drivetofive

Road Trip to Lake Havasu City, Arizona: Driving the London Bridge

Posted in Arizona, ILX, Road Trip on May 11, 2015 by tysonhugie

Odometer (Legend): 533,499

Odometer (ILX): 125,027

Trip Distance: 412 Miles

Before we get started with today’s drive, I need to get a nursery rhyme stuck in your head:

London Bridge is falling down,

Falling down, falling down.

London Bridge is falling down,

My fair lady.

There now. Let’s get in the car and check out a fun Saturday road trip destination about 3.5 hours west of Phoenix.

In 1958, there was not much to see in the Mojave Desert at the Arizona-California state line. From a barren wasteland, a man named Robert P. McCulloch had a vision: He wanted to build a city. He purchased 3,300 acres of land on the east side of Lake Havasu on the Colorado River and planned it out for 4 years. Later, he picked up another 13,000 acres. Lake Havasu City was established in 1963, incorporated in 1978, and continued to develop in the ensuing decades. Today, LHC is home to about 52,000 people. It’s a popular destination for spring breakers, water recreationalists (I just made that word up), and snowbirds who escape the winters up north and park their fifth-wheel trailers for a few months in Arizona every year.

One of the city’s biggest attractions is a 930-foot-long stone & concrete bridge that was once a critical piece of infrastructure way across the Atlantic, in England. From 1831 until 1967, this bridge spanned the River Thames in London. But Robert McCulloch wanted so badly to bring a “centerpiece” to his newly-founded community that he purchased the entire bridge from the city of London and had it transported, piece by piece (they were numbered to keep them in order), to western Arizona. It took three years to re-build the bridge in its new location, and it opened for traffic in 1971. It connects a small island in the Colorado River with the rest of Lake Havasu City. The area surrounding the bridge is understandably themed as that of an English village.

James from Six Speed Blog and I headed out in our luxo-rides around 9:30 in the morning. This week, his test car was a 2015 Mercedes-Benz C400 sedan. I took my tried & true 2013 Acura ILX. Most of our drive was on hum-drum Interstate 10 which is always plagued with way too many 18-wheelers clogging up the fast lane, but a couple hours into it, we entered the back roads and things got a lot more interesting.

For about the next 90 minutes, Highway 95 ran parallel to the bright turquoise Colorado River. There were homes lining the river for most of the way, and we spotted a few boaters out enjoying the beautiful Saturday weather. It wasn’t long until we closed in on Lake Havasu City.

The name of the road which passes over London Bridge is (not surprisingly) McCulloch Drive, named for the man who purchased & reconstructed the bridge back in the 1960s. The first thing James and I wanted to do when we arrived in town was get some lunch, so I picked a top-rated (well, 4.3 out of 5-star) spot for us to check out, called Barley Bros. From our booth, we had a sweet view of the bridge outside. I went with a chicken club sandwich and James went for a “lobster burger,” but the thing we both raved the most about was the garlic cheese bread we got as an appetizer. The bread was so soft it almost melted in your mouth!

There are shops, food trucks, and other vendors along the water underneath the bridge, so we hiked down a couple flights of stairs and wandered around a little to check out the area. James spotted a jet ski rental place so we decided to try something spontaneous and check out the pricing. Champion Rentals offered pontoon boots and watercraft for rental by the hour. Jet skiing is something I hadn’t done for probably a decade and a half, but back in the day, my family spent a ton of time at the lake. Here’s a picture of me in summer 1997 at Lake Powell in southeastern Utah.

And another shot of me (left) and my dad (right) following the boat.

James had a little experience with personal watercraft too, and we both kind of wanted to have some fun. For $75 each, we plunked down our credit cards and booked ourselves on a couple of black & white Yamaha WaveRunners. I was surprised at how “little” training the owner gave – basically a few instructions on operation of the machines and a how-to on buckling the life vests, and we were off!

It took us 10 minutes to idle our way out of the “No Wake Zone” in Thompson Bay but immediately afterward we hit the throttles and had a drag race. My WaveRunner somehow was a good deal quicker than James’ so I left him in my dust. Or, in my wake, rather. We had a lot of fun tooling around and got plenty wet in our everyday apparel – including shoes & socks which ended up being squishy and wet.

After our hour of fun, we turned our watercraft back in and went back to the cars. We fueled up at a station called “Terrible’s” (not sure why anyone would name a business such a thing) and started our return drive to the Phoenix area. This time, I took the extremely posh Benz. Coming from a high-revving 4 cylinder to the Mercedes 3.0 V6, I was immediately blown away at just how refined the car felt at 70 miles per hour. It effortlessly floated along with zero wind noise.

At one point I needed to pass two slow-moving semi trucks on Highway 95 and I discovered just how quickly the car can scoot! Its 329 horses are readily available to gallop. The head-up display made a handy way to tell current speed and direction at all times without taking eyes off the road. I had to chuckle when James pulled up behind me at a stop light and his iPhone bluetooth paired with the Mercedes’ radio and started playing his music. As soon as I pulled away at the green light, the music cut back out again.

For the return trip, we opted for a little different routing. Instead of taking Highway 95 down through Quartzsite and getting on Interstate 10 from there, we headed southeast on Highway 72 through some rinky-dink towns like Hope and Salome. There really wasn’t much to see, but the seclusion and feeling of remoteness made it fun and the road had a bunch of whoop-de-doos. One 30-mile stretch between Salome and I-10 had at least 40 or 50 warnings painted on the pavement in giant block letters: “WATCH FOR CATTLE.” Since it’s open range out there, I’m guessing they have a high incidence rate of car-to-cow contact. I didn’t see a single cow in the whole stretch, however. We did make a quick stop at a teeny chapel. This one was just a tad larger than the one I saw in Yuma back in September.

