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Acura Past & Present

Posted in ILX, Legend, Throwback on April 5, 2013 by tysonhugie

Odometer (Legend): 521,628

Odometer (ILX): 33,775

Sometimes, history can be fun. When the Acura brand was born, I was just 5 years old.

“Acura’s Bargain Birth” is a 2011 article on the beginnings of the Acura. Here’s a link to the page. The Acura concept was initially called “Channel 2.” The thought of bringing a car with a V6 powerplant and a pricetag of over $20,000 to the Honda family of automobiles seemed by many to be crazy in the early 1980’s, but that was the idea. In February 1984, a press release announced the creation of the second brand, which at the time hadn’t yet been named. I thought this excerpt regarding the Acura name itself was fairly interesting:

The name came from NameLab’s Ira Bachrach, whom Elliott described as “a nutty linguistics professor, with an office on a houseboat in the San Francisco marina.” NameLab proposed a derivative of the Latin word “Accuratus,” which means, “careful, accurate, exact.”

Acura didn’t have a logo until three years after its launch. Initially it was a set of widely stretched mechanical calipers, with a cross-beam that made the logo look more like an “H” than an “A,” in tribute to Honda.

But when Munekuni showed the logo to Soichiro Honda, the company founder said the calipers should be closer together.

“Mr. Honda had no problem with the brand having a different name,” Elliott said. “Actually, Mr. Honda regretted putting his name on his car. We took the Honda name off all Honda products in the U.S. at about the same time as Acura launched. We talked about not putting the Acura name on the car, but it was a new brand, so we had to have it.”

Acura’s first dealership was in Claremont, California and it was called Metro Acura. Today, there are 272 dealers.

The man at the helm of Acura’s public relations during those formative years was Kurt Antonius. I have a bunch of old press materials in my literature collection, and one of them is this Press Release dated October 4, 1991 announcing the features of the 1992 Legend. Kurt’s name is listed as a contact in the header.

Kurt has since retired from the Honda organization but in September 2010, I had the privilege of meeting him at a special Honda S2000 event at the Honda / Acura Headquarters in Torrance, California.

To me, he and the others who led the early efforts of creating the Acura brand were pioneers. Acura truly did trailblaze the way for other Japanese luxury brands that soon followed suit around 1990 (Lexus, Infiniti). This is a picture from the February 1989 Chicago Auto Show when the revolutionary all-aluminum NSX sportscar was unveiled.

Thanks Ryan for sharing the article.

Twenty seven years after its introduction, the Acura name to me is still synonymous with precision and performance. My 2013 ILX 2.4 is a great example of that. It was a big jump for me to take a 19-model-year leap forward when I retired my 1994 Legend from daily duty and started driving a 2013 ILX.

This week, I had a friend in town from Salt Lake City, Utah for a few days. At 6’6″, Jeremy doesn’t fit in very many cars, but the ILX seemed to accommodate him well. He borrowed the car during his Phoenix visit. He’s owned his fair share of Acuras and definitely joins me in appreciation for the brand.

jeremy_with_acura_ilx

My car is now 1/3 of the way to 100,000 miles already!

Jeremy sent me a picture of the iMid display showing a call from me. That was kind of a trip.

Last night, we took the ILX to the “Old Town” Scottsdale for dinner with a couple of friends. The underground parking deck off Camelback Road was eerily vacant but it made for a photo op that was too good to pass up.

On the Legend front, aside from cleaning off the bugs that I picked on my way home from Utah this past weekend, I haven’t done much with it. I’m getting excited for the Arizona Legend Meet that’ll be held two weeks from tomorrow.

Anybody looking to be my stunt double? There’s a twin to my Legend and it’s for sale currently in Florida for $3,800.

The ad copy is shown here.

That interior doesn’t look half bad for its age!

For those who are still hungry for a little more of a history lesson today, several weeks ago, I came across an old CD-ROM in my literature collection called the “1995 Acura Advertising Planner.” It was full of treasures.

This one is my favorite:

Here are some of the others that I enjoyed.

And finally, I feel inclined to share on the blog these latest renderings of the 2014 Acura RLX, courtesy of Dillon – aka “Hondatalover.” With a few enhancements to the already-handsome RLX design, he has made the conservatively-styled car into a show-stopping hot rod. Look at those gigantic split 5-spoke wheels. I love what he’s done there.

The RLX is now, by the way, on sale as of a couple of weeks ago! I might head over and build & price one of my own on Acura.com shortly.

Thanks Dillon for sharing these! Hope everyone has a great weekend.

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Friday Flashback: My 1986 Chevy Celebrity

Posted in Throwback on March 22, 2013 by tysonhugie

Odometer (Legend): 520,444

Odometer (ILX): 31,889

I started out as a Chevy guy, believe it or not. As I’ve shared on the blog before, the only car in my ownership history that wasn’t a Honda or Acura was my first car, a 1986 Chevrolet Celebrity. Equipped with whitewall tires and wire wheel hubcaps, it was the ultimate “grandma ride,” but at age 16 that didn’t matter. It meant freedom.

I love this set of commercials announcing the Chevy brand as “Heartbeat of America.” (The Celebrity ad will be right after the one for Kodak batteries). Check out the ad for cordless phones, too. Imagine – being able to talk on the phone from any location in the house! My, we’ve come a long way in the last 25 years.

My mom and dad bought the Celebrity new off the showroom floor on April 29, 1986 for $13,969.65. They had traded in this maroon 1982 Chevy Cavalier with 89,000 miles to Axtell Chevrolet in Logan, Utah. Yes, that’s me on a Big Wheel.

I was fortunate to get ahold of all the original paperwork on the Celebrity – and you all know how big I am on recordkeeping. I even have the factory build sheet from the Oklahoma production facility where the car was manufactured. This is the bill of sale, which lower on the page showed the $2,700 trade-in on the Cavalier.

Lots of documentation. Yes!

A little background about the Celebrity model itself:

The Celebrity was sold from 1982-1990 but had 3 facelifts during that time. Reportedly, the Celebrity was the best-selling car in the United States in 1986 (it sold a whopping 405,000 units!). This midsize family sedan was powered by a 2.8-liter carbureted V6 pushing out 112 horsepower (my ILX 4-cylinder, by comparison, has 201!). The Celebrity “Classic,” like my parents bought, was the top of the line model, with woodgrain trim, mock convertible top, and plush interior seats.

Chevy sure tried hard to push these cars out the door. And apparently, they didn’t have to push too hard:

“Whether you select the performance-oriented Eurosport, the value-packed sedan or coupe, or the versatile station wagon, we invite you to discover Celebrity and experience the refinement and balance achieved by a car designed to do everything well.”

I was 5 years old at the time and I remember how special it was to ride in the Celebrity. My brother and I always had our “assigned” seats in the back. I sat on the passenger side, and I’d draw a line (figuratively) with my left hand down the middle of the seat. If my brother crossed it, I’d unleash some rage on him.

