile 2005 TSX back in September 2013. Josh and I have since gotten together for tandem Acura road trips a couple of times including Shoshone Falls and Lowman, both in his home state of Idaho.

Last July, the car was involved in an accident and sustained damage to the front end. Over the course of the next several weeks, Josh posted 5-part series of updates called “Rise of the Phoenix” that took his readers through the rebuild process from start to finish. As a grand finale, the car spent some time inside the dealership showroom of Boise’s “Lyle Pearson Acura.”

All was well until just a couple of weeks ago when the TSX was again met with an unfortunate fate. Josh ran across a some fallen rock debris – and a deer – on a back road between Salmon and Boise, Idaho. The result was a tweaked suspension and an obliterated 17″ wheel – among a few other things. That story was featured here.

At this time, the verdict is still out on whether Josh will continue his quest for 500,000 miles or let the TSX go. Pop on over to TSXTravels.com and give him a little encouragement if you get time.

I wanted also also follow up and mention my good Legend-friend Mirel. I introduced him to you in August 2013 when we talked about his near-mint condition 1993 Legend LS coupe 6-speed that he restored. Since then, he’s done it again…. and again. Mirel has a knack for finding “used up” Legends on craigslist and putting them back on the road where they belong. Here’s a thread on the Legend forums where he detailed the progress on his two most recent project cars.

First off, his Cayman White 1995 Legend, before and after. It had sustained collision damage to the front left corner and required some suspension work, which Mirel performed himself. His wife is still driving this car on a daily basis.

Getting some help from son & wife. Acura love is a family deal around his house!

After. For do-it-yourself body work (and until he has a real shop take care of it), it looks great!

Mirel’s next project car was a Sherwood Green 1995 Legend that needed a new transmission. Mirel found a 6-speed transmission at the junkyard and swapped it into this car.

Backyard rebuild underway.

After. It’s amazing what a detail job will do.

He later sold this car, but not before taking a few pictures of his Legend collection at the house — and a black Acura RL (n0t seen) in the garage, too.

Finally, we have a new feature on the blog, and it’s my friend Hy. He’s been driving Honda cars since the late 1980s when he bought his first 1989 Honda Accord SE-i. He later went on to buy a brand new 1993 Accord SE which he still has today. His wife drives a 2000 Accord V6 sedan, and Hy’s daily driver is a 2004 Acura TSX. Each of the cars is in absolute showroom condition. I visited his home last night and got a special preview.

This Accord has been lovingly maintained since new, and it shows. It really looks and drives like a brand new car.

The current odometer reading is a little over 127,000 miles which comes out to only about 5,800 miles per year over the last 22 years. It’s lived in the Phoenix area its whole life. Hy told me that when he took delivery, it had just over 100 miles on the odometer.

The interior is as nice as the rest of the car, with triple-stacked floor mats keeping the carpets immaculate.

Even the engine bay looks clean enough to eat off of.

The other car – and Hy’s first Honda stick-shift product – is this 2004 Acura TSX in White Diamond Pearl. Hy liked the TSX when it first came out and he had a bit of a wait until the car was available. This example was built in June 2003.

The interior is exceptional, as expected. This one has 60,012 miles on the odometer.

Hy gave me the chance to drive both cars. The Accord sails along effortlessly. The TSX – I only made it about 6 feet before grazing the corner of a brick border around his planter and popping the right rear tire. Knucklehead of the year? That’s me. We installed the donut for now and Hy is getting a new Michelin installed. Doubt he’ll ever give me the keys again, but if he does, I want to go back over for a longer test drive for sure. Thanks, Hy, for the showroom tour!

And thanks to all my readers who have shared their Honda and Acura love with me!

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RealTime Racing Driver Peter Cunningham

Posted in Blog, TLX on March 24, 2015 by tysonhugie

Odometer (Legend): 532,818

Odometer (ILX): 116,671

Let’s talk about some pedal-to-the-metal, high-revving adventures today. With all the hundreds of thousands of miles I’ve traveled, I consider myself a seasoned driver, but certainly not when it comes to racing. My younger brother Payton is the race driver for the H&S Motorsports team in Utah, but I don’t stand a chance at matching his skills. (Here’s a short clip from about a year ago when his Ford Lightning got into the 8-second range in the quarter mile dragstrip).