The day concluded with a memorable 125,000-mile milestone in the ILX. Next month, on June 12, I’ll celebrate my 3-year anniversary with that car. Hard to believe how quickly the years (and miles) have flown. Thanks for being a part of today’s drive and I look forward to having you along for many more in the future. Below are the rest of the pictures and a short video.

Exiting Interstate 10 and heading north on Highway 95

Hey! I think I found out where I need to build a home!

Arrow-straight Highway 95 heading north toward Parker, Arizona from Quartzsite

In Parker, a junction with Highway 62 which leads toward California

Onward toward LHC

Getting closer!

Welcome to Lake Havasu City! “Play Like You Mean It.” Ha! It’s no wonder Havasu is such a hot-spot for spring-breakers.

The ILX with the London Bridge in the background

Driving across the London Bridge. I wonder if even those light fixtures are original?

Peeking out toward the mighty Colorado River.

Lake Havasu City is a true oasis. It’s nothing but barren Mojave Desert in every direction.

A good look at the bridge from the south side.

We saw this guy doing acrobatic tricks on some crazy looking “water jet shoes” of some sort.

James cruising along on his WaveRunner

Getting a little wet in the middle of the lake

Pre-departure fuel stop.

“Suds your Duds” Laundromat near Bouse, Arizona.

Couple hours from home.

Picture from inside the tiny chapel on Salome Road

We did sign the guest register!

Car swap again off Interstate 10

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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!

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Press Preview: Ford EcoBoost Challenge Event in Scottsdale, Arizona

Posted in PAPA, Vehicle Reviews on May 4, 2015 by tysonhugie

Odometer (Legend): 533,309

Odometer (ILX): 124,160

There’s nothing like the smell of burning rubber on a Friday morning to get your day started. I fully enjoyed ripping through the gears in a couple of the auto industry’s favorite “hot hatch” cars on a closed course last week

Ford rolled out the blue carpet for us at a media-only event on Friday as part of its 17-city “EcoBoost Challenge” tour. I attended along with about 20 other members of the Phoenix Automotive Press Association (PAPA). The venue was WestWorld, on the north end of town in Scottsdale. It’s the same location where the Barrett-Jackson collector car auction takes place every January. Some Ford folks kicked off the day with a little background on Ford’s current product lineup and the layout of the event. Brandt Coultas from the Dearborn, Michigan plant was in attendance. I’d already met him previously at a Ford F-150 preview event about a year ago.

Since 2009, Ford’s EcoBoost lineup of engines have made a name for themselves for being powerful yet fuel efficient. They are all characterized by being turbocharged and utilizing direct injection. More from Wiki:

Engines equipped with EcoBoost technology are designed to deliver power and torque consistent with those of larger engine displacement while achieving approximately 20% better fuel efficiency and 15% reduced green house emissions than these same engines.

As a matter of fact, when Ford’s representative Tania started talking about the available Mustang powertrains, she ranked the 4-cylinder EcoBoost as a higher performance car than the V6 model. See how the power compares across the three available motors?

EcoBoost 4 cylinder: 310 horsepower
V6: 300 horsepower
V8: 435 horsepower

Ford’s Mustang test drive lap was way too short. Even after having completed it twice in a row, I still had probably only driven the car 1/2 mile. The “acceleration straightaway” was barely long enough to get me through first gear and starting into second before I had to mash the brakes for the first left corner. But, that corner was a lot of fun – and so was the slalom section through a couple of cones. My yellow EcoBoost Mustang 6-speed handled really well. I also found the power very impressive for a 4 cylinder.

The next event was a “Reaction Time Challenge” on a separate course, equipped with all “ST” models. I talked awhile back about my first driving experience in a Fiesta ST, which in that case was in a normal, on-road setting instead of a closed track. Steve Lynch who I recently paired up with for a scenic mountain drive was my nemesis at the start line. Each of us were equipped with the same vehicle. The goal here was not to beat any specific lap time but rather to achieve the best reaction time once the light turned green.

We were instructed to rev the tach to 3,000 RPM for take-off, and I followed those instructions to a T. The Fiesta spun its wheels just momentarily on take-off but got a grip quickly and I was on my way. Steve and I blasted in parallel through first gear to the red flag at the end of the very short runway, then clamped down on the brakes. A digital readout displayed our respective reaction times. My personal best was a .43 and I think Steve was somewhere in the 5’s. Following that straight section, there was a curvy section lined with orange cones and then another slalom. The Fiesta is very light on its feet and I had a blast tossing it around. The surprising part was that the larger Focus ST actually didn’t feel nearly as fun. Steve and I agreed on that. Each of us took two laps in each car.

As some of my readers may know, my younger brother Payton is the driver for the H&S Motorsports race team. I felt so proud of my reaction time that I sent him a text message. He had to quickly squash my arrogance by telling me he’d achieved a reaction time of .051 in a diesel-powered Ford Lightning pickup truck. That’s a near-perfect time! I guess I have some practicing to do before I race against him.

(Random video of my brother kicking butt at some drag races)

Being front-wheel-drive, the Fiestas and Focuses (Foci?) handled vastly differently than the RWD Mustang, but I actually preferred them. I applaud Ford for continuing to cater to customers who demand “fun” in the car that they drive. I also appreciate that Ford continues offering a stick shift so readily in so much of its lineup. One of the events at the track day was “Shift Phobia” where first-timers and new drivers could give stick-shifting a try who hadn’t done it before.

