The NSX was for me, like so many of you, a childhood dream/desire that kept building and building as I got older. I first saw one in 1991, in first grade. My elementary school principal drove two cars - a red 300ZX and a black NSX. Often times during recess I'd take a detour through the staff parking lot in the hopes of seeing it, although she did not bring it to school often. Every now and then I'd hear it fire up from a classroom...such a sweet sound even to my 6-10 year old ears.
A lucky buddy of mine got Gran Turismo when it was first released for the playstation. I think in years of playing that game at his place, I only ever drove the NSX. Even though it was VERY tricky to control with the old d-pad on the PS1.
High school distracted me from cars, although I made sure to learn how to drive stick. My family was almost 100% a honda family. I learned stick on my dad's 1989 honda accord, which I always thought was a beautiful car, mostly because it had pop up lights, just like my dear NSX. When that car was sadly totaled, it was replaced with a 2003 CR-V, again with a manual transmission. I used to love rowing through the gears on that thing..surprisingly fun for a "CUV," although it didn't have an 8000RPM redline (although I can confirm that 8000RPM won't kill it, thank a bad shift from 3-2 redline for that
).
The group I hung out with in college had a few really wealthy international students. Most of them had an Acura at minimum, and often BMWs or Mercedes. I was carless until my junior year, when I got a 2007 Civic Si Sedan - the closest thing to an NSX within reach at the time. I LOVE this car, it's the perfect mix of fun and practicality for a daily driver. After college, I moved to new york for work, and against all common sense, rented out a garage space for $400 a month just to park my beloved civic. My girlfriend (now wife) was still in Pittsburgh, so I drove that car back and forth from NYC to Pitt twice a month on average, for two years. In retrospect, the thousands I spent on parking might have meant I could get an NSX just a bit earlier (when prices were lower, no less), but those long drives in the Civic, often just me & the road at 2AM, made me realize one thing - I can never sell this car. If I have to postpone my NSX dream for just a bit longer, so be it.
In early 2012, my girlfriend and I got married, and I moved back to Pittsburgh. Although I grew up in Maryland, I call myself a Pittsburgh native now because I love this city. Super low cost of living means that pretty much as soon as I moved back, my budget opened up enough for me to start looking for "the other one" ("The One" being my wife, of course)
Thus began my search for an NSX to call my own. I came close a few times, even flew out to see a couple, but something or the other always got in the way or made me rethink. I had constant searches going on autotrader, cars.com, craigslist, and of course prime. Through all of this, I'd been digging up old for sale posts where the outcome hadn't been posted, and emailing/PMing the owners to see if they were still interested in selling. Made several leads this way, but so many owners weren't certain about selling, and also uncertain about how much they were willing to sell for.
I finally came across a 2001 black/tan in Arkansas. The carfax was clean, the pictures looked amazing, and after talking to the owner, I knew that I was talking with someone who takes pride in his cars. He had bought it in 2012 and ended up not driving it much at all over the past couple years. Not to mention, his wife wanted to put a pool in their back yard. The perfect storm was brewing, and I was right in the middle, wire transfer at the ready. Funny side note - this guy actually used to live in Pittsburgh, and his wife taught at UPitt, which is where my father-in-law teaches as well. Small world!
I had a good feeling about this. I bought a one way ticket to Arkansas, where ALL the houses are gigantic. And I thought Pittsburgh had a low cost of living! Made it to the owners house and saw the car for the first time...my jaw just about dropped. The paint was even shinier than the pics had promised. One entire bay of his 3 car garage was filled with tools and mementos from each of the 30+ cars he has owned, mostly porches. We went for a test drive - only the second time I had driven an NSX, but definitely the most exciting. Barely any rattles, no weird sounds from the engine, and it drove like it was on rails. Back at his garage, I checked all the body panels for their vin tags and, as an extra precaution, checked every panel with a paint depth meter, which showed consistent results in the OEM paint range across the car.
We went inside to get the wire transfer started, and then back to the garage to swap on the OEM wheels since I did not want (nor could I afford!) the aftermarket ones he was selling with the car. And then...the waiting began. Only 90 minutes or so overall, but it felt like forever. Although the wire transfer showed as completed on my bank's end, his contact at his bank was out to lunch and was unable to verify that the funds were received for quite a while. The whole time the car's title was sitting in front of me and I'm praying something hasn't gone wrong with the transfer.
All ended up well though, and with the title signed over and a big stack of maintenance records in hand, I set off back to pittsburgh.
First, I had to stop for gas. Cue the first pic I ever took of the car:
I got some administrative stuff out of the way - picked up a one way arkansas trip permit, even though the owner had left his plates on the car. Just wanted to do everything possible to avoid trouble in case I was stopped.
I stopped for lunch at a reliable favorite - Jimmy Johns. Both because I like the sandwiches, and because there was an open spot right outside. No way was I going to let this car out of my sight unless I absolutely had to!
As I was sitting and eating, a girl ran out from the salon next door and placed something under my wiper. At first I was annoyed - get off my car, lady! But soon I was intrigued as I realized it was only my car that had a flyer on it.