The Chevy logo looks like a bowtie, so it was only fitting that I wore a bowtie for this new-car occasion (I’m pictured at right here).

Eating in the car.

Looks like we’d graduated to bigger Big Wheels, too. I’ve always been on the go.

Halloween – again, in my assigned seat.

Fast forward to around 1991; my parents sold the Celebrity to my aunt and uncle and bought a 1989 Pontiac Grand Prix coupe 5-speed. The Celebrity went to the east coast for many years.

The next time I saw the car was in December 1997 when I turned 16 and the car was given to me at 145,612 miles (though the 5-digit odometer read only 45,612).

This was a checklist that my uncle gave me when I was handed the key to the car. My favorite notes:

Key broke off in trunk. Put any key in a little way and it will open.
Cold starts: Crank for a few seconds. Let it rest, then crank again.
Hope you enjoy it. We hope it goes another 100,000 miles for you!

The car was cosmetically fairly tired at 11 years old. A $299 Maaco paint job gave new life to the exterior and I took great pride in keeping it clean. The old Celeb got me through my sophomore year of high school in style. I’d blast to lunch at Little Caesar’s with a car-full of friends (it seated 6 comfortably, thanks to dual bench seats).

Man, those wire wheel covers were a pain to clean. Tommy Hilfiger shirt, Doc Marten sandles, and white socks: Late 1990’s wardrobe at its finest.

I eventually ditched those tires for true-to-original whitewall tires. Notice that for this photoshoot, probably in 1998, I even installed an “Axtell Chevrolet” dealer license plate for the occasion.

It really did look pretty nice.

Soon, though, I longed for something a little more sporty, and at age 17 in January 1999, I sold the Celebrity and bought my first Honda, the 1989 Prelude 2.0 Si.

I again lost track of the Celebrity until February 2005 when I randomly encountered the owner and asked him if he wanted to sell it to me. It was ragged. For $300, the car was mine, and I drove home in my beat-up looking old Chevy with a huge smile on my face. I don’t know what I planned on doing with the car, I just wanted it back for sentimental reasons.

Oh yes, this thing had seen better days. If I didn’t keep giving it throttle at a stop light, it would die on me.

The engine – let’s just say it was a miracle this thing still ran with all that gunk around it.

Soon, though, I gave this car a full detail. Hours and hours worth of work were invested to get it looking decent.

I sure do miss those velour bench seats. Comfortable seating for 3 up front.

Random odometer pic at 94,309 — which was actually 194,309. The speedometer on this car maxed out at 85 miles per hour, and the “55” was in an offset blue color since that was the national speed limit at the time.

Celebrity, meet Legend, May 2005. The Legend had only around 168,000 miles on it at the time. Check out dad’s hunting trophies on the garage wall. Mom wouldn’t let him hang them anywhere else.

It was only a little bit later, around June 2005, when parking became an issue and I had to again part ways with the old Celeb. I haven’t seen it since. Here’s a flashback video from March 12th, 2005 during that brief window of time when I owned my first car, for the second time.

To this day I’d still love to own another Celebrity. Perhaps the ultra- exclusive 1987-1988 Eurosport VR version with a $4k option package that included a special aero bodykit. Apparently there were only about 1,600 of these made.

Hope you enjoyed reading about that old beast of a car as much as I enjoyed digging up memories of it.

Travis’ Civic Si Coupe

Last night, my friend Travis stopped by in his gorgeous 2009 “Redline Orange Pearl” Civic Si Coupe 6-speed. Travis wanted to check out my cars so we took a couple of test drives.

Travis is a long-time Honda owner and enthusiast. His last ride was a 2003 Acura RSX Type-S that was equipped with the full A-Spec body kit. He sold it at around 130,000 miles. His Civic only has around 53,000.

I took the Civic for a spin and it has a lot of pick-up. The shift light in the gauge cluster was a fun feature. I noticed that the clutch pedal travel was a lot shorter than in my ILX – it seems like it would be better suited to performance driving.

Travis noted that he felt the ILX had a lot more torque than his 2.0 liter, 196 horsepower Civic, especially at the higher end of the power band. When he and I entered the onramp to the Loop 101 freeway, he got a pronounced chirp out of the tires in 2nd gear. He enjoyed the amenities of the ILX and said that he nearly bought one when it first came out.

Thanks Travis for swinging by!

For those planning on a road trip this summer, check out this article on Jalopnik about the Ten Best Ways to Prepare for an Epic Roadtrip. I especially liked the comments about bringing along plenty of music AND a good old fashioned paper map. GPS is awesome, but I love being able to follow my trips on a real map.

Until next time, safe travels everyone.

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My First Honda: 1989 Prelude 2.0 Si 5-Speed

Posted in Prelude, Throwback on March 1, 2013 by tysonhugie

Happy Friday! It was a week of milestones for the cars. On Wednesday night, the ILX rolled 30,000 miles.

And on Thursday night, the Legend rolled 520,000 miles.

My ILX in fewer than 9 months has accumulated more miles than this 1995 Legend LS sedan has over the last 18 years. Look how nice that front seat leather is!

Humble beginnings. Honda’s first foray into production automobiles was in June 1963 with a cute little truck called the T360. It had only 30 horsepower. Honda has come a very long way.

The first car I really ever got passionate about was my 1989 Honda Prelude 2.0 Si when I was 17 years old. This was a Phoenix Red 5-speed that I purchased in January 1999 with 134,000 miles on the odometer. Original classified ad:

First order of business was ditching the studded snow tires (this was a Boise, Idaho car) and installing some 15″ Optima polished aluminum wheels.

This next picture was taken December, 2000. It’s easy to see how my tastes were a little more “loud” back then. Wings West spoiler, Dynomax exhaust, even an “Si-R” sticker. My mom’s 1993 Legend L sedan in the background had a much cleaner sense of style than what I was going for on my Prelude.

I meticulously kept track of my expenses for the entire time that I owned the Prelude.

I drove the Prelude for two years and sold it at 169,000 miles. Two more years later, I was reunited the car in early 2003 when I got in touch with the family who I’d sold it to. I was able to borrow the car for a couple of hours and detail it. At the time, I had just recently purchased my 1994 Legend LS coupe so I got some pictures with the two cars together.

Sadly, it was less than a year later when I happened across the Prelude in the front yard of a towing company in St. George, Utah. It had been rear-ended and was a total loss. When I stopped by, I was driving my Charcoal Granite Metallica 1991 Legend L coupe 5-speed (a project car).

The most depressing part was when I peered inside the car and saw the odometer reading: 199,600. It had been so close to achieving 200,000 mile status. I know they’re capable of far more, based on my friend Chris’ experience with his 1988 Prelude Si getting to 399,525 miles before it died.

I pulled off the “H” emblem from the trunk lid and I still have it in a box, 10 years later. The only reminder I have left of the car that first got me excited about Honda.