It was a great day on the track with Ford, and I definitely gained a greater appreciation for the capability of the EcoBoost lineup of engines. Ford says that over 4 million EcoBoost-powered vehicles have been sold to date, and that number will certainly continue to grow at a rapid pace. A remarkable 79% of the new aluminum-bodied F-150 models sold in the Phoenix area have been EcoBoost-equipped (the national average is 60%). Knowing what I know now, I’m not surprised. It’s a great formula and the proof is in the performance.

Many thanks to Ford for inviting PAPA to participate at the event!

Tania giving us the lay of the land (track)

My 4-cyl Mustang test car

Behind the wheel of a Fiesta ST 6-speed

Having a post-lap recap conversation with Steve

Some of the vehicles awaiting punishment on the Reaction Time Challenge

Focus ST. I love this color.

Bonus Material:

On Saturday, I took the NSX on a “Supercar Saturday” drive with about 50 other cars. We did about 200 miles – looping up to Roosevelt Lake and then into Globe for lunch, before heading back to Phoenix. Here’s some cool drone footage. See if you can spot my car.

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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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Sunday Group Drive: Long Loop to Lynx Lake, Arizona

Posted in Arizona, ILX, Milestones, Road Trip, Vehicle Reviews on April 27, 2015 by tysonhugie

Odometer (Legend): 533,182

Odometer (ILX): 123,824

Trip Distance: 243 Miles

“My Bugles spilled all over!”

That was James’ flustered exclamation immediately upon exiting his Ultrasonic Blue Mica Lexus NX200t on a pullout of Highway 89 on Sunday morning. This particular road is unlike most of our state highways for a few reasons: It delivers seemingly endless twists and turns, the corners are banked, and the pavement conditions are as smooth as can be. For any car enthusiast, all those factors can only mean one thing: Wheeeeee!

So, as James took the corners aggressively in his “cute-ute” SUV to keep up with me in the ILX and Peter in his 3-series station wagon, his open bag of Bugles chips that was sitting on the floor repeatedly got rolled over by a rogue water bottle. And James, hands white-knuckling the wheel at 10:00 and 2:00 positions, was powerless to stop it from scattering crumbs all over the place in the process.

It was all worth it, and this Sunday drive did not disappoint. This was a small group with 3 unique luxury cars:

2002 BMW 325iT (Peter) – $36,250 as tested
- 5-speed manual
- Sport, Premium, and Cold Weather packages
- 2.5 liter Inline-6
- 189 horsepower
- 190,155 miles
2013 Acura ILX (Tyson) – $31,980 as tested
- 6-speed manual
- 2.4 liter 4-cylinder
- 201 horsepower
- 123,824 miles
2015 Lexus NX200t (James) – $43,398 as tested
- 6-speed automatic
- F SPORT and Navigation packages
- 2.0 liter 4-cylinder
- 235 horsepower
- 2,901 miles

From our home base in Scottsdale, we made our way northbound (Loop 101 -> Interstate 17 -> Highway 74 -> Highway 60) and our first stop was for fuel and snacks at the Mobil gas station in Wickenburg. That’s where James got ahold of those Bugles which later became the strewn-about crumbs in his back seat.

Peter’s 5-speed 3-series took the lead with Jack playing the role as copilot. As soon as traffic and road conditions permitted, the white station wagon quickly left me in its dust. Thanks to its custom upgraded H&R Sport suspension and 18″ low-profile tires, the BMW was well-suited for the twists & turns of Highway 89. The ILX, too, seemed to be right at home in that environment. Jack drove it for a stretch and commented on how superior Honda’s stick-shifts are. (A shame, since as of the 2016 model year, Acura has nixed the option). Between Wickenburg and Prescott, the highway ascended about 3,300 feet in elevation; rowing between 3rd and 4th gears it was fun to hold the motor in the higher RPM range and make use of VTEC technology.

Prescott welcomed us with light rains, refreshing pine-scented air, and cool mountain temperatures. There was only thing one left to make it a perfect road trip: tasty food. And for that, we went to the Lone Spur Cafe on Gurney Street in historic downtown Prescott.

Since it would be on our way home anyway, we decided to hit up Lynx Lake for a few pictures. I last visited both Lynx and Watson lakes in the Prescott area in February in the ILX. When we turned off Highway 69 at Walker Road, I noticed that there were even a few snowflakes on the roadside as we headed toward the south shore of Lynx. We were glad to have sweatshirts. I know all my readers up north are rolling their eyes at how we Arizonans crank our seat heaters to “HI” when the temperature dips below about 70 degrees.

James let me take the wheel of the Lexus for the drive home from there.

Coming from a lower-slung sporty sedan, I expected the NX to be a little less agile around the corners due to its higher center of gravity. What I instead discovered was that the NX “thinks” it’s a car, and behaves accordingly. If I had closed my eyes while driving (not recommended!), I could have easily mistaken the ride & feel for a sedan, and that is impressive considering the vehicle’s heft and profile.

Lexus tries hard to put all the controls at optimal locations. I noticed that the cruise control stalk (tucked away behind the lower right side of the steering wheel) is the same one that my mom’s 2003 Lexus GS430 had. Hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix/change it! The rest of the cabin is a nice place to spend time. I liked the red stitching on the dashboard (part of the F SPORT package) and the abundance of soft-touch materials surrounding the driver.

Among other adds for F SPORT are the sport-tuned suspension (which we definitely put to work), perforated leather-trimmed steering wheel, cornering front fog & driving lamps, special door scuff plates, and active sound control (“ASC”). That feature is a bit of an oddity: It’s a dial mounted to the dashboard below the steering wheel that controls the level/intensity of engine sound coming into the cabin. Oddly enough, the NX even has a G-meter. Those are all nice efforts to make the vehicle fun and sporty, but something tells me its primary buyers are folks who probably aren’t going to care. I picture the NX spending more time fighting for parking spaces at the mall than doing any kind of technical driving. I have to wonder how the NX would fare on an extreme road like Bloody Basin.