When I got back out to the car, I saw why. My first car-show "invitation!" (Even though it was clearly open to all, still made me feel pretty awesome )
The forecast that night called for rain, and rain it did. What a beautiful sight - watching water bead up off the freshly waxed body. I called it a night and found one of those exits that has every hotel imaginable. I called all 3 or 4 I could see from a Wendy's parking lot, and found one that had rooms facing the parking lot. Cue another crappy cellphone pic:
The post rain sky the next morning was beautiful. It made me wish I'd brought my slr along with me, but I didn't have the space for it and all my lenses on the flight over. I stopped at what is possibly the worst rest stop in the USA in Ohio. (Someone on another forum recognized it from the pics!) The urinals are right next to the entrance to the bathroom, so terrible. But like I said, the sky outside was beautiful:
The rest of the drive was uneventful, except to say that I enjoyed every minute of it and it went by much, much too quickly. I can't wait to take another long roadtrip in this car. 900 miles was easier and less tiring than the ~370 from NYC-Pitt I used to do back in the day.
I forgot to add - along the way I ran across several "caravans" of sports cars - a bunch of Porsches, several groups of corvettes along the way, and a bunch of older BMWs as well. Throughout it all I was thinking to myself: "How awesome is this, the NSX is so uncommon that I've seen over 100 other sports cars but not a single NSX this entire trip!" That ALMOST held true, but as I was just a couple miles away from home, I ran into pghmiller's Black NSX, on it's way back from the pittsburgh cars n coffee hangar party. OK, so I didn't get to be the only NSX on my drive, but I couldn't think of a better coincidental welcome back to Pittsburgh
Back at home in pittsburgh, there was one more challenge to overcome - my steep, oddly segmented driveway. I'm happy to report that the NSX was seemingly designed to climb this exact grade, as it makes it up and down with nary a scrape.
Washed and waxed the day after I got home:
So that's my new-owner story! I have so many people to thank for all their help throughout this process:
Yinzer, Ben@Daisy, Mengsta, Rbilder, NSXnR6, itrsteve, LarryB, bngl3rt, patchez, blackhorse06, blvnhim, NYCNSX, gelat0, SOURCE 1, fastaussie, blue_myriddn, av8r4na
Whether you helped me learn more about the NSX, had an NSX I was interested in buying but eventually didn't, pointed out a good looking for sale listing for me, helped me understand pricing, or just plain kept my hopes up when it seemed like I'd never find a car, THANK YOU!
I leave you with a few pics I took yesterday of my NSX around the beautiful city of Pittsburgh:
http://www.nsxprime.com/forum/showt...ar-and-beautiful-city-D?p=1820229#post1820229
A lucky buddy of mine got Gran Turismo when it was first released for the playstation. I think in years of playing that game at his place, I only ever drove the NSX. Even though it was VERY tricky to control with the old d-pad on the PS1.
High school distracted me from cars, although I made sure to learn how to drive stick. My family was almost 100% a honda family. I learned stick on my dad's 1989 honda accord, which I always thought was a beautiful car, mostly because it had pop up lights, just like my dear NSX. When that car was sadly totaled, it was replaced with a 2003 CR-V, again with a manual transmission. I used to love rowing through the gears on that thing..surprisingly fun for a "CUV," although it didn't have an 8000RPM redline (although I can confirm that 8000RPM won't kill it, thank a bad shift from 3-2 redline for that
).The group I hung out with in college had a few really wealthy international students. Most of them had an Acura at minimum, and often BMWs or Mercedes. I was carless until my junior year, when I got a 2007 Civic Si Sedan - the closest thing to an NSX within reach at the time. I LOVE this car, it's the perfect mix of fun and practicality for a daily driver. After college, I moved to new york for work, and against all common sense, rented out a garage space for $400 a month just to park my beloved civic. My girlfriend (now wife) was still in Pittsburgh, so I drove that car back and forth from NYC to Pitt twice a month on average, for two years. In retrospect, the thousands I spent on parking might have meant I could get an NSX just a bit earlier (when prices were lower, no less), but those long drives in the Civic, often just me & the road at 2AM, made me realize one thing - I can never sell this car. If I have to postpone my NSX dream for just a bit longer, so be it.
In early 2012, my girlfriend and I got married, and I moved back to Pittsburgh. Although I grew up in Maryland, I call myself a Pittsburgh native now because I love this city. Super low cost of living means that pretty much as soon as I moved back, my budget opened up enough for me to start looking for "the other one" ("The One" being my wife, of course
)Thus began my search for an NSX to call my own. I came close a few times, even flew out to see a couple, but something or the other always got in the way or made me rethink. I had constant searches going on autotrader, cars.com, craigslist, and of course prime. Through all of this, I'd been digging up old for sale posts where the outcome hadn't been posted, and emailing/PMing the owners to see if they were still interested in selling. Made several leads this way, but so many owners weren't certain about selling, and also uncertain about how much they were willing to sell for.