I must’ve had a video camera handy, because my friend Branson in the background here was documenting our visit. I’ll have to track down that tape because it could have some entertaining stuff on it.

I’d love to own another 3rd generation (1988-1991) Prelude someday.

New Member of the ILX Family

Congrats to another Drive to Fiver who has picked up an Acura ILX. Greg from Denver reached out the other day after picking up his first new car, a 2013 Acura ILX in Polished Metal Metallic with the 2.0 / automatic drivetrain.

Thanks Greg for sharing your excitement about (and a picture of) your new car!

MORE POWER!

Most gearheads can appreciate things like sky-high horsepower and loads of torque, so I’ll share a fun sidebar about my brother’s business called H&S Performance. As long as I can remember, my brothers have been just as into the car scene as I have. My brother Bentley’s first car was a 1984 Honda Civic S with a whopping 122 horsepower. It was a 5-speed manual and a hand-me-down from my great-grandma, “Granny.”

He wasted no time in making some aesthetic and performance upgrades to that old hatchback.

But 122 horsepower was only going to satisfy him for so long…

H&S is a producer of diesel performance products. There’s an entire enthusiast community dedicated to souping up diesel pickup trucks. And these monster trucks, it may surprise many, can put sports cars to shame with their speed & power capabilities.

On Thursday afternoon, H&S broadcasted a 2-hour live video feed of my brother Bentley’s 2011 Ford F-250 Powerstroke through a series of dyno runs in an attempt to break something. They literally wanted to push this truck to its ultimate limits for the sake of R&D. My brother is the one leaning on the truck in the final shot of this video where folks from around his office predicted the fate of the truck.

The live video feed from the event is here.

Run 1: 1:28:39 – Warming up the truck, ~400 HP
Run 2: 1:30:21 – Fuel only, ~580 HP
Run 3: 1:33:45 – Fuel only, ~600 HP
Run 4: 1:40:35 – Nitrous run 1, ~700 HP
Run 5: 1:45:41 – Nitrous run 2, ~700 HP
Run 6: 1:50:48 – Nitrous run 3, ~700 HP
Run 7: 2:01:02 – Nitrous run 4, ~750 HP
Run 8: 2:18:05 – Nitrous run 5, ~800 HP
Run 9: 2:47:04 – Nitrous run 6, ~880 HP

The truck ended up at 884 horsepower and 1,668 lb/ft of torque on a stock bottom end and transmission. That transmission ended up being the weakest link.

The H&S crew said they’ll be back for 1,000 horsepower soon. I can’t wait to see what they’ve got in store. Now, if only I could get them to do a little tuning to my 2.4 liter ILX.

🙂

EDIT: Let’s make this interactive. Duane from California emailed me and told me about his first Honda. He paid $426 for it in 1988, which was a lot of money for a lawnmower back then. But in 25 years, it’s only been in for service once!

What was your first Honda? 😉

33 Comments »

Friday Flashback: 2005 Seattle Trip

Posted in Legend, Throwback on February 8, 2013 by tysonhugie

Odometer (Legend): 519,415

Odometer (ILX): 26,733

I wore my black Acura Polo shirt to work on Thursday (as I do frequently!) and was asked by my coworker Virginia, “Shooting a commercial today?” Haha, I love my coworkers! I went ahead and drew up an “A” logo to pin it to my cube wall just to further let everyone know where my automotive loyalties lie!

I took the ILX to its lowest “range” a couple of days ago. First time I’ve had this in the low 20’s before.

It’s fun to leave the car’s ignition in “ON” position and watch the range creep up as the fuel is being pumped in. I even thought to take a video. Range went from 22 miles to 422 miles in a matter of a few minutes. The ILX fuel tank has only a 13-gallon capacity.

A fellow ILX driver on Loop 101 southbound in Scottsdale, Arizona today gave me a peace sign through the moonroof! I don’t know who this guy was but he had a Nevada plate and a really clean looking ILX 2.0 base model in Crystal Black Pearl. Thumbs up right back atcha!

In other ILX-related news, Dillon’s been at it again. He goes by “Hondatalover,” and he loves putting together photoshops of anything Acura. This is his latest rendering of the ILX featuring a few key enhancements:

Oversized wheels from the ILX Hybrid
Updated taillights
Wing spoiler
Decklid badging
Dual exhaust

I think it turned out pretty sweet!

High Mileage Success Stories

High mileage S2000! A post from my friend in Florida showed up on my news feed this morning. Impressive mileage at over 282,000. Even if this car is the oldest S2000 (model year 2000) it’s still averaged about 21,700 miles over the last 13 years. Just shows that even a sportscar is capable of being a long-hauler.

Hondabeat’s latest story in the High-Mileage Club is about a 2007 Honda Fit with over 369,000 miles on it. That works out to over 60,000 miles per year! These people drive even more than I do!

Car Chases & “Slimer”

I love a good car chase – and any car movies, for that matter. Gone in 60 Seconds is one of my faves. But my friend Marc shared a video link with me this week that was of particular interest because of the car that it featured. This chase is 7 minutes ‘ worth of abuse to a 1972 Ford Gran Torino Sport. It’s from a 1973 film called “Fear Is The Key.” Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. That thing handles like a yacht!

When I was 10 years old, my dad had one of these as a carpool car. It was bulletproof. He’d take us out to empty parking lots covered in fresh northern Utah snow and we’d do donuts in the wintertime. The car’s lime green exterior and dark green exterior were very 1970’s. The car also leaked antifreeze, so we named it Slimer. As in, Ghostbusters Slimer:

There are only two pictures we have of Slimer (hidden in the background). It was parked on the side of the house, behind my dad’s pride and joy 1989 Ford F-250 4×4 pickup. My youngest brother Payton is riding his bike on the driveway. Payton is now 25 years old, married, with one child and another on the way! Time truly does fly.

Here’s another picture we were able to dig up. Slimer is in the background, but I’m standing on the lawn with my brother in front of my mom’s 1989 Pontiac Grand Prix coupe 5-speed. That was a fun car! The speedometer was digital, as I recall. And the glove compartment had a combination lock on it.

I’m not sure where that Gran Torino ended up, but even in 1992 at 20 years old it was fairly rusted out as I recall. Here’s a clean one on Ebay in Houston that I’d love to pick up.

Legend Updates

The Legend is doing well but I’m wondering how much longer I’ll be able to milk the original clutch. Back in 2009 when I was pricing out replacement clutches for my Legend sedan, I was quoted nearly $3,700 parts & labor! Gulp. I think I’ll try for a few more miles on the original unit.

Flashback – First Road Trip to Seattle

In July 2005, I took my Legend to the Pacific Northwest for the first time. Following is a post I shared with the Acura Legend forums recapping the event. The purpose of this trip (aside from just an excuse to take a drive) was to visit my friend Patrick who lived in the Seattle area and to enter my Legend in a car show called the Lakeland Hills Rockin’ Auto Show.