All-in, I enjoyed driving the NX200t more than I thought I would. At 80 mph on the freeway, there was almost undetectable wind noise. We streamed Bluetooth audio from James’ iPhone and the 8-speaker audio system rocks out (thanks for reminding me that Bloodhound Gang exists!). We got dumped on by a cloudburst coming down a curvy section of Interstate 17 between Sunset Point and Black Canyon City. Even though the NX was wearing summer tires, traction was grippy and confidence-inspiring. The windshield wipers (front and rear) did a great job of sweeping away the rains and I must say I really enjoyed the higher ride height of a crossover and the visibility it gave to what was going on around me.

Many thanks to James, Peter, and Jack for coming along and to the folks at Toyota/Lexus for giving James access to that sweet NX so it could join us for the drive. That about wraps it up for this weekend’s adventure. Thanks as always for coming along! Photo gallery below.

Westbound on Highway 74, following the Lexus

Peter’s E46 takes the lead

ILX spotted in the sideview mirror of the NX

Just about to start our climb from Wickenburg to Prescott

Mile marker near Yarnell on Highway 89

Quick pullout off the highway

Arrival in Prescott

Walking a few blocks to our lunch spot at Lone Spur Cafe

Lunch bunch at Lone Spur

Peter knew just the right angles to get on his wagon pictures

Lining up the cars

Beauty shot

And hey, check out this milestone I hit a few days ago! 123,456! If it had been one degree warmer, it could have almost been a perfect capture.

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Weekend Roady: Wedding in Salt Lake City, Utah

Posted in Ghost Town, ILX, Road Trip, Utah on April 20, 2015 by tysonhugie

Odometer (ILX): 123,150

Odometer (Legend): 533,182

Trip Distance: 1,454 Miles

11:10 p.m., Saturday night. Intersection of 600 West and 100 South. Dark alleyway near the train tracks. It felt like a horror movie in the making already.

I took the driver’s seat of the ILX, pushed in the clutch, and punched the “START” button. Something seemed off. The exhaust sound – it was louder than I’d anticipated. My ears were drawn to the back of the car. Slowly I turned around to look over my right shoulder. Glistening in the moonlight were hundreds of pieces of broken glass, and wide open to the outside air was my right rear window – or what used to be my window. I’d just been a victim of vandalism.

Back outside the car (with it still running and headlights now turned on), I walked around to assess any potential body damage, but didn’t find any. My next thought – was anything missing? I reached for the trunk release button and opened it up. My laptop computer and suitcase were still in there. At this point, a microscopic feeling of relief crept in. I debated about calling the police right then and there – but, what good was a police report going to do in a city 700 miles from home? I already knew I’d be out of pocket a few hundred bucks for a new window regardless.

It wasn’t until I got a few blocks away, sitting at a stop light on West Temple, that the thought dawned on me: MY WORK LAPTOP. I had two computers in the car. The second one had been sitting on the floor in its black bag behind the passenger seat of the car. Gone. At that point, mind racing, I did dial 9-1-1. The operator calmly told me I’d need to submit the police report online. So, instead of continuing on to have a good time with my friends, I went back to where I was staying and got on the SLC PD website to fulfill that action immediately. What a night.

The rest of the weekend more than made up for that horrible incident, but I will forever remember the night of April 18th and the 10-hour return drive from Salt Lake City to Phoenix with no right rear window the following day. Thankfully for most of that stretch, I was on Interstate 15 southbound with its 80 mph posted speed limits so it went by quickly.

My 1,400-mile weekend trip’s purpose was to attend the wedding reception of my cousin Kelsee who got hitched at the Salt Lake City Mormon temple. Along the way, I made a bunch of special visits that broke up the trip and made it memorable. The first place I had to check out was the teeny town of Holden, Utah off Interstate 15. I knew Holden wasn’t going to be of any great size when I saw the “NO SERVICES” sign attached to the exit sign on the offramp.

Sure enough, it’s a quaint farm town with a couple of boarded up stores and probably a higher population of livestock than human beings. The town was established in 1855 as a Mormon pioneer settlement. A sign at the entrance to town states the following about the people of this community:

Residents of Holden still radiate the enduring qualities bequeathed them by their hardy pioneering ancestors: thrift, perseverance, and a strong, abiding love of God.

My friend Chandler grew up in this community and just happened to be there, so I paid a visit to him and his family. They certainly do radiate those qualities!

At Chandler’s recommendation, I again pulled off the interstate in Scipio, Utah about 15 miles further north on the interstate. Originally settled in 1859, Scipio has never really ‘boomed’ but rather lingered in the population range from 300 to 500 people in the last 150 years. Today, the main street – “State” – has an antique store that still looks to be in business. A couple of other buildings are most decidedly NOT in business. I positioned the ILX in front of a couple abandoned gas stations for pictures. Those old pumps are my favorite.

After lunch with my dad & stepmom in Salt Lake, I visited my friend Branson and rode around his neighborhood at a whopping 10 miles per hour on a Yamaha golf cart. I also took a peek at Branson’s 164,000-mile 1995 Acura Legend LS coupe 6-speed. He takes great care of it. Branson and I originally met through a Legend enthusiast forum in 2003.

