Hi yall I'm Damian from the Cherokee reservation in NC.
Our roads here in the mountains of Western north Carolina are full of twisty banked turns, like in 11 miles 318 turns... I'm no stranger to performance cars, I own a few heavily modified boosted BMW //M cars and a boosted Tacoma. I bought my wife a 2010 Honda Fit sport and to be quite honest with you the car is slow as a snail and handles terrible, I never owned a front wheel drive car so I'm trying to get some more performance out of this thing.
I found a good deal on some Tein GD3 springs. is there any way I can get them to work on this 2010 Fit sport?
Any advice on making this FWD economy car better?
Thanks in advance.

 

Get good tires. Report back.

 

I upgraded to 205/50r16 Michelin Pilot Sport ps3
3 weeks ago.

 

And what problems are you having with the handling?

 

it has so much sway, our roads are are extremely curvy mountain roads with good pavement
on warm pavement the car is still all over the place.
I enter a banked turn at 35 I feel so much understeer.
plainning on a spring swap asap.
Already swapped out the pads with some hawks it helped the fade.

 

How many miles on the car? Sounds like struts are blown or badly worn.

 

about 40 thousand.
will first gen suspension springs swap over? I know a guy selling some firsr gen Tein springs cheep.

 

GD springs are shorter and much stiffer than GE. Would not recommend using them with GE shocks. If you're convinced that a spring swap is going to solve your problem, get proper springs for the GE. Lots of guys here like the Swifts since they mate well with the OEM shocks.

Not sure how you're understeering at 35mph though

 

First generation Fit springs on a second gen is NOT a good idea for 2 reasons.

1. The GD first generation has MUCH stiffer springs due to a softer chassis
2. The GE second generation has a longer suspension system entirely, shock and spring length to start.

People have swapped GD to GE suspension parts, but usually only a full coilover, and then there are issues with limited height adjustment, as they have to raise it nearly all the way.

2 things you can do to eliminate undeer steer in a FWD are to maximize front end grip and increase rear rotation. Best bang for the buck is to add a Progressive Rear sway bar for around $160, and throw a set of camber bolts in the front and have the car aligned with at least -1.5 of camber and toe set to zero.

If you want to go with just lowering springs, Swift makes a great set for around $250 that does not lower the car too much, and significantly bumps the front and rear rates. Coil over options are out there as well, both Bilstien and a Koni/Gorund Control setup.

Depends on how much you want to spend and what your IDEAL is.

 

As always you are on the same page Wanderer

Understeer at 35mph is TOTALLY possible in a Fit... All my AutoX buddies can corroborate

 

I don't think you understand how our roads are here.
google Deals gap 129 .....this is my commute.
318 banked turns in 11 miles maintaining an avrage speed of 45....

and the cops leave us indians alone.

 

...

You can get the Fit to be fun for that... I'm a BIG fan of the Redshift Motorsports Koni/Ground Control Coilover setup for the GE Fit. ESPECIALLY after seeing it in action on my friends GE at an AutoX event on Sunday!

 

I grew up driving this raod. it was made by my ancestors.
most of the roads here are very similar. some people go to the race track. some just move here.

 

Thanks for the advice!
sounds like you really know how to dial a Fit in for performance. I plan to mod this car some, I do all my own work but this is primarily my wifes car but I'm trying to keep her away from my cars lol.
I must admit the Fit does has potential and parts are so cheep compared to BMW M performance parts.

 

Haha, compared the the "M tax" Fit parts are DIRT cheap

My observations of the GE are based on my GF's car and several friends in my local Fit club who also AutoX with me. The GE is SO much stiffer chassis wise than the GD, that there is no reason to go crazy with the spring rates. Best bang for the buck after better tires and lite rims, is IMO the Redshift coils. They can actually move the car past neutral to slight oversteer if combined with -3 front camber and a progress rear bar.

Remember in a modified FWD, oversteer should happen on throttle lift off, so typically mid corner.

The correct response is to let the car rotate to the desired point, and then get back on throttle so the front end pulls the car out! Otherwise you can induce snap oversteer and or spin the sucker.

All the above will only happen once you up the spring rates and roll ratios though through suspension and sway bar changes, not in a stock Fit

 

Also... Have you tried turning off the VSC?

 

sorry to be a Honda fwd newb but what is a VSC ?

 

I didn't know we were talking about The Gap, that's a different story completely. I guess I should have surmised that by the # of turns you posted and miles but it didn't click.

Swift springs + Progress rear sway bar + as much camber as you can get.

So yeah, what TPC said LOL

I would suggest coilovers, but you said it was your wife's car, so i'm not sure how stiff you can make the suspension before she wouldn't like it. Bilstein is a good option for comfort and performance, better than springs alone.

Remember, slow in, fast out, weight distribution is not like your BMWs.

 

Any of the above advice is good, but really, you'd be a lot happier continuing to drive a BMW. Any FWD car is going to understeer .. every time .. over every one of the 318 turns .... that is just part of the design of a front-weight-biased, FWD car. ''shrugs''

That is what I'd do. Or drive slower. I bet you the speed limit is set a lot lower than the point where you start to feel understeer :P

 

FF won't inherently understeer if properly setup...