Legends never die, at least according to a passionate team of Acura enthusiasts.
Having currently finished its 17th year, the National Acura Legend Meet (NALM) has actually covered the nation from eastern to west, and north to southern, with its yearly event. This year’s event took place in a location virtually dead-center in the lower 48 states: Wichita, Kansas. Participants came in around 20 Legends from 11 states to participate.
Dating back to 1986, the Legend version debuted in addition to the small Integra hatchback when the Acura Division was produced as a performance as well as deluxe arm of American Honda. The Legend inhabited the flagship place in the Acura hierarchy for 10 years, offering over 400,000 systems in the United States as well as being offered in two distinctive generations. While other Japanese deluxe producers went with rear-wheel drive V8 powertrains as seen in the Infiniti Q45 as well as the Lexus LS400, the Legend leveraged a front-wheel drive V6.
The Legend design was gotten rid of from the Acura lineup in North America after 1995, when it was changed by the much more calm 3.5 RL. Still, the model held its ground in the fanatic field as communities on internet forums, Facebook, and later on Instagram cultivated a location for partnership as well as togetherness.
Today, one of those Facebook teams holds even more than 7,000 members. The first National Acura Legend Meet was introduced in 2005 in Dallas via the initiatives of one individual that came up with the suggestion and also volunteered to hold an event. The rest, as they state, is history. Save for 2020, when NALM took a hiatus, the occasion has continued each
year in sequence. It is now driven by a group of consultants that review proposals from potential host cities and work with local groups to plan as well as host an effective multi-day event. While Wichita does not have the sex appeal of Las Vegas or the tourist attraction of a Florida beach, it does provide a practical central geographic location and also brought in numerous NALM novice guests.
I was amongst a multitude of repeat fanatics, having actually gone to all 17 occasions for many years. I made the expedition from Arizona in my reliable now-584,000 -mile 1994 Legend LS coupe 6-speed. Amongst the attractions this year were a see to such identifiable monuments as Keeper of the Plains, a 44-foot-tall sculpture which stands at the assemblage of the Arkansas and also Little Arkansas rivers and recognizes the location’s native inhabitants and their heritage. A browse through to NuWAY Burgers that day presented NALM participants to popular “crunchy” burger patties in addition to homemade origin beer.
The adhering to day, the schedule of Legends headed north to Omega Auto Clinic, home to David Long, much better known as the”Car Wizard “with a YouTube network under the exact same name. A surprise site visitor turned up at the exact same time– none aside from Tyler Hoover of Hoovies Garage, a popular individuality for his YouTube existence too (now at 1.4 million subscribers at the time of this writing). The last quit for the day was the community of Lindsborg, which Kansas calls its Little Sweden. NALM showed up just in time to catch the Smoky Mountain High School Homecoming ceremony. Regional homeowners asked if we belonged to the ceremony. We wanted!
NALM 2022 capped off on Saturday September 17th at the Walser Acura dealership, which rolled out the red carpet as well as opened its display room doors for the group. Five fortunate Legend proprietors reached park their vehicles inside the showroom, and Walser provided BBQ lunch for the team as well as for any one of its neighborhood clients who wished to stop by. Just a couple of miles away, the globe’s first Pizza Hut (developed in 1958) invited NALM individuals that afternoon at the Wichita State school, and the automobile show peer-judging was held close by.
Awards this year were dispersed in multiple groups, and also Best of Show went to Event Director Tom DeBerry for his immaculate 39,000-mile 1991 Legend L coupe in Golden Glow Pearl. A pizza party and components raffle rounded off the evening before participants obtained their final evening of rest at the Hampton Inn host hotel.
My very own 2,496-mile big salami was an adventure to keep in mind, and also I look forward to seeing where the NALM occasion enters 2023 as well as past. With such solid momentum, no doubt the Legend fulfill will remain to expand and thrive– as well as enjoy the notoriety of now belonging to a “traditional” vehicle neighborhood as the design ages gracefully.
To learn more on historic National Acura Legend Meets, see this archive.
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