Branson and I decided to take his nieces and nephew for a mini road trip in the ILX to Herriman, about 7 miles away. There, we checked out a 2,800-square-foot home that was built in 2011 and modeled after the feature home in the 2009 Pixar movie “UP.” However, unlike the home in UP, this one didn’t levitate with balloons! It sure did stand out, though, amidst all the monochromatic, cookie cutter homes surrounding it.

Here’s what the Pixar movie house looks like:

And the real deal:

My cousin’s wedding reception was a top-notch affair at the Ivy House on 600 East in downtown Salt Lake. It was great to reconnect with friends and family members there.

The randomest thing of all was when I ran into my grandparents at a gas station in Beaver, Utah on the way home. I ended up following grandpa’s white 2000 Toyota Avalon the rest of the way to their home in St. George, about 100 miles away.

As for a conclusion to the dramatic opening story: My employer issued me a new laptop computer within 2 hours of my workday today, and my ILX goes in tomorrow morning for a $349 rear window replacement at Safelite so all will be well soon.

Thanks for coming along for the trip! A few more pictures are below.

Chandler’s family’s backyard with garden in Holden, Utah

Entrance sign to Holden at the north end of town on Main Street

Antique store on State Street in Scipio, Utah

Sign back to Interstate 15 from State Street

Another abandoned service station in Scipio

Location of that service station – intersection of State & Center

Loved this old pump

Lunch with dad & stepmom (and friend Jeremy) in Salt Lake at Cheesecake Factory

Shot of the “UP” house in Herriman

Love the Wasatch Mountains! It was a perfect weather day.

Springtime is in full swing in downtown Salt Lake. Here I was parked just outside the Ivy House reception center.

Fueling up next to mom & Todd in their 2010 Volkswagen EOS in Nephi, Utah

32 Comments »

1992 Acura NSX – 100,000 Miles Achieved

Posted in ILX, Maintenance, Milestones, NSX on April 16, 2015 by tysonhugie

Odometer (Legend): 533,180

Odometer (ILX): 121,438

I couldn’t have asked for a more fitting time or place for my 1992 Acura NSX to turn over its first 100,000 miles.

My friends and I were just finishing up an exhilarating run up southern Arizona’s Mount Lemmon, last Friday, April 10th. As the NSX odometer’s numbers crept steadily upward like digits on a Vegas slot machine in slow-motion, I watched as the “1” started peeking its way up from below. Digital odometers will never be as fun as those old “rolling” kind!

Followed closely by my Legend coupe (driven by Peter) and Legend sedan (driven by Jason), we turned west on Pecos Road from Interstate 10 as we came into the south end of the Phoenix area. Just 5 miles later, I had to pull over to the shoulder for this short video clip:

I’m a historian in every sense, so if you’ll bear with me I’ll share a little about my NSX and its life since its February 1992 date of manufacture in Japan. I’m the fourth owner of this NSX. The first owner made his purchase on September 29, 1992 and had the car for almost 5 years. The second had it for only a year. The third owner had it for over 13 years, and then I came along. I first test-drove the car on Sunday, December 11, 2011 while my friend Matt and I were in the Bay Area for a Metallica concert. It had 80,441 miles on it.

Love at first sight?

The following Saturday, December 17th, I flew back to San Jose and sealed the deal with a certified check and a handshake. The car had 10 more miles on it by then, and I drove away at 80,451 as the new proud owner. My first fuel stop was at Gas N’ Go on Blossom Hill Road in San Jose. I paid $3.65/gallon for 12 gallons of Premium and went on my way. Yes, I saved that receipt.

I listened to the Top Gun soundtrack on cassette tape (it came with the car) for a good portion of the 721-mile drive home.

I’m still in contact with all 3 prior owners. In fact, shortly after I bought the car, I snail-mailed some current pictures to its original owner, William, and he responded gratefully with the following comments:

That is indeed my NSX. I really was interested in owning one from the time they came out, but the feeding frenzy drove the prices out of reason. I drove it on the weekends and sometimes on Friday to work. I was racing Formula cars at Laguna Seca at the time, so I drove it to Monterey once a month and parked it with the Ferraris, the Porsches, and the occasional Lambo that the other racers would bring.

Its second owner, Gary, also had some fun at the very same track:

I did manage to race that car on an open track day at Monterey’s Laguna Seca racetrack and I guarantee that the weakest part of the car was the driver! How many cars have you had that can be driven through traffic jams and then spend the day racing around the track at 8000 RPM, and then step back in for a wonderful return home trip. Most of the other participants had to trailer their cars to the track and have all the spares they felt they needed to keep the car going. Two Corvettes had such brake failures that the ran into hay bales at the end of the long straight.

The day before the track day I managed to spin the car four spins while trying to enter a curving onramp near my home. Mostly because I needed to replace the Yokohama tires that really wear out too quickly and with bad grip at the rear the car really starts acting more Porsche-like and hard to handle. New Dunlops were perfect timing for the next day on the track and never again spun out the back end.

Up until that the day I picked the car up, it had lived 100% of its life in the San Francisco Bay Area. I bought the car as a 30th birthday present to myself in December 2011 and brought it to its new home in Arizona. Since then it’s been with me on a number of adventures. Here’s a lengthy post where I shared a bunch of those.

What does it cost to own and operate one of these old cars? As mentioned, I took delivery at 80,451 miles. Today, the car has 100,060. So, I’ve put on 19,609 miles and I’ve spent $2,347.14 keeping it on the road. That means it’s cost me 8 cents per mile. Keep in mind that we’re of course excluding the cost of fuel, registration, insurance, and emissions testing. This is strictly a maintenance cost.