At this time, my Legend had 195,000 miles on the odometer. This round-trip drive was about 1,700 miles and I departed from Logan, Utah where I was going to school at Utah State University.

Following are a few pictures that Pat posted of the car show itself. His 1991 Persian Red LS coupe out-shone mine by a long shot. There’s a good reason why we called this guy the “Detail King.”

The following was what I posted to the forums on 7/31/05:

Home sweet home at last! That was quite the trip. I won’t go into a lengthy report, but a few items of note…

Round-trip was about 2,400 miles. I left Thursday night and just got back now (Sunday afternoon). Slept in the car in Boise, ID going and coming back and had one night in a hotel room in WA. Had clear skies for the entire drive — and believe it or not Pat, my car still looks great minus the bugs plastered all over! Didn’t see one other G2 coupe on the roads the whole way there or coming back.

Washington is very scenic… Huge pine trees all over, a few fun tunnels to go through and plenty of nice bridges to cross. Wish I could have stayed longer.

I decided to come home through Portland. Oregon is also very scenic — but let me just rant for a bit. Did you know you can’t pump your own gas in Oregon?! What is up with that? For some reason, that just irritates me. #1 – I showed up at one gas station and no attendant came to assist (I didn’t want to break the law like I did the first time when I didn’t know better :)) #2 – Many gas stations close up at like 10 p.m. What are people supposed to do when they need to fill up after that time? I’m lucky I got to the station when I did. Also — Oregon speed limits max out at a whopping 65 mph. I was DYING by the time I finally got to the Idaho border and could throw the cruise control on at 82 mph again. Why 65?

All in all — it was a really fun trip and I must say, for those who haven’t seen 91LSMAN’s car, it is EVEN BETTER looking in person than in the pics! The shine is unbelievable. This kid knows his stuff! I was privileged to have him work on my car! On to my pics…

Here’s where it all started!

Pat’s vault of supplies!

The result:

Chris’s car (SBWooder):

Pat driving:

On my way back through Oregon, I saw a photo-op I couldn’t pass up. As the sun was setting, the river alongside the road looked awesome. These pics were taken last night on Interstate 84 just outside Portland, OR.

A shot of the scenery:

A nice TL that was at my hotel:

And finally, this is what my “office” looks like when I’m on the road for 17 hours at a time… cruizn 6th gear, atlas, MapQuest directions, phone, drinks, CDs, etc etc. 😀 Gotta love my ‘plasticked’ carpet! (Thanks Mastervtec)

Amazing how times have changed! Back when I took this trip in 2005, I printed up page after page of directions & maps from Google Maps. I had no GPS. No iPhone. And no iPod. Just a regular Sprint flip phone, a giant road atlas, and CD’s! I’ve still kept in touch with Patrick, Chris, and the other Legend fanatics who I met on that trip. Patrick’s in a Torch Red C5 Corvette now, and Chris has an absolutely stunning Milano Red 1994 Legend LS coupe automatic.

I have since traveled back to Seattle a couple of times. I’ll share a write-up of my subsequent trips in a future flashback. Is the phrase ‘future flashback’ an oxymoron?

Everybody go rock out to this song! It sure sounded awesome in the ILX 7-speaker Premium sound system.

Company coming into town tonight! There will be some car-related adventures this weekend, so stay tuned.

19 Comments »

Friday Flashback: AZ Route 66

Posted in Arizona, Legend, Road Trip, Throwback on September 14, 2012 by tysonhugie

Odometer (ILX): 14,765

I love roads and maps as much as I love cars. I could (and do) stare at the huge US map in my cubicle at work for hours daydreaming about the places I’d love to visit. I remember as a kid riding with my grandpa in his silver Buick Park Avenue with digital speedometer and seeing him set the cruise control exactly at 65 miles per hour on Interstate 15 in Utah. It took a very long time to get to our destination 400 miles away at the other end of the state.

My friend Tony from Toronto sent me a link discussing some of the “World’s Fastest Roads.” I found it fitting that the Bonneville Salt Flats were included in the list. I first visited the Bonneville Salt Flats in November 2005 when my Legend (at the time, sporting 2004 Acura TL wheels) had 195,000 miles on it.

For the most part, I’m a very conservative driver and that’s one of the reasons why I think my Legend has lasted as long as it has. However, every once in awhile I do get the need for speed. I’ve raced the car twice in competitive events. I’ve already shared before that there’s a stretch of Interstate 15 in central Utah that has sections posted at 80 mph. As many may know, Texas recently raised the speed limit to 85 miles per hour on a 41-mile stretch of a toll road between Austin and San Antonio. That’s quick! What does the future hold for our speed limits?

My friend Tyler shared the following video with me this week. I love Depeche Mode and I love Route 66, so I figured it was worth sharing! Many of the scene locations shown in this video are familiar to me.

Many of you who followed my travels in July to Milwaukee and back will remember that I visited a bunch of Route 66 destinations along the way in my ILX, like this National Route 66 museum in Elk City, Oklahoma.

However, this was far from the first time I’ve retraced this historic road’s route. So thanks, Tyler, for inspiring today’s Friday Flashback. Here is a look at a road trip that I took in March 2007 when my 1994 Legend had about 280,000 miles on it. My friend Kevin came along for the ride (and in fact played the role of tour guide most of the way).

A coworker and I decided to take a road trip today to the northwestern part of the state to hit up some old touristy destinations off Historic Route 66. The main goal was to visit a small old mining town called Oatman, which was made largely obsolete with the construction of I-40 to the south. With the freeway, no longer did people have to go through Oatman to get to California, and the town has been mostly unchanged for several decades.

One of the first stops, just outside Bouse, Arizona, was Ma & Pa’s. They really did have almost anything!

Then we stopped in Lake Havasu City, where the London Bridge is now located.

Then it was off to Needles, California – a quiet railroad town that didn’t have much to offer.

Finally we headed toward Oatman on old Route 66. It’s a windy two-laner and the routing has been unchanged since the road was first put through in the 1920’s.

You can tell these guardrails are ancient.

Starting to go up the hill toward Oatman.

Oatman is where I put the red dot in the western part of the state, in the middle of the “U” that I-40 makes.

Here is some basic background history on the town. They still to this day have wild donkeys walking all over the streets (you really have to watch your step or you’ll end up with a mess on your shoes). People buy carrots at the souvenir shops to feed them. There was a gunfight reenactment while we were there! You can see in some of the pictures that there are people dressed up like cowboys.

Pulling up to main street.

We went inside the Oatman Hotel (1902) to check it out. The building looks like it’s straight out of 1910 inside, old and run down but it’s awesome to see how the old hotels were. This particular hotel had a lot of history since Clark Gable spent his honeymoon there. Here’s the view going upstairs to the rooms.

Hotel history.

View from inside the hotel looking out toward main street.

The bar in the hotel has walls and ceilings COVERED with $1 bills. I would guess several thousand $ worth.

Here’s a look at main street Oatman. The hotel you see pictured there is the one we went inside.

