Again in 2006, I did a really uncommon factor: I ordered an Acura. Whereas ordering your automotive is at all times uncommon on this nation, doing so for an Acura (or Honda) is even stranger given how few mixtures of coloration and choices there are. The possibilities of discovering what you need at a supplier are excessive. Regardless of the chances, although, I wanted to order my 2006 Acura TSX with the mix of Arctic Blue paint, touchscreen navigation and, crucially, the six-speed handbook transmission. Three months later, it was within the driveway.
Fifteen months later, nevertheless, it was out of the driveway. I had simply acquired my dream job as an automotive journalist and now not wanted a every day driver. The TSX would simply be accumulating mud and depreciation down in a storage, I hadn’t precisely grown connected to it after so little time, and it definitely didn’t seem to be a collectible automotive to hold onto for posterity. After months of attempting to promote it (seems all these sellers had been on to one thing with their stock builds), a pleasant younger man named Chanc flew to Los Angeles with a examine in hand. I took off my RIZ plates, he slid that handbook transmission into first, and off my TSX went to its new residence in Utah by no means to be heard or seen from once more.
Till Christmas Eve of final yr. Whereas having fun with an egg nog, I pulled out my cellphone to search out I used to be tagged within the beneath Instagram submit by somebody named Tyson Hugie. It took me a second to course of what I used to be seeing: someone handing over keys to an Arctic Blue Acura TSX with a pink bow on high. “Wait, what?” I exclaimed.
“I’m an Acura model aficionado, some name me an addict,” Hugie defined to me on an episode of the Autoblog Podcast recorded within the TSX itself. That’s placing it flippantly, and it’s an habit that’s resulted in fairly the next on Instagram and YouTube, the place he paperwork his assortment/initiatives.
“I’ve been a fan of Honda and Acura merchandise for the reason that late ‘90s. Each time I come throughout a very uncommon mannequin, it form of stays with me a very long time.”
His accumulating began again in 2011 after Acura threw a red-carpet celebration for him, and extra notably, the Acura Legend he owned that rolled over 500,000 miles. It has since crested 585,400. Practically 30 different Acuras and Hondas have come, gone and stayed alongside it in Hugie’s storage since then. The checklist of automobiles that resided there in some unspecified time in the future in 2022 alone is form of awe-inspiring: a ’92 NSX, two Integras (a ’92 GS-R and ’89 LS 5-Door), 5 Legends (’88 and ’94 Sedan and ’90, ’94, ’95 Coupes), an’02 RSX Sort-S, a ’96 SLX (look it up children), an ’07 TL Sort S, a ’21 TLX Sort S, an ’89 Prelude Si and an ’04 S2000. Oh, and a 2006 Acura TSX 6-Pace in Arctic Blue.
“My brother had a classmate from southern Utah who I knew had a blue 2006 TSX six-speed handbook,” Hugie mentioned. “That automotive was one I’ve at all times had on my guidelines at the back of my thoughts. How cool is that coloration? You by no means see them.”
He first noticed it in 2013 whereas passing by means of southern Utah, in that ’92 NSX no much less.
“The TSX nonetheless seemed fairly darn good. It was solely seven years previous at a time,” Hugie continued. “However the next decade wasn’t as pleasant to it. (Chanc) ended up shopping for an EV as his every day driver; the TSX was relegated to aspect parking at his home, and the solar in southern Utah was not pleasant to it. The paint acquired completely destroyed. I don’t suppose the automotive was as actively exercised as a lot, in order that contributed some deterioration as properly.”
This positively isn’t the one TSX on the market with paint that appears like this. In actual fact, it’s extra the rule than the exception. To be frank, Honda and Acura paint, at the least from this period and earlier, wasn’t precisely the most effective.
“I used to be after Chanc to let me give this automotive residence,” Hugie mentioned. “I knew full properly that this automotive was a uncommon spec to start with, and I feel there’s at all times some heartstrings being tugged at that this automotive deserved higher than to ultimately simply be on Craigslist bought to some faculty child who’d run it into the bottom.”
He lastly pried the TSX out of Chanc’s palms final December with 187,673 miles on the clock, which is, after all, after I was alerted to “my” TSX’s continued existence. Though I used to be by no means particularly connected to it, I couldn’t have been happier that Chanc had loved it a lot over time and nonetheless had it. That it might proceed to stay on with Hugie or whomever he ultimately sells it to is even higher. I’m certain most of you studying this could equally like to know that an previous automotive pal was nonetheless being cared for as an alternative of being abused or rotting away in some junkyard awaiting a photoshoot by Murilee Martin.
The story doesn’t finish there, nevertheless. There was work to be carried out. First issues on the guidelines had been fundamental security gadgets: tires, brakes and fluids. Finally, he would change each headlight assemblies and fog lamps, the clutch, battery and brake pedal pads, plus resurface the flywheel. He even discovered new OEM ground mats. The large-ticket merchandise, nevertheless, and an important, was the physique work, which despatched the automotive to Apex Moist Werks in Phoenix for 2 months. That included a full repaint of the Arctic Blue Pearl, plus the addition of a decklid spoiler and uncommon European Accord R physique package. Oh, and the deletion of the window tint I had dealer-installed.