Unlike on my Legend coupe, I don’t have “all-inclusive” records back to new on this car, but I do have quite a chunk of paperwork in a 3-ring binder that I’ve taken the time to log and that I continue to track on an ongoing basis. Here’s what I have record of on this car since it was brand new:

18 oil changes (I currently use Castrol GTX 10W30)
4 batteries
1 timing belt & water pump change (Jan 2011 @ 78,239 mi)

Aside from that, there have been various other repairs over the years. The big ticket items were a $1,700 repair due to a “snap ring” issue (common a certain subset / production run of these cars) at 37,000 miles and a $2,500 repair at 65,000 miles that included mostly brake work. Total maintenance cost on record (remember, I’m certain that I don’t have a piece of paper for everything that’s ever been done to the car) for 100,060 miles and 22 years of service is $16,498.55. That comes out to 6 cents per mile over its entire lifetime.

Here’s my detailed spreadsheet if anyone is interested in the nitty gritty.

The car currently has a few maintenance needs which I’ll be addressing prior to the NSXPO event in Palm Springs this October.

Passenger rear inner CV boot leaking
Oil pan gasket leaking
ABS pump accumulator faulty

I’m lucky to have the country’s premier NSX service & repair facility right here in my own backyard. Science of Speed in Chandler, Arizona has made a name for itself as the place to have NSX service or upgrades performed. Every time I’ve been into the shop, there are at least a half-dozen NSXs up on the lifts getting something done to them.

On the topic of milestones and maintenance:

The ILX drove 9,015 miles in the little over two months’ time between February 3rd and April 11th. It went in on Saturday for an oil change, tire rotation, and replacement of the alternator belt — a $275 service at Acura of Tempe. It sure is nice being able to go three times as far on an oil change in the ILX than I was used to doing in my Legend.

I took a quick shot of “old” and “new” ILXs on my way out. You can see the subtle differences in the rear bumper and the taillights between the 2013 and the 2016 models.

Cheers!

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Cruising Arizona’s “Catalina Highway” in 5 Performance Hondas

Posted in Arizona, Legend, NSX, Road Trip on April 12, 2015 by tysonhugie

Odometer (Legend Coupe): 533,178

Odometer (Legend Sedan): 146,723

Odometer (ILX): 121,263

Odometer (NSX): 100,060

Trip Distance: 307 Miles

Remember when car keys keys looked like this?

Honda Heaven. That’s what I experienced on Friday.

Most days at the office, I’m trudging through incoming email volume from 150-250 messages during my 9-hours at my desk. But every once in awhile, an escape from that harsh reality is just what the doctor ordered. Accompanied by 6 car-enthusiast friends (including James from Six Speed Blog and Jason from Driven for Drives), I headed for the sunny mountain roads of southern Arizona in search of what I’d call “automotive therapy.” Three hundred miles later, I wore a grin of contentment that clearly reassured me: that drive was totally what I needed.

Our special guest on this particular excursion was author Steve Lynch, pictured above. I first met Steve through a group of automotive journalists called Phoenix Automotive Press Association (PAPA) a number of months ago. He and I attended a roundtable discussion at the Phoenix Art Museum that centered around “how to write a book.” As it turns out, Steve is an expert on such matters as he is a published author. His 1997 book Arrogance and Accords details some of the inner dealings at Honda during the early 1990s when he was employed there. He later went on to spend 17 years working in Finance for Mercedes-Benz and currently writes for an automotive blog called The Truth About Cars.

Naturally, when I saw Steve pull up to a later PAPA event in his eye-catching Rio Yellow 2008 Honda S2000, I had to pick his brain a little more. We ended up deciding to coordinate a drive/story. And that’s what you’re here to see today.

The Catalina Highway which ascends Mount Lemmon just north of Tucson, Arizona is one of my favorite stretches of highway and I’ve talked about it a few times in the past on this blog, including August 2012 after I’d recently taken delivery of the ILX, and November 2013 when I took a 2014 Acura RLX there to review it. The thirty miles from the base of the highway near Tanque Verde Road to the summit at Summerhaven are full of twists and turns, and it’s only fitting that we equipped ourselves with automobiles that were up to the task. Here were our contenders for our Friday fun-day:

1992 Acura NSX 5-speed
1993 Acura NSX 5-speed
1994 Acura Legend LS Coupe 6-speed
1994 Acura Legend GS Sedan 6-speed
2008 Honda S2000 6-speed

Departing from the Phoenix area, the first 100+ miles of our drive were relatively mundane interstate commuting on Loop 101, Loop 202, and Interstate 10. I led the pack in the Legend coupe and set the pace for our 4-car caravan. After dealing with some heavy construction traffic on Grant Road in Tucson, we finally made it to our meeting spot with Steve who was already snapping pictures.

Steve had scoped out the drive route to Summerhaven beforehand – even going so far as to plan out a few potential stopping points along the way. The first was at Seven Cataracts, about halfway up – a dramatic overlook of the valley below with ample parking space which we had entirely to ourselves. The higher in elevation we got, the more pronounced the smell of fresh pine trees became. The temperatures and light breeze as we got to 6,000 and 7,000 feet made it the perfect weather for windows-down (or top down!) weather. We rowed our 5 manual-gearbox Honda & Acura cars to the 8,200-foot summit and then paused for a patio lunch session at a restaurant called Sawmill.

From there, it was time to play what we liked to call “musical cars.” Keys got tossed around. We looped back to Seven Cataracts as a way to give people the chance to car-swap and experience the other vehicles on the roster. While slow-moving traffic did at times slow our pace and we were mindful of the need to watch for bicyclists and the local sheriff, we still had enough chances to let our engines breathe at higher RPM and give our suspensions a workout. At the end of the day, we nodded our heads in agreement that there was certainly no “best” car of the bunch. Each one had its merits and its drawbacks. But there are certainly things that stood out from my driving impressions that I’ll share (and similarly, Jason and Steve will also be posting on their respective sites).