My race experience, on the other hand, has been limited to just a few events, including the following which stand out in my mind:

Autocross race in the Legend at NALM 2009 in Springfield, Missouri (photo below where it looks like my car might roll over)
Bonneville 100 (100-mile, 105 mph) open-road race in rural Nevada in 2007 & 2008
Those handful of times I took my 1989 Prelude on the 1/4 mile strip at the old airport at age 17

Some people just seem to have a gift for high-speed driving. One of those is seasoned race veteran Peter Cunningham, who over the course of his 28-year racing career has taken home nearly 100 professional race wins across 12 different North American road racing series.

Peter’s race history goes back to when he founded a company called RealTime Racing in 1987. RealTime is based in Saukville, Wisconsin, just north of Milwaukee. Since those early days, American Honda and the Acura Division have partnered with RealTime for performance driving events. Peter has raced in such cars as a 1992 Integra GS-R and even a Honda Civic 4WD Wagon.

Today, Peter and his relatively new colleague driver Ryan Eversley, continue to pilot the RealTime team to wins year after year. RealTime has amassed nearly 6,000 followers on Facebook and Peter’s Acura TLX “GT” has shown up at multiple Auto Shows, including its original debut (which I attended) in January 2014 at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan. I most recently checked the car out at the Japanese Classic Car Show (JCCS) last September in Long Beach, California. Thumbs up!

Last night, I met up with Peter as well as his Team Manager, Nathan Bonneau, who happened to be visiting the Phoenix area for a Bridgestone Tire event at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park. We grabbed a bite to eat at a restaurant called Roy’s in Chandler and visited for a couple of hours about the latest happenings with RealTime.

Peter also showed me photos a few of his latest Honda & Acura acquisitions. Just a few weeks ago, I helped him scope out a local mint-condition 1990 Acura Legend LS Coupe with only 36,000 miles on it. That car has now made its way into Peter’s collection in Wisconsin.

RealTime’s full race schedule is posted here. Later this week, he and his crew are off to St. Petersburg Florida for the Grand Prix event there. Good luck to them and I’ll stay tuned for the results! Peter gave me a couple of RealTime posters as well as a T-shirt that I’ll proudly be wearing in support.

Coming up next: A 2,132-mile, 5-day road trip to Dallas, Texas that starts tomorrow. I probably won’t be doing any blogging on-the-fly (or, on-the-drive, in this case). But I’m planning on sharing a few highlights on my Instagram as the trip progresses.

See you soon.

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“Weekend Roady” Blog & Minnesota’s Northwest Angle

Posted in Arizona, Blog on February 8, 2015 by tysonhugie

Odometer (Legend Coupe): 532,525

Odometer (Legend Sedan): 146,224

Odometer (NSX): 99,460

Odometer (ILX): 112,556

For about nine hours each weekday, I’m surrounded on 3 sides by turqouise fabric cubicle walls at an office. Sometimes I forget what the weather is doing outside, or even if it’s daylight out yet. Cubicle #1G010 can be a dreary place to reside for 33% of my waking life, but I found a way to make the view a little more appealing. For about the last 7 or 8 years, I’ve had a huge 5-foot-wide US map hanging up on my wall. Every once in awhile during the workday, I’ll spin around in my office chair to look at it, and I’ll zone out while contemplating the many uncharted destinations that are begging for a visit.

Where to next?

I was getting lunch with my coworker Brandon the other day in the cafeteria and learned that he’d recently moved to Arizona from Minnesota. I remembered seeing something about Minnesota on the map at my desk. “You know anything about that piece of the Minnesota,” I started, “That isn’t connected to the mainland? Don’t you have to drive through Canada to get there?” Brandon’s geography teachers must not have fulfilled their obligations because he didn’t know what I was talking about. The area I was focusing on was this (circled):

I went back to my desk after eating my chicken & broccoli, determined to find out the deal. What I discovered was that this piece of Minnesota – referred to as the “Northwest Angle” – is inhabited by 152 hearty individuals and is indeed only accessible by one of two paths:

Driving through Manitoba, Canada and passing through the “un-manned” border checkpoint. There’s a telephone located there that you have to use to call and make your declarations.
Crossing Lake of the Woods. During summer, by boat, and during winter: by ICE ROAD. That’s right, my readers, when the time is right, you can drive your car across 20 miles of frozen solid ice to get to this remote area of Minnesota.