Since there are so many wild burros around town, there are a lot of shops with “ass” incorporated into the title. This was one of my faves:

Leaving Oatman, the road starts up some very serious grades. Back in the 1940’s and 50’s, the cars had difficulty making it up. In fact, I picked up a reprint of a 1946 Guide Book to Highway 66, and it has the following quote about the steep grades:

“For eastbound cars which cannot make the Gold Hill Grade, a filling station in Goldroad offers a tow truck which will haul your car to the summit. At last inquiry their charge was $3.50, but may be higher. Cars with trailers may need this service.”

I thought that was funny… People would pay $3.50 to have their cars towed to the top of this summit. Luckily the Legend crested the hill just fine.

This is part of Route 66 from a viewpoint. There were some very tight hairpins and switchbacks but we were never able to pull off to get a photograph of those.

Route 66 here in the background behind the coupe.

Just after Sitgraves Summit, 66 drops down sharply in elevation and the next noteworthy roadside attraction is Cool Springs. This little gas station actually burned down in 1968. All that was left of it for about the next 30 years were the front rock pillars. Then in 2003, it was rebuilt. They no longer sell gas but they do sell a lot of souvenirs.

Hope you enjoyed the drive! It was about 12 hours worth today.

OH – and one more thing…

I’ll give you one guess why I bought this postcard in Oatman!! 🙂

Those with a keen eye for Acuras will notice the blue 1986-1988 Acura Legend sedan parked behind the yellow pickup truck. That was a great drive! It’s one that I’d like to take again soon in the ILX so see if any of the infrastructure has changed in the last 5 years.

ILX News – Top Safety Pick

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has awarded the 2013 ILX its top rating of GOOD for its ability to protect vehicle occupants involved in front, side and rear crashes, plus rollover performance. Awesome!

I’d like to know if there are any updates to the Project Acura ILX being built for competition by Team Honda Racing – West at the Honda Performance Development HQ in Santa Clarita, CA. I’ve been watching the THR-W blog but haven’t seen anything since the announcement in July.

This week, my ILX got its 3rd oil change on 0W20 synthetic oil. At the time when I took it in, the oil life remaining still read 60% on the Maintenance Minder display, but it had been 5,173 miles since my last appointment on August 7th. Acura of Tempe took care of it in short order.

Whilst enjoying amenities of the customer lounge, I took a look at the ILX that’s currently sitting where my Legend coupe was a couple of weeks ago. It happened to be a Crystal Black Pearl 2.0 automatic with the Tech package. The VIN ended in 000096, so this car rolled off the Indiana production line just 14 cars after mine did! This car may very well have been transported to Arizona on the same truck that mine was.

And Lastly

I decided to check on my rooftop durability test fleet. Just over a month ago, I sprayed the 6 test vehicles with a concentrated salt spray solution to see how the finishes stand up to the ultimate corrosion evaluation. See for yourself!

The Maserati 3200 GT has turned pink.

The Aston Marton’s lenses and windows have further deteriorated.

And the 1957 Nomad’s hood and roof are peeling.

For reference, here’s what the Nomad looked like 18 months ago.

This diecast car experiment is more fun than I had ever anticipated when I put these cars on my rooftop a couple of years ago.

Have a great weekend!

4 Comments »

First Car Ride

Posted in Throwback on August 23, 2012 by tysonhugie

Odometer: 11,663

I haven’t always been spoiled by the luxuries of Acura in my lifetime of automotive experience. Would you believe that my first taste of the world of cars was in a glorified Ford Pinto? Nearly 31 years ago, I rode home as a newborn from Logan Hospital in northern Utah in a car that’s been designated in some articles as one of the worst cars of all time.

I challenge each of my Drive to Five readers to find out if you haven’t researched it already: What kind of car was the first one you rode in?

I present to you: The 1978 Mercury Bobcat.

The hottest ride in Richmond, Utah. This little gem, as it turns out, has a story to tell.

Original MSRP: $4,112
Production years: 1975-1980
Powerplant: 2.8 Liter 4 cylinder motor; SelectShift “Cruise-O-Matic” transmission
Output: 88 hp; 118 lb-ft of torque

Tuesday, October 6, 1981. I was two months away from being born and my mom was 19 years old.

Following is an excerpt from her detailed journal entry:

We got rid of our Monte Carlo for $2,700 and bought a 1978 Mercury Bobcat (like a Pinto) for $2,600. We bought it from a girl here in Richmond who is Craig’s age. She sold it because she is getting married in December. The $100 “profit” went for taxes. But this little hummer gets 25 mpg in my driving back and forth from Richmond to Logan. It only takes me $12 or $13 to fill it instead of $25. So I figure even though it isn’t as nice a car, we stepped up to three years newer, get twice the mileage, and I am happy with it. Craig has complained about the way it rides because he hates all small cars but he was spoiled with the Celica. No car can compare to the Celica in ride.

Indeed, how could anything ever compare to the 1980 Celica that my dad was benchmarking against? It looks like automotive engineering has come a long way in the last 34 years. Fast forward to the 2013 model year and I’m driving a 4 cylinder vehicle that’s putting out 228% more horsepower than that 1978 Bobcat. Inflation, though, is killer. You could buy about 7 1/2 Bobcats for the price of my Acura ILX. Times change!

Update on our Italian Friend, Francesco

We’ve already learned that people from all over the world can appreciate getting the most mileage out of a car. You may remember Francesco, the Drive to Five reader from Italy who’s on a high-mileage crusade of his own. He first reached out to me in May 2012 when his car had 240,000 kilometers on it. I received an update that he’s now surpassed the 250,000 mile mark. In his words:

The 250.000 came near Munchen on the road for Stuttgart…the roadtrip stop here…center of the city, Mercedes and Porsche museum…too diffiucult the road for Hamburg for the money, the weather and the no limit legal highway (they are crazy!)

Francesco also sent these photos of his Fiat outside Legoland in Germany. Car looks great for the mileage!

Keep on rolling, Francesco!

30 Years of Honda in America

I received a Media Alert from Honda this week announcing the start of production of the all-new 2013 model year Accord at the Marysville, Ohio plant. When I attended the Detroit Auto Show in January, I laid eyes on one of the very first Accords built in the United States – a gray 1982 that I blogged about here. Since ’82, there have been over 9 million Accords built in the United States. Quite a feat!

Latest on the 2013 ILX

My new Acura made headlines at work in an article that was released this week at my employer’s quarterly newsletter. The following is a shot of what was included in the mailing to the ~350 people who work in my department at CVS Caremark.

I got a ton of follow-up feedback via phone and email from my colleagues at the office. Most simply couldn’t believe that Acura took enough interest in my story to form this type of partnership with a “regular guy!” And a handful of people asked me when I’m taking them to lunch in my new car. Ha! Here are a couple of the comments I received.

From Andrew, in Storage & Backups:

Tyson, you’ve gone the equivalent to the moon and back. What a feat! I won’t worry about the 100k mark being the end on my Hondas.