The 1992 NSX is what I can best describe as a “raw” driving experience. There’s no power steering so it’s heavy at slower speeds but undeniably direct and responsive once you get rolling. Body roll is nearly non-existent and there is nothing quite like hearing the roar of VTEC from behind your head when climbing the grades. It’s a challenge to get in & out of the low car without a bit of a strain. This car rolled 100,000 miles on the way back to Phoenix later in the afternoon. You’ll see a feature story on that soon.

Kelvin’s 1993 NSX is mechanically identical to my 1992 but has a different shift knob which I loved and a performance exhaust system that really gave the 270-horsepower 3.0 motor a nice growl. Kelvin’s got me thinking about exhaust systems now! At 144,000 miles, the car still drove as tightly as mine does at 100,000.

The 1994 Legend coupe must still have a few of its original elderly 230 horses alive, because the car was still able to easily pull itself up to the summit without a ton of downshifting. It’s a torquey motor and still sounds and acts healthy. The suspension on the car is original (and very noticeably so). While the ride is comfortable and quiet, the amount of body roll is excessive and the car exhibits understeer extreme when pushed in the corners. Steering feels overly assisted for a performance driving environment.

My 1994 Legend sedan was only driven 278 miles from last July to December. It sits in a storage garage and comes out once every few weeks for a walk around the block. This 300-mile drive was good for the car, I’m sure. I noticed a light puff of blue smoke when Jason fired it up at the beginning of the day – I suspect there is a valve stem issue brewing. But that Legend sedan became an all-day crowd pleaser. Everyone talked about how comfy the seats were and how smooth the clutch and gearbox were. The car is equipped with a Stromung exhaust system that Jason said did “drone” on the interstate a bit, but was fun to have on the mountain roads.

Steve’s 2008 S2000 was just as fun as could be. From the moment I hit that START button on the dashboard I knew there were good times ahead. Despite having the smallest motor in the group – only a 4-cylinder – it had 7 more horsepower than the Legends. Handling is light and the car can be “tossed” in any direction effortlessly. It’s a riot to let the motor rev into the higher range. Finally, there is simply no substitute for the feel of a top-down convertible on a perfect springtime day. I loved every second of it.

The takeaway from all of this – and something I think that Steve will convey in his upcoming article – is that these cars embody how it’s possible to inject a fun-to-drive demeanor and a healthy dose of performance into a car that is still comfortable enough to drive every day. Honda has always been good at this. Still, we all agreed, the company has been in a bit of a rut in this regard. Sure – the new NSX will hit the sales floors later this year, but most of us will probably never afford one. And the newly-announced Civic Type R will make a nice machine. But where is today’s Acura Legend coupe or today’s Acura RSX? Give me a fun-to-drive luxury sports coupe that is actually within financial reason. That’s all I’m asking. And to the Honda corporate folks who I know follow my blog, that’s my plea.

Many thanks to my awesome friends for coming along on this trip, and especially to Beau from The Shutter Co for sharing his professional photography skills. It’s thanks to him that we got most of the great shots featured herein.

Kelvin & Tyson – dressed for the occasion with our matching Formula Red twins

The 2015 Lexus RC350 was driven by James and acted as our photo/chase car. Thanks for bringing it!

Rolling shot of the Legend coupe

Pit stop at Seven Cataracts

Steve’s S2000 was blinding in the sunlight.

Nothing like seeing two Acura NSXs in your sideview mirror.

Lineup at one of the lookouts

Jason seemed to enjoy his time behind the wheel

James and Tyson at lunch

Making our descent

Mile marker near Windy Point lookout on Catalina Highway

Heading out again, this time as a passenger in the S2000

Following my Legend sedan back down the hill

Legend sedan

Stretching our legs along the roadside

Met up with Zac of Baker Brothers Garage back in Tucson

Group shot. Kelvin had already departed but this was everyone else!

Tyson, James, Steve, Beau, Jason, and Peter. Thanks guys!

19 Comments »

Easter Weekend Road Trip: Family Shuttle to Palm Springs, California

Posted in California, ILX, Road Trip on April 6, 2015 by tysonhugie

Odometer (Legend): 532,850

Odometer (ILX): 120,919

Trip Distance: 1,619 Miles

I got home from work this afternoon and found a package in the mailbox addressed to “The Road Trip King.”

Thanks, Alex, for sharing that awesome “AQRA” Illinois Route 66 plate! I have some of the coolest friends!

As much as I enjoy my solo time on the open road, I always welcome the chance to have a road trip companion (or three). This time, my car transported some very important cargo, including my mom, my grandmother, and my aunt.

My overall drive consisted of four roughly 400-mile-each stretches of road: Phoenix to St. George, Utah; St. George to Joshua Tree, California; Palm Springs to St. George; and then returning home to Phoenix. It seems that Palm Springs has been on my frequent destination list lately. I was just there a couple of months ago for a visit to Thermal Raceway as part of our NSXPO 2015 planning activities. This time, the purpose of our trip was to attend a surprise birthday party for my grandma’s brother, Reo. The first part of my journey was the drive up Highway 89 from Flagstaff on Thursday night.

By midday on Friday, I’d picked up my 3 fellow road trippers and we hit the highway, headed for southern California by way of Las Vegas, Nevada. As soon as we exited at Nipton Road on Interstate 15 southbound after crossing into the California state line, I knew we were in for a roller coaster ride. For the next 75 or so miles, the Morning Star Mine Road took us through the Mojave National Preserve (the same route a friend and I took last November).