Check out this article from just a couple of weeks ago where a semi truck broke through a crack in the ice.

Sounds like an adventure waiting to happen! I don’t know when I’ll next make it to Minnesota – I’ve yet to set foot in that state at all – and I don’t know if it’ll be during the depths of winter when I do, but you can bet this is going on my bucket list. During the course of my online research I stumbled across an insightful write-up by Philip Sites called “The Weekend Roady.”

I was immediately drawn in because his posts are entertaining and educational. This guy gets out almost every weekend to explore the open road. Sounds like my kind of fun! Here’s Philip’s post about the Northwest Angle.

(photo credit Philip)

This weekend, I have company in town from LA. My friend Brad has been visiting for a couple of days. Yesterday morning, we stopped by the monthly Scottsdale “Cars & Coffee” meet-up.

Later, we dropped off the NSX for an oil change. It’s sitting at around 99,500 miles.

This rare Honda S2000 “CR” was also looking pretty nice.

Brunch this morning at “The Good Egg” on Central Avenue. Here, I’m demonstrating proper parking in an end space.

Kelvin showed up in his immaculate 1993 NSX.

This time of year is the best in Phoenix!

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend!

14 Comments »

Detroit: 2015 North American International Auto Show

Posted in Blog, Car Show, NSX on January 14, 2015 by tysonhugie

Odometer (Legend): 532,287

Odometer (ILX): 109,718

Since 1899, Detroit has been home to one of the largest auto shows in North America. What kinds of cars were even around that long ago? As the operational headquarters for the “Big 3” automakers (Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors), Motor City has always been the logical place for the auto show to take place, despite the fact that frigid weather there each January is somewhat less than welcoming.

Up until 1965, the show was held at various locations in the Detroit Metro Area, like the city’s fairgrounds. But since 1965, it’s occupied over 1 million square feet of show space at the “Cobo Center” convention facility. Over 900,000 people attend the show annually during the week that it’s open to the general public.

This year, I once again attended as a member of the Redline Productions Media (RPM) team, which is headquarted in the Washington DC area and has created a name for itself in the automotive video review arena. Redline’s YouTube Channel has amassed over 24 million video views since its inception in May, 2012, and has over 85,000 subscribers. Editor-in-Chief Sofyan Bey hosts the series and occasionally invites other automotive journalists like myself to join in on the fun.

This marked my fourth time attending the Detroit Auto Show. It seems like just yesterday I was sitting on the front row of the Acura press conference awaiting the reveal of the 2013 ILX & NSX Concepts during the show in January 2012. Reminisce with me:

I had to laugh when I exited the rental car shuttle bus at Detroit airport to pick up my car on Sunday night. The attendant at Nationwide said, “Keys are in the cars. Take anything in the midsize row.” In a heavy snowstorm, I dragged my rollaway bag to the parking lot and soon learned that there were only two midsize cars available, and they were both Chevy Camaros.

I picked the red one and went on my way, wondering how I’d just managed to get a vehicle upgrade for free. It took only a few yards of driving before it dawned on me: The reason nobody had taken the Camaro was because rear-wheel-drive in the snow is far less than optimal! The short 4-mile drive to my hotel in snow-covered roads was a crash course (thankfully, not literally) in how to handle slick-road RWD driving dynamics. I had some fun with it, too.

The two days that I spent at Media Days were jam-packed with photography, filming, networking, and attending press conferences. In between all of that, I walked a total of over 10 miles walking from exhibit to exhibit! The showstoppers this year for me were the Acura NSX and Ford GT supercars, each wowing the crowd with its exotic design.