From Mary, in Engagement Management:

How cool is that! I traded my Acura for a Lexus coupe – can’t remember why. Now I drive a BMW X5. Really love the car, but it’s not as luxurious as my old Legend. Sigh.

The ILX is doing great and already begging for another road trip. I’ve already got a few travel destinations in mind for the coming several weeks.

It’s exciting to see the ILX ownership / enthusiast community continue to grow. If you haven’t already done so, make sure and join the ILX Owners & Enthusiasts group on Facebook and also take a look at the ILX Owner Sign-In thread at Acurazine — the world’s largest internet forum devoted to all things Acura. (The member list currently shows over 87,000 registered users). So far, 12 lucky new ILX owners including myself have made their presence known but I know that many more will join as the ILX sales escalate.

On Monday night, I happened to again be near downtown Tempe and stopped for a couple of pictures at the Hayden Flour Mill (which first launched operations in 1918) that I discussed in my blog from last week. I really wish I’d had my “real” camera with me because these grainy iPhone pictures just don’t do anything at all justice.

There’s a set of train tracks running alongside the mill that have since been bypassed by a newer set that’s located west of this site. Also interesting to note in the above picture the contrast between the old mill buildings and the new corporate complex in the background. The city of Tempe really has grown up around this old mill.

You can still see a very faint “Hayden Flour Mills” written on the side of the building.

Doesn’t the sight of an abandoned building make you want to go crawl inside? I have a fascination with such things, and I’d love to get up enough bravery to hike around in a place like this, just to see what I could find. It’d be similar to that day in 2005 when I took a day trip in the Legend and explored the abandoned buildings of the Modena, Utah ghost town.

I captured this picture “on the fly” while crossing the Salt River at the Rural Rd bridge, but these Arizona sunsets are phenomenal!

As my longer-term evaluation of the ILX continues, my readers may also wish to keep tabs on a similar undertaking by Car & Driver. They’ve inducted a 2.4 liter 6-speed Polished Metal Metallic ILX into their long-term test fleet and already logged a couple thousand miles. See the initial write-up here.

The old high-miler Legend, meanwhile, will be the feature of my next blog post. Exciting things are happening with it!

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Friday Flashback: Curviest Highway Drive

Posted in Arizona, Legend, Road Trip, Throwback on March 2, 2012 by tysonhugie

Odometer: 508,528

We made it to Friday in just a few hours!

My good friend Matt took delivery yesterday of a nice looking Nissan 370Z. This 6-speed, Sports package-equipped cruiser is begging to tear up the local mountain roads. It’s not an Acura, but it’s a fine ride and pretty dang fun to drive. I was behind the wheel when the odometer ticked over to 200 miles last night! Quite the polar opposite of my seasoned Acura.

Matt was asking me today if there were any stretches of road in particular that I recommended. One road popped into my mind almost instantly: Coronado Trail. This road has 500 separate curves within about 100 miles.

When most people think of a “Sunday drive,” they think of a drive to church, to the park, or to Grandma’s house. I did a Sunday drive in the Legend in October 2009 that involved driving for 12 hours in one stretch. I have already shared this on my blog in a prior post with a link to an AcuraConnected article highlighting my Top 10 Roadtrips, but since that article didn’t get into detail and only had one picture, I thought this would be a fun one to reminisce about today.

My friend Kevin and I set out in a 398,000 mile Legend for what has been called “The Curviest Highway in America.”

AZ Central Newspaper Article

AA Roads Article

Following are the pictures and captions I shared on the AcuraLegend.org forums back then.

I can honestly say that the road lives up to its reputation. Kevin and I traveled the road from the north end to the south end. Here’s the map (road in the black box I drew is the road).

As we approached the start of the highway, we were greeted by a warning sign that basically says, if it’s nighttime, a weekend, or a snowstorm, GOOD LUCK!

The first 22 miles or so were pretty tame; I was wondering what all the fuss was about. We took a brief pit stop at the only trace of civilization along the trail: Hannagan Meadow. Gas pumps are dry.

Pretty soon the road narrowed and from there on out, it was a total roller coaster. Hairpins, steep grades, switchbacks, you name it. Vehicles over 40 feet are restricted (and for good reason). I thought I could get away with using one hand to take pictures and one hand on the wheel. Not a chance! There is one section of the road where a sign says “10 MPH Next 11 Miles.” If I hadn’t been behind the wheel, I would have needed a barf bag!

Traffic was minimal. We passed 12-15 cars going the opposite direction the whole stretch of road, and had to pass two trucks with trailers, but that was it. We had the road to ourselves for the vast majority. I had so much fun – I can only imagine what it would have been like to drive this road in a sports car.

Fall colors were just pas their peak but still pretty amazing.

Stopped briefly in the old mining town of Clifton, Arizona. The main street looked and felt like a ghost town.

On the way back into Phoenix, we took a small detour over a place called Coolidge Dam. It involved taking a side road that has been decommissioned since the late 1950’s when it was bypassed by the current Highway 70.

We would guess the last time this road saw fresh pavement was in the 1970’s. It is (huge) pothole city for 27 solid miles! And there are many parts of the road where the weather has taken its toll over the years – it’s essentially dirt, wish washboard ruts and everything. I was stirring up a cloud most of the way in. This was one of about 15 narrow bridge crossings – the road in this section was in far better condition than the rest.

Finally we got to Coolidge Dam. WOW! Amazing 1930 construction. We drove right over the top of it. The road was very narrow but the architecture of the dam was intricate. It was totally worth the side trip, even though it probably added 30 minutes to our day trip and took a hefty toll on the car’s suspension.

Various shots from around the dam.

Ending mileage after that trip:

Hope you enjoyed the trip down memory lane as much as I did. Can’t wait for similar upcoming travels this year!

6 Comments »

Alaska

Posted in Legend, Road Trip, Throwback on November 2, 2011 by tysonhugie

Odometer: 499,487

What better way to enjoy a crystal clear new windshield than with a sunset like this tonight! Absolutely incredible.

Of all the road trips I’ve taken over the years, the one that stands out as most memorable would have to be an excursion that my dad, Craig, and I took to Fairbanks, Alaska. I’d dreamed about doing this for years and finally made it happen in May 2006. I’ll dedicate this post to the trip that out-distanced every other adventure in my Legend by a long shot.

Armed with the MILEPOST Alaska Travel Guide, I started researching dates, routes, stops, and destinations to see along the famous Alaska Highway. The Milepost was so incredibly detailed that it left little to wonder about. I remember a page in particular instructing us to look for moose to our right – and sure enough, right on cue, we spotted the wildlife. I was an MBA student at the Thunderbird School of Global Management at the time, and had an upcoming couple of weeks off between trimesters so I figured the opportunity was right. The red line here is our outbound trip; the green is our return. In all I put about 7,600 miles on my Legend in a matter of about 10 days. There’s a gigantic write-up here on the Acura Legend forums, but I’ll share a few pictures on the blog.