While the desert was a beautiful place to be, it’s also a very rugged and dangerous environment to be because of the extreme weather and remote location. Luckily the temperatures were friendly to us. Road conditions, however, were less than optimal. There were potholes the size of manhole covers and at least 6-8” deep. We definitely smacked a few of those at 55-65 miles per hour and felt the impact.

After we had driven through the desolate towns of Cima, Kelso, and Amboy, we started closing in on the community of Twentynine Palms, named for the trees found there by Colonel Henry Washington in 1852 while completing a survey of the area. Aunt Jodi piped up from the backseat. “Look, there’s one of those homestead shacks I was telling you guys about!” Sure enough, it was time for a history lesson and a prime opportunity for a pit stop.

As it turns out, in this “Wonder Valley” region of the Mojave Desert, there are hundreds of teeny homes that dot the landscape. And by teeny, I mean they’re typically no larger than a one-room, 12-foot-long rectangle. These structures started springing up around 1938 when a homestead act was put into place, granting up to 5 acres of land to settlers in exchange for just being willing to build a structure on the property. Very few of them have endured the test of time. In fact, probably 9 out of 10 have crumbled to nothing more than a few walls and a caved-in rooftop. Here’s a very interesting article from 2004 in the Los Angeles Times about the history and fate of some of these homes. We stopped to get an inside look at one of them.

Our evening was spent watching the sunset from the second-floor balcony of the High Desert Lodge on Twentynine Palms Highway after a delicious chicken enchilada dinner at Mi Casita Nueva Mexican Restaurant down the road.

The next morning, we had places to go and people to see. Right off the bat, a special occasion took place on Highway 62 through Morongo Valley: My ILX rolled 120,000 miles.

We took Indian Canyon Road on into Palm Springs for a hearty breakfast at “Bit of Country.” After a quick visit to friends Scott & Sandy, it was time for the grand event: My grandma’s brother Reo’s surprise 85th birthday party. All of our time in the car was made worthwhile in the space of just this one-minute video clip:

After enjoying several hours of food, family, and friends, it was time to set sail yet again. For the return leg of the trip, instead of going through the Mojave Preserve we opted to take interstates 10, 210, 215, and 15, which would take us a bit longer distance-wise but would probably be just as fast as the back roads.

The last stop on our adventure was in a teeny town on the outskirts of Death Valley National Park called Baker, California. There’s not much to see in Baker aside from its 134-foot-tall thermometer — the largest in the world. The thermometer’s height is symbolic of the record 134-degree Fahrenheit temperature recorded in nearby Death Valley in 1913. The structure was built in 1991 and restored in 2014.

What makes the Baker thermometer even more special to me was that it was the first place I ever did a “photoshoot” of my 1994 Legend coupe on the day that I bought it: March 26, 2003.

Sunday morning’s Easter egg hunt with the kids was a hoot, and after that it was back to the road for my return leg to Phoenix.

Hope everyone enjoyed the weekend as much as I did!

Climbing out of one of the homestead houses in Wonder Valley

Morning in Joshua Tree, California

Arrival at the birthday party

Nephew Rex doing some Easter egg hunting

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Road Trip to Dallas Part 2: “Maple & Motor” Legend Lunch

Posted in Legend, Reader's Ride on April 2, 2015 by tysonhugie

Odometer (Legend): 532,846

Odometer (ILX): 119,147

Among the many highlights of my 2,205-mile drive to Dallas, Texas and back this past weekend, I wanted to devote a special blog entry to an event that was especially fun for me.

Having been a part of the online “Acura geek” community for over a decade now, I’ve done my fair share of networking. Today, I have car-enthusiast friends in every major city in the country. When I started putting together my plans to visit Texas, one of the first things I did was reach out to a few folks there to see if they’d be interested in meeting up. Turns out, they were. And they did.

TJ drove all the way from Houston for our lunch meet-up, and Marc came from Austin. Each of them had a 3+ hour one-way drive. Now that’s dedication! Our venue of choice was a renowned burger joint on Maple Avenue in Dallas called Maple & Motor. It’s a former gas station which was turned into a restaurant and it has received multiple awards including a feature on Diners, Drive-Ins, & Dives. Its motto is “Low Class Cool.”

Seating was tight and the lunchtime crowd was bustling, but we were able to find a table fairly quickly for our party of 7 while we enjoyed a few minutes of car talk and delicious tater tots. Pictured here from left to right are Marc, Tyson, Lance (Escalade), Scott (GS350), Blake, and TJ. Yes, we let a couple non-Legend people join us because they’re still fans. And thanks to Amanda for taking the picture.

Here’s a little about the Acuras in our party. First off, this is Blake’s 1994 Legend LS coupe 6-speed. It was the first Milano Red LS coupe 6-speed on the production line that year. His car was the 805th Legend coupe built overall for the 1994 model year, and rolled off the line just 27 cars before mine.

It’s nearly broken in at just over 1/4 million miles on the odometer, but you wouldn’t know it by taking a test drive. During my short spin around the block, I was impressed with its pick-up.

This powerplant is 3.5 liter V6 with a performance air intake system and other upgrades. Blake has installed a custom Stromung exhaust system which gives the car a nice growl.

This showroom-fresh example is Marc’s Granada Black 1994 LS Automatic with special options like the OEM gold grille/emblems, chrome wheels, and spoiler.

Marc recently snagged this gem from a California dealership and had it shipped sight-unseen to Texas. He has no regrets, and it’s a stunning example. It has traveled just 128,000 miles since new. I took a drive in this one, too, and it felt like going back in time two decades. It even smells great.