I finally came across a 2001 black/tan in Arkansas. The carfax was clean, the pictures looked amazing, and after talking to the owner, I knew that I was talking with someone who takes pride in his cars. He had bought it in 2012 and ended up not driving it much at all over the past couple years. Not to mention, his wife wanted to put a pool in their back yard. The perfect storm was brewing, and I was right in the middle, wire transfer at the ready. Funny side note - this guy actually used to live in Pittsburgh, and his wife taught at UPitt, which is where my father-in-law teaches as well. Small world!
I had a good feeling about this. I bought a one way ticket to Arkansas, where ALL the houses are gigantic. And I thought Pittsburgh had a low cost of living! Made it to the owners house and saw the car for the first time...my jaw just about dropped. The paint was even shinier than the pics had promised. One entire bay of his 3 car garage was filled with tools and mementos from each of the 30+ cars he has owned, mostly porches. We went for a test drive - only the second time I had driven an NSX, but definitely the most exciting. Barely any rattles, no weird sounds from the engine, and it drove like it was on rails. Back at his garage, I checked all the body panels for their vin tags and, as an extra precaution, checked every panel with a paint depth meter, which showed consistent results in the OEM paint range across the car.
We went inside to get the wire transfer started, and then back to the garage to swap on the OEM wheels since I did not want (nor could I afford!) the aftermarket ones he was selling with the car. And then...the waiting began. Only 90 minutes or so overall, but it felt like forever. Although the wire transfer showed as completed on my bank's end, his contact at his bank was out to lunch and was unable to verify that the funds were received for quite a while. The whole time the car's title was sitting in front of me and I'm praying something hasn't gone wrong with the transfer.
All ended up well though, and with the title signed over and a big stack of maintenance records in hand, I set off back to pittsburgh.
First, I had to stop for gas. Cue the first pic I ever took of the car:
I got some administrative stuff out of the way - picked up a one way arkansas trip permit, even though the owner had left his plates on the car. Just wanted to do everything possible to avoid trouble in case I was stopped.
I stopped for lunch at a reliable favorite - Jimmy Johns. Both because I like the sandwiches, and because there was an open spot right outside. No way was I going to let this car out of my sight unless I absolutely had to!
As I was sitting and eating, a girl ran out from the salon next door and placed something under my wiper. At first I was annoyed - get off my car, lady! But soon I was intrigued as I realized it was only my car that had a flyer on it.
When I got back out to the car, I saw why. My first car-show "invitation!" (Even though it was clearly open to all, still made me feel pretty awesome
)
The forecast that night called for rain, and rain it did. What a beautiful sight - watching water bead up off the freshly waxed body. I called it a night and found one of those exits that has every hotel imaginable. I called all 3 or 4 I could see from a Wendy's parking lot, and found one that had rooms facing the parking lot. Cue another crappy cellphone pic:
The post rain sky the next morning was beautiful. It made me wish I'd brought my slr along with me, but I didn't have the space for it and all my lenses on the flight over. I stopped at what is possibly the worst rest stop in the USA in Ohio. (Someone on another forum recognized it from the pics!) The urinals are right next to the entrance to the bathroom, so terrible. But like I said, the sky outside was beautiful:
The rest of the drive was uneventful, except to say that I enjoyed every minute of it and it went by much, much too quickly. I can't wait to take another long roadtrip in this car. 900 miles was easier and less tiring than the ~370 from NYC-Pitt I used to do back in the day.
I forgot to add - along the way I ran across several "caravans" of sports cars - a bunch of Porsches, several groups of corvettes along the way, and a bunch of older BMWs as well. Throughout it all I was thinking to myself: "How awesome is this, the NSX is so uncommon that I've seen over 100 other sports cars but not a single NSX this entire trip!" That ALMOST held true, but as I was just a couple miles away from home, I ran into pghmiller's Black NSX, on it's way back from the pittsburgh cars n coffee hangar party. OK, so I didn't get to be the only NSX on my drive, but I couldn't think of a better coincidental welcome back to Pittsburgh
Back at home in pittsburgh, there was one more challenge to overcome - my steep, oddly segmented driveway. I'm happy to report that the NSX was seemingly designed to climb this exact grade, as it makes it up and down with nary a scrape.
Washed and waxed the day after I got home:
So that's my new-owner story! I have so many people to thank for all their help throughout this process:
Yinzer, Ben@Daisy, Mengsta, Rbilder, NSXnR6, itrsteve, LarryB, bngl3rt, patchez, blackhorse06, blvnhim, NYCNSX, gelat0, SOURCE 1, fastaussie, blue_myriddn, av8r4na
Whether you helped me learn more about the NSX, had an NSX I was interested in buying but eventually didn't, pointed out a good looking for sale listing for me, helped me understand pricing, or just plain kept my hopes up when it seemed like I'd never find a car, THANK YOU!
I leave you with a few pics I took yesterday of my NSX around the beautiful city of Pittsburgh:
http://www.nsxprime.com/forum/showt...ar-and-beautiful-city-D?p=1820229#post1820229
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