Our northbound route shows here in red, with the return leg in green.

I’ll let the pictures do the talking (and driving) of this post. They are in completely random order here.

The Alcan Motor Inn, where we stayed one of the nights.

Tons of wildlife sightings!

This sign means hold on for dear life because the frost heaves in the road are going to get bad. I put my Acura’s suspension to the test.

The actual start of the Alaska Highway (it was SNOWING!): Dawson Creek, British Columbia

This is in Grande Prairie, where we first started seeing signs with Alaska as a destination! How exciting.

Haines Junction, Yukon Territory – almost there!

Highway 1 in British Columbia. It went through a series of 6 tunnels.

Sunrise

Muncho Lake, British Columbia (about mile 497 on the Alaska Highway)

Views to die for.

Sheep Mountain, Kluane National Park, Yukon Territory.

I got pretty good at reading the tiny little KPH digits on my speedometer while we rolled through Canada!

Stone Mountain Park

Notice how the road winds along near the cliffside. Just doesn’t get any better than this!

Sheep on the highway in Stone Mountain Provincial Park!

Late sunset on the Alaska Highway (around 11 p.m.)

Bridge in Teslin, Yukon Territory

Cassiar Highway in British Columbia. There were waterfalls right off the road.

Another pic from the Cassiar Hwy 37 drive – British Columbia, Canada.

Gassing up at Petro Canada in Watson Lake, Yukon.

Also in Watson Lake, the famed “signpost forest.” I should have taken one to add.

Yukon license plate on a van.

Arrival at the border and getting out of the car to stretch. At last!

Finally – Delta Junction, Alaska. We had reached our destination – the end of the Alaska Highway – having traveled on it for the entire 1,422 miles.

The aftermath of my tire after arriving back in Salt Lake City, Utah. This picture was after we’d rotated it from front left to right rear.

And a very buggy Legend front end, begging for a wash.

This was one of many milestones achieved throughout the trip.

And I couldn’t resist buying a souvenir bumper sticker. No, I didn’t permanently attach it to my back bumper, but I temporarily put it there for a picture. It reads: “I drove the Alaska Highway. Both ways, dammit!” Not many vehicles with > 200,000 miles can claim such an accomplishment.

Hope you enjoyed the drive as much as I did.

Now, just about 500 miles remain until the big celebration. Many have attempted to predict where and when the occasion will happen. Here’s the answer: Acura has graciously invited me to the company’s North American headquarters in Torrance, California to complete my Drive to Five there this coming Friday, November 4, 2011!

I will depart on Thursday from Phoenix and have “conserved” ample miles to make the voyage to Los Angeles without going past the 500,000 mark too soon. It will be a challenge to orchestrate the mileage to align at the perfect time and place, but with as many odometer pictures as I’ve taken over the years, I’m up to it!

Many thanks to the great folks at Honda/Acura for following the blog and offering encouragement along the way! T minus 3 days and counting.

2 Comments »

Heritage

Posted in Throwback on October 28, 2011 by tysonhugie

Odometer: 499,054

Look at that number 5 just getting overly anxious to reveal itself.

I started the day off with a flat tire this morning. In all my travels (knocking on wood here) I have never had to change a tire on the side of the road. I’ve only had tires go flat during the night, like what happened in this case. I had a good sized screw in the left rear tire so I threw on a spare. I don’t use a donut spare tire, either. I have a full-fledged factory 16″ wheel and tire. In fact on my biggest road trip this year, the coast-to-coast CA to NJ adventure, I took TWO spare tires. I’m an Eagle Scout after all, so my motto is to always be prepared.

The car is screaming for a wash & detail and I hope to tackle that this upcoming weekend. I’d touch up some of the rock chips on the front end but I fear I’d need a gallon or two of Desert Mist paint and it’d probably end up looking worse than it already does.

Here’s a fun flashback pic.

Seeing double? You’d better believe it. Back in May, 2006, my friend Branson from Salt Lake City bought an Acura Legend that looked like an identical twin to mine. His had an automatic transmission, though. We had so much fun cruising around the streets in our lookalikes.

Can you tell which one was mine?

Today’s look-back is an extension of a post I published several weeks ago, discussing about how being into cars runs in my family. Long before Honda and Acura were around, my great-grandfather Merrill V. Hansen and his wife Della were pioneers in the automotive realm. They opened the very first gas station in Logan, Utah, located in the beautiful Cache Valley of northern Utah. I felt it appropriate to dedicate a post of my blog to Grandpa Hansen and his legacy.

A crisp winter morning on Highway 89-91.

Grandpa Hansen’s station offered Texaco fuel at one time, and then Chevron later on. My uncle Jeff remembers Grandpa telling him that in the early days, gas was delivered using horse-drawn equipment.

Here are some other pictures from over the years that I’ve been able to dig up of Grandpa’s service station.

He and Della lived in the home just south of the station. The highway has since been widened, raised, and had a guard rail installed so that the home appears to have “sunk” alongside.

Grandpa Hansen with my grandmother, Marilyn, as a baby.

I wonder how much he was charging for gas back in those days?

Late 1970’s here in the background:

My dad’s 1968 Chevy Nova in the foreground. He had about a dozen different engines in that thing.

To my knowledge, this is the last picture we have of the building before it was finally bulldozed. You can see that it had been overtaken by a huge 3-bay warehouse next door which still stands today. The little station to the left is now just a memory.

I’d like to also pay tribute to my great-grandma, Granny (mom’s mom’s mom). In her later years she loved being chauffeured around in my Legend. Granny passed away this past April at the age of 98 years young. “Be true to your teeth and they won’t be false to you,” she’d say. Always full of wit and wisdom. Granny was also a Honda fan, actually. She drove a white 5-speed manual 1984 Honda Civic S hatchback well into her 80’s. It didn’t even have power steering!

This picture is from about 2004 when I picked up Granny at her home to go to church on Sunday morning.

And another from 2006.

Finally, on Thanksgiving Day, 2007. She still looked great and was as sharp as ever.

Here’s a picture when I picked Granny up to take her to Thanksgiving dinner in November, 2008. I’m happy to have spent a few of my miles driving around with such a classy lady in the passenger seat.

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Open Road Racing

Posted in Legend, Road Trip, Throwback on October 26, 2011 by tysonhugie

Odometer: 498,953

Still trucking! 499,000 awaits tomorrow! Here’s a story of how I took my old high-miler into a competitive racing event a couple of years ago.

Bonneville Salt Flats, western Utah

Not many people would dream of taking a 330,000 mile vehicle to participate in a very competitive open-road racing event at over 100 miles per hour. Probably few people would also enter an old luxury coupe into an event where most drivers brought new Corvettes or Porsches. Well, I did.

