The Future

Future mods:
Paint lip kit and spoiler, install
Intake and exhaust
T1R adjustable Dampers
Front strut bar
Short antenna
Broadway mirror
Motul brake fluid
Possibly stainless lines and new pads

Distant future:
Corbeau FX1 driver seat
Harness bar, harnesses
Throttle controller

Updated Driving Experience

This is going to sound strange, but my ideal model for this car is the Evo IX MR. Yeah, I know the Fit is nowhere close to the level of this purpose-built rally car for the road, but I admire the idea behind it. A no-compromise asphalt assault vehicle. Sticks to the road like glue, looks good, practical (mostly), and quick. While the Fit will never had all wheel drive or a rally pedigree, my vision for the car is similar – build a well balanced performance vehicle. This has been the mission from day 1.

Overall, the Fit is taking to mods nicely. Let's start with the outside - It looks a lot less girly and the stance is where I want it – functional and purposeful. The black headlights, black wheels, meaty tires and tinted tails add a touch of sinister to this otherwise pedestrian vehicle. The HID's and LED tails look great at night from inside or the outside.

Driving this thing is ridiculous. This car is one of the lightest 4 door cars available at around 2500 lbs and this is reflected every time the car moves, whether side to side, braking, accelerating. The car has an effortless flow thru the turns that keeps me searching out the best winding roads to nowhere. There isn't much power pulling this car, but once it gets up to speed, you rarely need to keep accelerating. Just keep the momentum up and let the chassis do the work.

Speaking of chassis – the springs are the make or break mod here. They are firm and give the Fit the edge it is missing in stock form. The flipside to the coin is the ride. Even after driving the car almost a year with these, I am still not sold on them. The ride is harsh and bouncy at the same time. This could also be the fault of the stock dampers. If the ride height wasn't perfect and they didn't perform so well in the bends, I would be looking for other springs by now. The swaybar has also dramatically changed the handling characteristics of this car. Instead of wanting to plow to the outside, the car seems to want to rotate around the driver's seat, sometimes requiring a quick nudge of the wheel to keep things in check.

The Nitto NeoGen's have been a perfect match for this car. They have a decent life, good price and great performance. Only once have they let go on me – Moonshiner's Run when I seriously overcooked a corner – and they broke away predictably with a slight squeal. The lighter wheel combination has helped performance and ride dramatically over the 18's that I had on there for just a few days.

The brakes are an area that need some improvement. In stock form, they were grabby, stopped on a dime and warped rotors every 15k miles......The new wheels help get more air to the rotors and should improve cooling. The slotted and dimpled rotors add to the performance theme of the exterior. The pads, unfortunately, aren't convincing. They grab eventually and provide good grip at the 2^nd half of the brake pedal's travel. A change to Motul brake fluid is in order soon.

My favorite mod right now is my cross bar. Every time I look in my rear view mirror, I see the top half of the bars. It not only helps improve the stiffness of the car, but looks awesome to boot. Even better, I got a great deal on it used.

Intake and Exhaust options

So I think the next mod is going to be getting the lip kit and spoiler repainted and installed. After that, I am going to be looking into getting an intake and exhaust solution for the Fit.

Intake:

I am torn between getting a drop in filter, getting a short ram, or doing a custom airbox with a ram air scoop behind the bumper grill. Any of those would be cool, but I am wondering if it is going to be too loud to go with a short ram. I would like to just go ahead and plunk down the $160 for the Fujita, but I'm not sure if the extra noise will be too annoying. There is not much sound insulation in the Fit, so road and engine noise is definitely a factor.

I may just get a cheap short ram off ebay, paint the tube to match my engine cover and then get a quality air filter to replace the crappy one. This solution would cost me less than $100.

My other option is a simple HKS drop in replacement. This would only cost about $60, net me 1-2 hp and would keep noise down. Plus its a quality product.

Another option is to modify the stock air box to accept air thru the bottom of the box with a hose routed from the front bumper and connected to the airbox. This would offer a constant supply of fresh air.

Exhaust:

To me, the rear of the Fit is not the better end. Most cars have a small cutout where the tip of the muffler is supposed to exit. It gives a clean finish to the rear. Not the Fit. There are plenty of exhaust options out there, both catback and axleback, but to me they all look a bit.....awkward. There is no other option besides hanging the can and tip below the flat rear lip. I was almost dead set on the dual tip Vibrant Stealth muffler, but after thinking about it a bit more, I'm going to skip it. If you do a double tip can, the can is pushed so far toward the middle of the car, it looks like a janky center exit exhaust. Offset N1 style cans just seem to hang off the bottom of the car and look even more awkward when pointing up slightly since more of the pipe is exposed.

So this brings me back to square one. What to do? I have had many different ideas on this and I think I have finally settled on a solution – a rear muffler delete. It sounds cheap, and it is, but I have other reasons for choosing this. This layout will allow me to “hide” the muffler and tip up under the rear of the car. It will give a more stealthy appearance since this is the stock configuration. There will be no large can hanging out the back alerting everyone to the fact that this is a modified car. It will be discreet like the rest of the car. This will be an axleback setup, so a stock B pipe will be used along with the stock resonator. From the rear flange, there will be a new flange and gasket, new piping to the stock rear exit. There will be a simple turn down tip that will exit just shy of the rear lip. It will use stock muffler mounts and the whole thing will be painted in a high temp satin black for the ultimate stealth appearance. I have heard this setup on a few cars and everyone raves about it. Keeping the stock size piping to the rear should help keep the volume down (a megaphone effect is created by going into larger piping and even larger tip). If volume is still an issue, a high performance muffler from Vibrant can be welded in. If tone is too over the top or raspy, a Vibrant resonator will be sourced.

Night Photos

I have been experimenting with photography and a few weeks ago, I got out and took some shots of the Fit at night. Some turned out better than others.

Winter Blues

I haven't done much or really anything to the Fit since its refresh in October. Its hard to get motivated to get out in the cold and work on the car. I still have my Sparco pedals and foglight HID kit sitting in the garage, not installed yet. Now that the temperatures are pushing at least 60, I feel ready to get back in the game. Thoughts of warm summer nights cruising in a hopped up car sound pretty dang awesome, lol. Its always cool to see guys starting to bring their toys back out of winter hibernation this time of the year.

Great Road

So I have gotten into road biking recently and I stumbled upon a great road while exploring the surrounding country roads out by my house. While I didn't make it very far on the bike due to a wild pack of dogs (haha), the Fit was in its element out there. Most of it is nice, flowing curves with quick back and forth rhythm sections. There are several blind hills and sharp curves, so it keeps you on your toes. This is the kind of road the Fit lives and breathes for – diving into a turn, tap the brakes, load up the outside tires, hint of trail braking, then hard on the gas going out. The Fit feels balanced and lively. Hardly any understeer. It feels very neutral and the back end feels as much a part of the process as the front. It never gives up all its grip, but there is a hint of off throttle oversteer present when pressing extremely hard. Not bad for a little econobox!