The Fit is Go! A build thread 12 years in the making..

Dad managed to dig up the window sticker and the tiny little sales brochure for the Fit that he had stashed away.

at the back of the brochure was this litttle gem.

Spoon Sports Fit!!!

 old old super street article about the car.. before it had been confirmed for the USA.

And the Best Motoring VTEC Club episode where they drove it.. and they showed a little teardown of the chassis. neat little video

I'm excited because the Fit is everything I loved about my EF, with 2 more doors, AC and a Radio.. and an exhaust that's not going to make me go deaf..

 

205 50 15's ordered this afternoon from Brad at Tire Rack ext 4398.

headed to south bend in the morning to grab them.

Nice Tires!! 
 

seeing your 28/34 mpg - exact what I am getting in my Si sedan 

Beautiful morning here at Tire Rack.. 

Cell phone reception at the farm my mom wanted to stop at in Michigan was crap. 

Four Falken RT660 205/50R15. 

Comparable speed to the Yokohama at 80% of the cost?

Yes please.. 

Front brakes got handled today.

and used Permatex Ceramic Extreme brake grease.. rated to up to 3000 deg. F

headed to my buddies shop tomorrow morning to mount the Falkens on the koenig wheels

so steelies go back on for a bit.

I had this thought back on Hazmat.. and someone else suggested it.. but it wasn't what i wanted for Hazmat at the time..

BUT.. the fit is a Rolling joke..

soo....

The Spork Sports Honda Fit.. with FOOKIN TYRES on it..

i think i can make this happen..

Love the tires.
 

Curious how they are, as i ordered yoko ad08 for my si, like my GSR sedan had. 

also whose crv is that ? 

In reply to mr2s2000elise :

Our CR-V, I had it pulled out to run to the store when I need a hammer impact driver to remove the brake rotor screws. 

Falkens mounted up! 

And I got another's set of wheels and tires that I will pickup this coming weekend at Road America.

Rx and Fit looks great! White wheels will

look proper ! 
 

comgrats 

lowering ?

In reply to mr2s2000elise :

No lowering.. just gonna throw the camber bolts in later and it'll be ready to go.. 

Picked up 4 Honda OEM crash bolts for the front struts yesterday. And I got mail from Patrick.

berkeleying smartass.. 

Agree with Pat's sentiment

This is the crash bolts I ordered 

Honda PN#90188-SCC-A00

You can see where they turned the stock bolt down to drop the diameter. 

One should give me about 1.4 degrees of camber.. 2? Who knows. But I'm after as much camber as i can get.. with the caveat if not wanting to go to the eccentric bolts.. 

I had a VERY successful weekend at Road America. I'll type up more later. But I put down timed laps, was very quick and I brought the car home at the end of the weekend, which is the true measure of a successful track weekend. 

Seeing you take the Fit out and be awesome was pretty great. I think it's going to continue to be a good car with it's 2nd owner.

So..... how bout a weekend Recap?

My boss let me cut out early on Friday and Daylan got an early start from Kentucky, so we left the Chicago area around 2:30pm.

We rolled into Road America right after the gates opened.. and found One Lap Buddies Scott and Becky from Robertson Racing and Brian of Rallycross car becomes Racecar (Mazdeuce's 2017 and 2018 OLOA teammate). 

We got the car up in the air to check it over again. Installed the upper OEM Honda service strut bolts and added some Toe out. 

Saturday morning.. car got tech'd by my buddy James and I was good to go out when i felt comfortable..

BUT.. mother nature had been dropping rain on us since 8pm on Friday.. so the track was very wet.

I decided to go out in the beginner group Lead follow session to get a feel for the grip in a lower risk environment.



I've never been on track at Road America before, and i watched a few cars hit walls on One Lap there last year.. so to say i had the fear of death in me... was an understatement.. I followed my buddy Chief Instructor Ed Cz out around the track and got a very good feel for the grip.. mind you... he's in an E92 M3 on a sunday drive just putting around and I'm banging gears trying to keep up.... it was amusing..

then in the afternoon.. the skies parted for a bit and the track dried out some so the line was clear. So I grabbed my helmet and went out in the afternoon Advanced session..

Session went well and I was comfortable with the track at this point. So I spoke to Adam and got signed off to run Track Battle on Sunday. But i was waiting on the weather before i made the jump. Sunday morning the weather for the day was clear all the way through... so I went and got my stickers and got the car ready to go..

I was working grid, so i parked the car near the top of grid while I was waiting for Time Attack group C to be called to Grid. Jackie Ding came by as well while he was waiting on Group A.. which he was leading at the Time.. made for a good photo..

