I often get to do silly things in this job. Sometimes it’s doing a Costco run in a supercar to see if a pack of toilet paper fits in the frunk, and other times it’s driving a classic SUV on an IndyCar street course. That’s what I did last weekend during the Grand Prix of Long Beach as part of Acura’s celebration of its 40th anniversary in America. As it turns out, a 2003 Acura MDX is as much a gem to drive today as it was back in the day.
For starters, it’s hard to swallow that a 2003 model is practically a classic now, but round up a bit, and that’s nearly 25 years. I’m old! But just look at it. It’s such a drastic departure from what Acura (or any other brand) does today in terms of design—though for what it’s worth, I’m a big fan of the current MDX, especially the Type S. This first-gen example is considerably smaller than modern SUVs in its segment. It’s also cleaner, less complex, and it rides on 17-inch wheels. Remember when SUVs didn’t try to be sports cars?
Take a look at that interior; it’s so simple, and the layout is so clean. It’s function over form, yet the form is still pleasing to the eye. Buttons galore, cupholders, cubbies, and no oddly placed screens or wireless phone chargers. The HVAC controls are like, six buttons? Nowadays there’d be a dozen or more, and they’d all live on a screen. That said, I found the placement of these a bit weird, sitting atop the infotainment display and between two air vents. And how about that simple-ass analog clock? It just cracks me up that we once lived in a time when a $0.89 clock found its way onto the dash of a $42,000 luxury SUV.
Before I share anything about my driving experience—which, frankly, was just hilarious—I’ll share how I even got behind the wheel of the MDX to begin with. It all started when Acura organized a pre-race parade lap around the Long Beach GP street circuit to celebrate its milestone. The shindig featured over 40 Acuras of all ages, shapes, and sizes, including some race cars, vintage Integra Type Rs, NSXs of all generations, and my favorite: the No. 48 Comptech Integra we wrote about recently.
With all those sweet rides up for grabs for the track lap, most people would’ve chosen something low and sporty. Not me, though. I went for the Certified Dad Ride and snatched the keys to the MDX. I’m a middle-aged dad, and I value comfort above all else. What can I say?
Track Time
Reality hit me in the face when I hopped in the MDX, and with the keys in my pocket, I reached over to the side of the wheel, looking for a start button. Doh! Old-school key and ignition here. After the little snafu, I heard the tried-and-true 3.5-liter V6 come to life with nearly the same finesse it would’ve displayed back in 2003. This particular unit, now owned by Acura, has just 72,000 miles—and was actually purchased from an individual rather than pulled from the assembly line when new. It speaks even more highly of its amazing condition. While 72k miles isn’t a lot for a car of this age, it’s also not nothing.
Seeing the old thang pull out of the pits and join the queue to go on track with a bunch of sports cars and race cars was comical, and in fact, I spotted more than a handful of people pointing and laughing. Rude! But that’s okay, I was confident in my choice.
When you think “parade lap,” you think slow, bumper-to-bumper driving. This parade lap was anything but. Because everyone else was in something sporty and quick, they all took off right out of the gate, and suddenly I had a quarter-mile gap to the car in front. My 260 horsepower wasn’t much of a match, but it didn’t matter, because I was doing like 75 mph down the main straight where GTP and Indy cars typically do around 200 mph. I was driving on the same tarmac where legends like Mario Andretti, Al Unser Jr., Alex Zanardi, Juan Pablo Montoya, Dario Franchitti, Scott Dixon, and Alex Palou had fought for victories before.
Then came the first corner, a fairly tight left-hander where you carefully gotta thread the car between two concrete barriers. I let off the throttle way early and gently began applying the brakes. I wasn’t about to cook the pads on a 23-year-old SUV, nor bring out a red flag by stuffing the thing into the wall. I can see it in my head: “IndyCar race delayed because some idiot crashed an old SUV on the track minutes before the green flag.”
I gently turned left and let the MDX coast through the corner to gauge how much grip the tires had. It wasn’t much. On top of that, they were squealing like crazy. I made my way through the next few corners, including the famous fountain, and I definitely felt pretty cool, though I also couldn’t stop laughing. Earlier in the weekend, I’d been given a hot lap as a passenger in an Integra Type S, and although I wasn’t going nearly as fast now, I didn’t care because I was having more fun. Driving is always better than riding.
By the time I reached turns five and six, I felt more comfortable carrying a bit more speed and figured I could aim for the apex. I made sure to stay off the gnarly curbing; I didn’t want to set off an airbag!
The slightly downhill run from Turn 6 into Turn 7 was just awesome, and that’s the corner I carried the most speed through. The tires were wailing, and I had the wheel right at three o’clock, just aiming for the corner while keeping an eye on the barrier. The drive down the back straight was loads of fun, though I won’t disclose my speed. I’d like to get invited again, y’know?
Sadly, the way the parade route was organized, I had to pull into the pits right after Turn 9, so I didn’t get a chance to tackle the famous hairpin.
Regardless, driving a 2003 Acura MDX on a street circuit is exactly the kind of silly thing I get to do in this job, all for the sake of sharing it with you. In this case, it was a nice reminder that you don’t have to be in a crazy-powerful sports car to have fun, even on a track. Sometimes you can find driving pleasure in something as basic as an old SUV, as long as you focus on the good. Social media tries to tell us that only cars like Porsche GT3 RSs can fill the void, but that’s far from the truth. Whatever you drive, all that matters is that it makes you smile.
Email the author at jerry@thedrive.com