It had always been a dream of mine to drive my own Acura Legend, flat out, on a public highway as fast as I wanted to. I had that opportunity for two consecutive events at the Bonneville 100 Open-Road Race, put together by an organization called MKM Racing. The premise of the B100 is to fly down a (closed) public highway for 100 miles (50 miles down, then 50 miles return) and arrive at the finish line at exactly your target average speed. The race is held about where the “A” on this map is located — in the barren reaches of the Nevada/Utah desert near the Bonneville Salt Flats.

In 2007, with the assistance of “navigator” and friend Branson from Salt Lake, I competed in the 100 mph class. In 2008, I competed in the 105 mph class. In both cases, very strict parameters were in place regarding the minimum and maximum speeds allowed. Had I gone slower than 80 or faster than 124 at any point during the race, I would have been disqualified. The cars were released from the start line about 1 minute apart from each other. It’s a surreal experience to be driving at triple-digit speeds and know that the only law enforcement officers you’re going to see will in fact be egging you on!

The 2007 event is discussed in greater detail with tons of pictures here on the Acura Legend forums in my post.

One of the biggest grins I’ve ever had behind the wheel was from my (required) “qualifying” class when, in order to validate that both I and my car were ready to race at speed, I had to take a professional race instructor with me and demonstrate my abilities on a 9-mile stretch of empty road, one day prior to the race. My instructor was Richard Hille, who competes in the 170 mph class in black 1996 Camaro. I learned that Richard used to have a 1991 Legend. He told me, just prior to the qualifying run, that he’d taken his Legend to 140 mph. “These are great cars,” he said. Here is a picture with the two of us gearing up for our run.

During the qualifying run, we went to grid and as we inched toward the start, I reached to turn off the A/C. Richard said, “You can leave that on, you’re not even going to be working this car hard.” With the adrenaline running through my system and Richard in the passenger seat, I turned into a total beast! The green flag came, and I blasted through the gears like I never have in my life. I also found out what my car sounds like at high RPM. I remember thinking, “Man, how come I’ve never driven like this before?!” The Type II V6 motor was singing right up until I hit 100 mph and then I leveled out the speed. After a mile or two, Richard said, “Let’s take it to 110.” I followed instructions, still in 5th gear at the time. Not long after, he said, “Go ahead and push it to 120.” I happily obliged, and passed the test with flying colors.

On race day, Branson and I got 2nd place of two cars in our 100 mph class. But the amazing thing was this: We were only 2.3 secondsoff a PERFECT time. Not too shabby for a first time racer. Here’s a video of our first leg when I was first getting up to speed and taking it to 115 mph or so.

In 2008, I came back for more grins and upped to the 105 mph class instead of 100 mph.

The day before race morning, my copilot Branson and I went over to the nearby Bonneville Salt Flats in deserted western Utah. This landmark is known for its seemingly infinite flat land which is the perfect location for vehicles to pursue land speed records.

I’ll paraphrase my experience from a post that I shared on the Acura Legend forums recapping the entire event here.

Due to the nature of the sport, open road racers take safety very seriously. In order to compete in the race, my Legend had to pass a technical inspection including wear & age of the tires among other things. I also had to install a fire extinguisher in the car. The only place I could think of that would not create unsightly drill-holes was underneath the back seat, so that’s where we put it.

Here’s my Tech Inspection certificate that was fastened to my windshield after getting the car checked out.

Quick driver’s meeting before heading out to the course.

This is the pre-game assembly at the Visitor’s Center in Wendover, Nevada. We had to line up in our respective classes and in the proper grid order.

A couple of shots at the pre-race grid with the Legend awaiting its performance.

This is the caravan to the start line on Highway 93 where the race is held. Mike, a competitor from Las Vegas in the 105 mph class and now a good friend of mine, was ahead of me in his black 2007 C6 Corvette 6-speed.

Once underway, the adrenaline pumps at full speed. Here is a picture taken by Branson while I blasted down the road at about 115 mph.

A scare emerged just shortly after getting up to speed. Antelope on the road! Pay close attention at the end of this video. Everything happened so quickly that it hardly registered in my mind. I could easily have made roadkill of this animal. At that speed, there is lethal potential!

After that near-death experience, I pulled the speed up to 120 and brought our average up to 105. Then, the next scare… we were closing in quickly on the guy in front of us. In the prior year, we’d never had to pass anybody. It looked like we might have to. This guy in a yellow Corvette was clearly not going fast enough. We tailed him at 85-90 mph through the curves when he should have been doing 100+. I thought about passing him on the straight, but somehow we were able to maintain the 105 average even while staying behind this guy – he picked up his speed in the straights.

Here you can get an idea of the somewhat primitive GPS system that Branson and I relied on during the race. Top left number is current speed. Bottom left number is average speed. This picture was taken on a 7-mile straightaway that was called the Speed Trap. The yellow blob you see up ahead is a competitor in my 105 mph class in a C6 Corvette. We were gaining on him.

We rolled into finish of the first leg and I got out of the car sweating. I was glad to be alive! I talked to the guy in the yellow Vette and told him I thought we were right on track. He was running off stop watches and was very confident that he was right and we weren’t.

It was another long hour+ of downtime until we rolled back out to run the second leg. I was worried about having to pass the yellow Vette guy, but determined to do so if I had to. We got the green flag for the second half. This one wasn’t nearly as eventful. Again we sailed to 120 until the average came up, then settled at 105 for the duration of the course. We ended up getting close to the guy in the yellow Vette yet again. I couldn’t figure out how come our GPS was reading RIGHT ON 105 mph average yet we kept catching this guy! But we followed him in to the finish.

Before starting the second (return) leg of the race. Somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Nevada!

Clearly my timing needs some work. We found out later that we had come in a full 51 seconds too early. Our GPS must have been reading wrong and we didn’t end up placing, but we sure had a great time! Here are the results:

Target Speed 105 Class

1. 0.011-mph (0:00.365+t) 402 Michael Keegan 29:32.296@104.915 28:31.498@105.066 Corvette
2. 0.026+mph (0:00.875-t) 299 William Rice 29:30.577@105.017 28:31.977@105.036 Corvette
3. 0.049-mph (0:01.639+t) 104 Stan Jennings 29:17.897@105.774 28:47.171@104.112 Dodge Van
4. 0.630-mph (0:21.017+t) 351 Mark Rice 29:30.644@105.013 28:53.802@103.714 Charger
5. 1.577+mph (0:51.531-t) 194 Tyson Hugie 29:04.671@106.576 28:07.227@106.577 Acura Legend

The numbers are:

– How far off we were from our target average mph overall
– (How many seconds off)
– Car number
– Driver’s name
– Time for first leg @ average mph
– Time for second leg @ average mph

What this means is that we were 1 THOUSANDTH of a second different between the times of our first leg and second leg. Leg 1 averaged 106.576, Leg 2 averaged 106.577. Mike Borders, who runs the event, said he had never seen that kind of precision before. Now if only we could have had the timing right! The old Acura represented itself well and demonstrated that even an old luxo coupe can hold its own in a high-speed race.

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