This is what the front and back of the Gridlife Track Battle Grid looks like in 2020.

I went out in this morning session and Turned a 3:19 on my second lap.... I took another cool down lap and then as I was pulling in the checkers got thrown.. only 15 minutes of timed track time in the morning session....

But the little Blueberry got some time on the Livestream as I was running around all by myself at the back.

with that I had achieved everything I wanted to for the weekend. But i was hungry for more.. so i went out for the afternoon Long TA sessions..

I went out and was able to turn a 3:17 on my 3rd flying lap( i didn't know this.. i found out later, but it felt good)... and then.. as I was coming across the line from my 4th lap... i had the Mechanical failure flag shown to me...

Frantically started checking the dash.. no lights.. looking out the back for fluids... nothing.. my mind is going about a million miles and hour.. SO i took the turn 5 track exit and pulled back to Grid to find out what was up...... 

driver side of the rear bumper popped loose.. so i asked them to push it back in and throw some tape over it.. which they did..

"How much time left in the session?"

8 minutes..

ok.. i have time for one more flyer..

went back out.. took my next out lap at full speed and I hit all my marks..

came across start finish at full speed.. and no checkers.. ok... good.. I can do this..

Came into T1.. waited until the 100 maker... full brakes.. turn in.. downshift to 3rd.. back to throttle..

upshift to 4th through T2  into T3.. missed my braking point for T3 and the car pushes wide.. but not badly.. i just know i'm scrubbing and this is gonna cost me time.. downshift to 3rd and start heading for 4 back to full throttle and then a shift back to 4th as im running downtowards T4 and T5...

hit my marks braking at the 200 for T5 and then turn in.. grab 3rd and start the run up the hill to T6.. slight lift to get the nose to turn in how I want and then back to pinned throttle.. flat through t7 up against the curbs.. and a shift to 4th at the exit.. on my way down to T8..

hit my marks braking at about the 150.. downshift to 3rd again...back to throttle.. down towards the Carousel.... running at the top of 3rd through the corner.. and then grabbing 4th at the apex of T10 as I'm barreling towards the kink.. all the way towards the left side of the track.. take a big breath.. hug the rumble strips.. half lift and turn in at full speed (90mph) at the end of the rumble strips.. and nailed it!

running down towards T12... nearly 100mph at the braking zone.. braking about the 200 mark.. turn in.. grab 3rd again and accelerate up the hill towards 13.. at this point i'm flat.. all the way to T14.. wait until the 150 mark and brake, turn in.. grab 3rd and start climbing up the hill. 

the moment i hit the bottom of the hill.. my already pathetic acceleration becomes a crawl.. at the top of the hill under the bridge.. the car isn't accelerating anymore.. top of 3rd gear.. 75 mph.. 6500rpm.... grab.. 4th and looking up I see the checkers... I knew it had to be my fastest lap.... came back to grid and i had turned a 3:15.5...

less than 7 seconds off the record and I had turned my own personal best.. and dropped 4 seconds off the morning..

That capped off a successful weekend for me and I went back and worked grid for the rest of the afternoon. It was a great weekend hanging with all my Gridlife buddies and dragging Daylan along for the stupidity..

Daylan C (Forum Supporter) said:

Seeing you take the Fit out and be awesome was pretty great. I think it's going to continue to be a good car with it's 2nd owner.

thanks man.. i'm glad you came to hang out and volunteer for the weekend.

Excellent read. Glad to hear you had fun, and the lap numbers look fantastic. 

I am curious how the Fit feels, going from a senior citizens grocery getter, to a race car!

In reply to mr2s2000elise :

car feels like it always has.. it just has enough grip now..

but you know you need  real suspension when you hit the rumble strips and the rear of car the FREAKS out.

so that's on the list now..
back in june..

road america had 9 days of rain before sunday.. sooooo i'm not sure how fast the track actually was that day.

Sorry I should have worded it better. I am wondering how the Fit feels. Not how it feels to you...

But how the fit itself feels.....with the change in its life...

Yes I am giving human emotion to an object... 

yes I am sitting in my office thinking of the feelings your Fit is having ..... 

Yes I am stupid 

In reply to mr2s2000elise :

Don't worry, this weekend I was looking at my Miata sitting outside of the fence around false grid, almost certain the car was feeling like a little kid having to sit out recess because he didn't finish his homework. 

In reply to Daylan C (Forum Supporter) :

YES!!! I am not alone! THANKS  hehehehehehe 

In reply to mr2s2000elise :

the Fit is an extremely peppy car in 1st gear.. and fairly peppy in 2nd.. it's always been a playful car..