“All the pieces else is ‘as James drove it off the showroom ground’” Hugie mentioned.
Nicely, I’d be the decide of that, as a result of because it turned out, Hugie and I’d each be crossing paths on the Acura Integra Sort S first drive occasion in early June. As if letting me know any of this was occurring wasn’t good sufficient, he drove the TSX out to Ojai, Calif., and left the keys with me for a reunion weekend. I do know, proper, how cool is that this man?
The inside might be probably the most spectacular factor. Whereas fading paint is usually out of the management of a automotive’s proprietor, the inside situation can positively be managed, and Chanc did an amazing job over time. Other than some anticipated utilization put on on the driving force seat aspect bolster, the flip sign and steel shift knob topper, I’m not exaggerating after I say the inside appears precisely the identical. All the pieces works, too, together with that navigation system I ordered. It acquired me the place I wanted to go and was simply as straightforward to program as at all times – I even remembered the precise sequence of instructions to rapidly enter a vacation spot with the voice instructions.
I finally selected that choice for the touchscreen and improved performance it added, although, particularly for a newfangled automotive characteristic I had not too long ago fallen in love with: satellite tv for pc radio. The display screen concurrently reveals six presets and tune data – precisely correctly, if solely as we speak’s automotive makers didn’t hold attempting to reinvent what Acura discovered practically 20 years in the past. Positive, the graphics are extraordinarily dated, however not like most navi-equipped automobiles from this period, it nonetheless advantages the automotive. The display screen dimension and accompanying management structure are additionally fairly much like what you’d discover in automobiles as we speak. Seems the TSX inside was forward of its time.
The driving expertise is extra of its time. True, after about 189,000 miles, this TSX’s 2.0-liter naturally aspirated inline-four is a testomony to Honda engineering. It sounds and runs precisely the identical, zinging as much as its 7,100-rpm redline. That additionally means it jogged my memory that this was the automotive that made me understand I desire automobiles with numerous torque. This automotive has little or no: 164 pound-feet at 4,500 rpm. Its 205 horsepower is achieved at 7,000 rpm. By comparability, as we speak’s turbocharged Integra produces 200 hp at 6,000 and, crucially, 192 lb-ft at 1,800 by means of to five,000 rpm. In different phrases, you must wring the TSX’s neck, which is nice for noise and encourages you to row the oh-so-sweet six-speed handbook transmission that myself, Chanc and Tyson all went out of our approach to get.
You’ve in all probability learn some description of as we speak’s Honda and Acura manuals, and I let you know, these gearboxes all really feel descended from this one. Bear in mind, I drove the TSX back-to-back with the brand-spanking-new Integra Sort-S. I’ve additionally pushed Honda/Acuras from earlier than the first-gen TSX, in addition to the up to date TL’s six-speed handbook, and none are like this one.
“This Ok24, Japanese-built platform with the handbook is one in every of Honda’s most crowning achievements,” Hugie mentioned, as a result of he positively is aware of greater than I do on the topic. “If they might promote this automotive because the Accord in Europe, which they did, you already know they’d a variety of religion in it. As a result of that nameplate carries a lot weight.”
Now, regardless of all the work carried out up to now, there’s positively work left to be carried out. The brakes are a bit mushy, and the entrance suspension is fairly knackered – I wouldn’t be shocked if the shocks want changing on the very least. It’s clearly been 17 years since I drove it final, however the damping has been lowered and I’d swear the steering used to have much less play on-center. The alignment’s positively off.
All of that’s fixable, although. That’s what time and, properly, extra money thrown at it are for.
“I like to purchase and restore automobiles that most individuals wouldn’t bat a watch at,” Hugie mentioned. “Not everybody cares sufficient about an ’06 TSX to spend twice what you spent on the automotive on paintwork. That’s simply financially silly. However you already know what? I’ll by no means see one other one in every of these in Arctic Blue with the six-speed and the navigation system.”
And the way lengthy will “my” TSX be residing in Tyson Hugie’s storage? He’s unsure at this level, however I acquired the impression it gained’t be eternally. In any case, of these automobiles I listed earlier, he bought six final yr to make means for the TSX and others. Previous members of the gathering have included a ’93 Civic del Sol, a ’96 TL, a ’99 2.3CL 5-speed (after all), a unique SLX and, my private favourite, a ’94 Acura Vigor in Arcadia Inexperienced (teal) and a handbook transmission connected to its wackadoo longitudinally mounted inline-five.
“I can’t hold all of them. That is type of catch and launch for me,” Hugie mentioned. “I can at all times take delight in figuring out I might need saved this automotive from a worse life. I take pleasure in it, I’ve enjoyable with it, and typically I hold them, typically I allow them to go.”
Ought to that occur, you now know precisely the place to discover a 2006 Acura TSX in Arctic Blue Pearl with navi and a six-speed handbook. And if you find yourself being fortunate proprietor No. 4, please don’t hesitate to achieve out to No. 1. It’s at all times good to listen to how previous associates are doing.