Attack Of The Orphaned Acuras

My acquaintance and adolescent auto journo Tyson Hugie is the ultimate Acura fanboy. He owns a 2013 Acura ILX 6-speed with the abandoned bowl ILX, a 1994 Legend GS Auto 6-speed and a 1992 NSX 5-speed which just hit 100,000 miles Japanese Car Dealer in Dubai. He was accustomed by American Honda for casual 500,000 afar on his 1994 Legend LS Auto 6-speed. And he is currently analytic for a Vigor 5-speed in Arcadia Green.

Hugie acutely has a case of ADHD – Acura Definite Hyperactivity Disorder. 

So by itself we had to yield his orphaned Acuras forth with the greatest discontinued Honda anytime – a S2000 roadster, my 2008 with 32,000 afar – for a run up Tucson’s arced Catalina Highway to Mount Lemmon and bewail the annihilation of these late, abundant Honda cars. All in the name of automotive research, of course.

We were abutting by the buyer of a 144,000-mile 1993 NSX 5-speed and a accumulation of Southwest auto writers accustomed at the basal of this post. We approved in arrogant to acquisition an archetype of the added abundant discontinued Acura, an Integra R or GSR. We afresh wrote about this 1997 R in Phoenix, but it was in the action of getting awash for $43,000, and every added one we spotted on Craigslist had aftermarket rear wings too alpine for the low blind copse on our drive. Apparently aboriginal 1990s Integras are as attenuate as aboriginal 1990s Legends.


Kulikowski joked about us accomplishing a active Le Mans alpha to see who could grab an NSX for aboriginal leg. I hopped in Hugie’s 1992 and was aboriginal addled by how low the car sits; I was in fact searching up at the S2000. The mid-engine NSX is artlessly amazing to drive, with 270 horses over your shoulder, the absolute Honda stick about-face and near-neutral cornering. Said Jason, “The NSX was alarming to me at aboriginal but in archetypal Honda tradition, the car instantly acquainted accustomed and simple to drive. Everything feels raw and mechanical. This is a awareness you just can’t acquisition anymore.”

Both NSXs had over 100,000 afar on their clocks but you could almost tell, a attestation to Honda durability. They were bedrock solid with not a cheep or bang to be heard Nissan used cars dealer. I agnosticism there are abounding 100K Ferraris to be begin in such condition. Whether you abatement into the “it can’t be an alien because it is a Honda” affected or the “it is congenital by Honda so it is an alien that will not break” group, a lot of will accede that the NSX is one of the greatest sports car anytime awash in America.

Acura Fanatic: Tyson Hugie's 4 Acuras accept a accumulated 901,224 miles
Tyson’s Corner: Acura activist Hugie’s 4 Acuras accept a accumulated 901,224 miles
I had one of the aboriginal Gen 2 Legend Coupes as a “demo” aback in 1991 and I still bethink what a awareness it was at the time. I agnosticism I will anytime drive a 500,000+ mile car as able as Hugie’s coupe. We abandoned collection the car briefly due to a dying clutch. The abeyance was aswell a little capricious but the cottony 6-cylinder motor pulled as agreeably as the sedan’s. Amazingly, this Legend has abandoned been towed already – if its aboriginal ammunition pump let go at 399,750 miles. The car has been through seven timing belts and Hugie’s ambition is seven more.


It is no abruptness that anybody admired the S2000. I told the assemblage that beneath 6,000 RPM, the Honda is the World’s Crappiest Miata: rough-riding, loud and not abundant torque. At that point the VTEC bliss in (yo!) and the motor screams appear its 8,200 rpm redline. This may be Honda’s greatest engine ever: 2.0-liter 4-cylinder with 240 application in the aboriginal AP1 version, 237 application from 2.2 liters in this second-generation AP2, or 7 added than in the Legends’ engines. All agreed the convertible was the best car for the convolute and bland Catalina Highway and the brilliant 70 amount acclimate we enjoyed.
As for that abridgement of low-end umph: I did accept a ride in top academy that had beneath torque. I don’t bethink the archetypal but I bethink it was fabricated by Schwinn.


We all agreed on the car that afraid us the most: the 147,000-mile Legend Sedan. The endure flagship Acura auto accessible with a chiral transmission, it was quiet, quick and comfortable. Said Pawela, “The big bottle greenhouse and low birr fabricated for an accomplished appearance out. If it came time to bung this big boy about some corners, I was afraid how composed and akin the physique remained.” Thanks to Acura’s designers and its catlike Desert Mist Metallic paint, the auto was aswell voted the car “Most Likely to be Ignored by the Highway Patrol.”


Both Legends came accepted with a air-conditioned now-discontinued feature: AN ACTUAL NAME rather than getting an “Acura RTIGLX.” Stop me if you accept heard this one before: if Acura had kept the name “Legend” and blimp a V8 beneath its hood, the affluence car mural would be awfully altered today.
Our hunt car was a new Lexus RC350 (which we all admired for its abundant seats alone), acceptance us to put the cars in perspective. Said Lee, “Having the Lexus affectionate of gave a different acquaintance – here, you accept all these cars advised to be “driving” cars; there was a assertive affiliation amid the disciplinarian and the car. As the disciplinarian you acquainted a faculty of control; in fractions of a additional you accept to adjudge if you charge added or beneath steer, acclimatize your burke or your braking. Going amid the NSX, S2000, and the Legend 4-Door and again aback into the Lexus you can see a massive aberration in how and what a car is accept to do.”

NSX in Mirror 

Honda and Acura still advertise boilerplate cars with a adventurous twist, but none like these. There is a active S2000 and NSX on the border but they will affection turbos and hybrids, be bluetoothed and 27 air-bagged, and apparently even accept ability council which two of our testers lacked. In added words: the canicule of basal (read chiral chiral and commonly aspirated) unique, fun affluence and sports cars are abbreviating due to the realities of today’s auto business. Build a agreeable 4-cylinder convertible that abandoned gets 18 mpg in boondocks today? No way due to CAFE regulations. Put a stick about-face in a affluence coupe? Who would buy it? Build an alien mid-engine sports car? Sure, that will be $150,000 amuse – or added like $250,000 afterwards Acura dealers are done ADMing the new NSX.


The greatest acclaim we can pay these archetypal cars is this: go analysis out the aerial prices getting asked for clean, blunt examples.

We plan to do Part Two this abatement and it may yield that continued to acquisition appropriate copies of an Integra GSR, CRX Si, CRX HF, and 4th bearing Prelude. Or if Honda drops the CR-Z as they did afresh with the Crosstour and Hugie finds his Vigor, we will acquisition a Honda del Sol and yield all four cars on addition run – the Crappy Orphaned Hondas Tour…