Aside from that, there were dozens of other noteworthy new-car reveals that I acquainted myself with. The Toyota Tacoma and Nissan Titan were long-overdue for new bodystyles which they finally received. Cadillac’s heart-pumping 600+ horsepower CTS-V made its entrance, and Buick launched its first convertible in 25 years (the “Cascada”).

The capstone to a great trip was the chance I had on Tuesday night to meet up with two old friends and make a new one. I met up near Michigan Central Station at Mercury Bar for dinner with my old buddies Hass and Waseem, then I headed to Royal Oak for a meet-up with Chris who I met via Instagram. Chris even threw me the keys to his 2007 Acura TL Type-S for a spirited jaunt up Highway 696! Thanks, guys for meeting up.

Below is the photo highlight story of how my trip to Motor City went. Thanks for coming along!

Video of the NSX reveal from my perspective, with multiple glances at Jerry Seinfeld seated ahead of me for good measure.

ILX parked at Phoenix Sky Harbor terminal 4 for a few days

Flight 15F – window seat overlooking the wing on my Southwest PHX-DTW flight

I left the Arizona sunshine for this?

My hot-rod Camaro V6 automatic rental with 9,500 miles on the odometer. Fun car, plenty of power. Blind spots were massive, and for some reason it tried dialing OnStar 6 times repeatedly for no reason. WTH?

Sofyan, Jackson, Tyson: the Redline Reviews crew en route to Day 1 of the auto show, just about to catch our ride on the Detroit People Mover (DPM) which costs $0.75 and takes a loop around downtown.

New Nissan Titan – finally.

New Toyota Tacoma – finally. Did you know that every 2016 Tacoma will come with a GoPro video camera mount on the inside, passenger side windshield? Toyota is offering this truck in a 6-speed stick, too, which I think is cool.

Infiniti Q60 Concept replaces the outgoing model which has been based on the aging G37 Coupe platform.

New Lexus GS-F sports sedan follows in the footsteps of the smaller IS-F, pumping out 467 horsepower.

Second-row seat at the 11:50 a.m. Acura press conference, awaiting the debut of the 2016 NSX.

Finally getting a look at Acura’s next supercar.

I dig the wheels, and I think that “Athletic Red” paint color is the same that was used when the TLX model launched a year ago.

NSX interior.

My phone went crazy for a few hours with texts from friends wanting a firsthand opinion of the new NSX. I got a kick out of people like my friend Nick in NJ who offered to split the cost of the car.

No NAIAS would be complete without a few “celebrity” encounters. Here are a few of the people I ran into.

Davis Adams, Honda Public Relations

Steve Ewing, Sr. Editor of Autoblog

Nyko dePeyer, Executive from Local Motors

Jon Ikeda, Acura Design

Donny Nordlicht, Cadillac Public Relations

Brian Cooley, Editor-in-Chief of CNET

Chuck Schifsky, Acura Public Relations

Steve Siler, Car & Driver / freelance author

Jason Mosery, Autoguide

Jason Richmond, Hondapro Jason and Sage Marie, Honda/Acura Public Relations

New Ford GT Supercar, during Sofyan’s intro. Twin-turbo V6, 600+ horsepower. Don’t get in its way.

2016 Audi Q3. I’m a sucker for this blue hue.

Look, it’s Canada! This is the view from Cobo Hall across the Detroit River to Windsor, Ontario.

NSX “swag” on display during Day 2. I must own that jacket someday!

More memorabilia.

The rest of the Ac fleet came out to play on the second day, too, including the 2016 ILX.

Exiting Cobo Hall after an exhausting, yet fun, couple of days.

Quick visit to Michigan Central Station. Once the tallest railway station in the world, this 1912 building has been abandoned since 1988. My Camaro looked pretty photogenic, too.

Dinner with long-time “Legend” friends, Hass and Waseem, who are local to the Detroit area.

And another shot of Chris’ TL-S. Hot ride even in cold weather!

Bright and early this morning (as in, 1:00 a.m. my time), I was getting ready for my return flight to Phoenix.

As I was running through the Phoenix airport, I saw this T-shirt for sale out of the corner of my eye and I stopped in my tracks. Doesn’t the font look a little bit like “ILX”?

Peace out until next time!

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