Visiting the Honda/Acura collection in Torrance, CA

Click each picture for full size.

A few months ago, I submitted a story for "My Historic Acura" through Acura's facebook page, and was delighted when the email arrived saying that my story had been chosen and I was invited to tour Acura's private collection in Southern California. Perfect excuse for a road trip...

First order of business: mounting up my new license plate!


Now, my car lives at mom's house for the time being (much cheaper to insure it there - way less theft in her ZIP code...) which means it gets quite dusty and does not get driven. So, before I could leave for my big trip I had to ask mom for her keys so that I could jump my car from hers...



Also unpacked and mounted up my brand new V1! Also visible is the GPS puck that allows the police scanner to retune itself automagically as I drive along...


Did not get any pics en route, unfortunately, seeing as I was alone and concerned with getting there quite quickly...

First stop in SoCal was dinner at Amalfi's... rolled in at 10:38pm, the valet parked me out front, and I scarfed down some pumpkin ravioli before the kitchen closed at 11.


Those of you who are familiar with Adam Carolla know that this is his restaurant, and as such they serve his signature drink, Mangria. It's sangria, for men.


Checked into my hotel and SLEPT.


Next morning, I went out to the parking lot and found a PHOEN$X! He had arrived at 1am, about 1.5 hours after I did.




A quick breakfast and we were off to the collection site!




Mr. Honda himself wrote, "Dream"





This is the car that MotorTrend borrowed for their Head2Head video against the Lexus LFA. It has 82k miles on it, totally stock and runs perfectly. It was purchased from a private owner and lives in the collection when not being abused by automotive journalists. They expect to use it a lot in promotion for the new NSX.




Zanardi C32





RTR race car





Their other NSX, an 05 Red/Tan with 78 (yes, 78, not 78k) miles on it. Purchased direct from the factory as a promo car.



Yellow ITR with 3900 miles on it. Purchased direct from the factory.



Lots of other historic Hondas and Acuras.




Our awesome tour guide, Dave. He is the curator of the collection and has worked at American Honda for 29 years, now serving as VP of something marketing-related (I forgot exactly what it was)










The first-ever Civic Si!





The Honda 50 bike




What a great poster. Wish I could get this one for my garage:







A Honda employee-build and owned race car based on an old Civic.




A recently-victorious Acura race car:







FCX Clarity





Telling the story of the introduction of the iconic Acura logo at the same time as the NSX in 1990. Turns out the NSX was almost named the Acura Bruno - can you imagine? It was an attempt to emulate the very dramatic Italian-sounding names used by Ferrari, etc. However, the NS-X lettering on the prototypes that were running around the car show circuit was so popular that the name stuck.




MORE coming...

A CLEAN Legend. Can you believe how hard these are to find now?



More ITR porn






Ultra rare fully Mugen'd CRX



Not one, not two, but three CRX's. They have a fourth in storage.


Super odd concept car.



Bikes







CRX HF wall plaque



Insight



Panorama


Race cars panorama


More Insight




More race cars








ITR interior



C32 from above



More pano


Then it was time for fan interviews! Kelvin got to go first. They shot him in front of the red 91 NSX, of course.



Two short hours later... already time to go!


Before heading home, we popped down the road to the (fairly inconspicuous) main building of American Honda HQ. Had to get a picture of the cars with the mother ship...

This was right when people were leaving for their lunch breaks, so we got lots of positive comments on the cars from current Honda employees which was very nice.




We popped inside the lobby as well. They have a little model of their campus in the lobby!








And that was my trip! Barreled up 101 to Santa Barbara for lunch, and was home in time for dinner.

What a great escape. I really enjoyed meeting the folks at American Honda, and I now have a lot of trust that everyone, at every level of the company has their heart in the right place with regard to the new NSX. The goal, apparently, is to have it run around the mid-Ohio track, in public, right before one of the Indy car races THIS YEAR. Suspension tuning is said to be well under way and the interior nearing completion. Isn't that awesome?

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Honda - The Power of Dreams...

Great write-up, Ben! It was a pleasure to meet you and check out your midnight pearl NSX in person. That color is stunning!

The Honda/Acura social media team rolled out the carpet for us, and it was totally worth the drive to check out the neat cars in this private museum! My good friend Don (nsxter) decided to ride up with me, and it made for a fun road trip. Here are some of my pics.

Arriving at our hotel around 1:30am




Don with the NSXs at the private Honda/Acura Collection Hall tour


1979 Prelude interior - truly advanced for its time.


Close up of Honda's first bike sold in the US


A couple of my favorite Honda race cars there














The VIN of the 91 NSX used by Motor Trend in its famous head 2 head comparison against the LFA.






I got to sit in the 1991 NSX - totally made my day!


I also got to sit in the 2005 NSX, but alas, I forgot to take a photo of the VIN or the odometer.


Some concept cars
































I let one of the other attendees, Jason (a mechanical engineering student, like I used to be) take my NSX out for a test drive, and he loved it!


Ben and I


Jason and I


Ben getting directions from a woman, we had to give him grief for that.


Our NSXs in front of Honda's headquarters in Torrance.

Cool pics guys. Thanks.

I hope that one day I will be able to see this place. Thanks for the pictures!

Fantastic pictures, I never get bored of seeing them and always seem to see something new when I browse pics of the collection. They should have more NSX 's IMO. I never knew they had a Zanardi engine in there, I now know where to go god forbid I ever blew mine.

Wow! thanks for sharing guys. Looks like an amazing experience.

Nice! Thanks for sharing

I give up! What does your license plate mean, bngl3rt?

Mine is the world's easiest.



I want to thank you for your thread and all the photos. Thank you. I was too busy/lazy to write a story and missed out on that event, so I really appreciate your thread. I live about a hour from Honda in Torrance. I don't see the places close by but will fly to others.

Hello and thank you, Kelvin, for your photos and post, too. We met at South Coast Acura a while back, in Costa Mesa.

Kyras said:

I give up! What does your license plate mean, bngl3rt?

Click to expand...

Friends call me "Benglert" :wink:

Nice pics. I just sold my 93 Red 2 dr Legend for $3K. I should have kept her.

Love the T shirt Kelvin! Great pics, Would love to visit there.

Looks like an awesome trip! Im totally jealous.

What were you guys being interviewed for?

Viper Driver said:

What were you guys being interviewed for?

Click to expand...

They made us promise not to tell anyone, under penelty of death...........

but, ssshhhh..... maybe they won the first two new NSX's delivered to the US.


oops....I cant keep a secret for a couple of days....

Kyras said:

We met at South Coast Acura a while back, in Costa Mesa.

Click to expand...

Patty, I remember you, your beautiful LBBP NSX, and your delicious brownies! I wish we could have taken more time to stick around and maybe meet up with some SoCal NSXers. Next time!

nsxter said:

They made us promise not to tell anyone, under penelty of death...........

but, ssshhhh..... maybe they won the first two new NSX's delivered to the US.


oops....I cant keep a secret for a couple of days....

Click to expand...

LOL, Don. We get to be the first to drive the new NSX! Woot! :wink:

I think the Honda/Acura social media team were making a promo for their social network channels. They asked me about my t-shirt, so I got to plug Prime and the vendors here. :biggrin:

Thank you for sharing the trip and pic. Hopefully one day I can visit that place.

That's terrific - its like a visit to the mothership! What a great adventure. Love the Mangria.

Couple Q's:

1) I was under the impression that Cunningham's 1991 VIN 2 was stripped of all its race components (only one rear fender that hadn't been replaced since new) and sent back to Japan after they were done in the Challenge series T1 class. Is that his actual car? If so, Andrew at Realtime has some explaining to do.

2) The Spice car isn't the same as the one from Comptech - was there more than one?

Nice pictures

I wanna live in there ! lol

great story and photos - thanks for sharing!

Well done thank you everyone I thoroughly enjoyed it thank you...Bill

I dont know how I'm just now seeing this.. great post and photos.. many thanks. Every time I see the RTR ITR's and NSX I get happy...

Bump....

Awesome pics!!! Thanks guys!!!

Hope to go with the so cal group soon....

No HSC???:frown:

Would love to see that bad boy...wish they made that sucker

[A

Awesome plate.

Kyras said:

I give up! What does your license plate mean, bngl3rt?

Mine is the world's easiest.



I want to thank you for your thread and all the photos. Thank you. I was too busy/lazy to write a story and missed out on that event, so I really appreciate your thread. I live about a hour from Honda in Torrance. I don't see the places close by but will fly to others.

Hello and thank you, Kelvin, for your photos and post, too. We met at South Coast Acura a while back, in Costa Mesa.

Click to expand...

Love, love, love that PY ITR!