Participating in the Speed Ventures HPDE this Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, it is a 1.8 mile track with 13 turns. Should be very Fit-friendly as it does not have long straights. Since my last outing at Chuckwalla I have added BC Racing DS series coilovers with 10K springs up front and 8K springs in the rear. The car is very tight. Also, I removed the front sway bar. So understeer is greatly reduced. Additionally, I ported my intake manifold, and swapped out the RPS short ram intake for a Weapon-R intake. It has a ram-air capability that I am going to implement by removing the left front fog light and putting the air duct down there. I will throw that on tonight and it may help reduce IATs as well as provide a little more air at speed. I am competing in the HFF Challenge and I qualify for Street Class, the least modified of all offered classes. I think I might have a good chance of winning so that would be cool. I will post up pics and some video after the event. Cheers and good luck out there!

 

Good luck!
Make sure that you completely seal that ram air duct in the fog light opening, so that air can't go around and bypass it by following the path of least resistance.
I have a friend who is an aerospace aerodynamic engineer, and walking through the paddock at race events with him is fun. Most common statement as he looks at cars is "air doesn't do that" and he'll point at some brake cooling duct, intake pipe attached in a grill opening, or aero device on the bodywork.

 

Awesome, sounds like a lot of fun. Good luck and stay safe!!

 

Pretty humbling day. My brakes sucked. I did not throw my track pads or rotors on, thinking my EBC green stuff would suffice. Huge mistake, significantly worse than stock brakes. I started wondering if it was a vacuum issue maybe since I have done a lot of intake mods. So after session 2, there was a long break and I ran home and got my track rotors, but could only find duralast pads I had hanging around. That setup improved, but I was still running out of brakes big time. And brakes in the fit are my secret sauce. I can usually brake past the 1 (when there are 3-2-1 signs on the track) and that allows me to make up time. This did not happen at all today. Also, a guy came out with his very stock GK fit, he had 949 rims and new Goodriches a Progress RSB and a throttle controller. And he owned me /sadface. Just a reminder that driver mod trumps all. He ran a 2:19 and I ran a 2:20. I am sure I would have been at least 2s faster with my brakes, but with all the other stuff I've done to my car, damn. I followed his line and there didn't appear to be a lot he was doing that I wasn't. I went from 2:26 to 2:22 to 2:20 over three sessions but could not get better in the last one. The BC coilovers took some getting used to, that and the lack of a front sway bar did give good rotation in the rear. I was able to out turn a lot of more expensive cars in the twistys, but I just couldn't trail brake like I usually do effectively and compensated by earlier downshifting which upsets the car. The other guy claimed the throttle controller was very effective so maybe I will get one and try that out who knows. Sorry, no video, Harry's lap timer locked up and would not unlock even with restarting my phone. When I reloaded it, it deleted all my laps which were myriad unfortunately. I'll add in a field vid to show the sweet rides in the paddock. Cheers! -d'Art

 

Fun to read your stories (and watch the videos) of your track escapades... I was thinking the other day about tracking the Fit if my track car ('18 Grand Sport) had a mechanical too-close to an HPDE event to get fixed. Not having brakes is no fun!

 

There were lots of Z06s (C6 and C7) out there, maybe I saw one GS. I hear the GS is much more balanced (under control) from a HP to handling perspective. Weird, I also hear the ZR1 is easier to drive than the Z06. I can't wait for the Zora to be unleashed!

Regarding the fit, you could definitely do it, it would just be a totally different driving experience. I ran mine bone stock at Spring Mountain, it was still really cool. I was always afraid of taking the Z out on the track, had to get the valves fixed, didn't think my brakes were good enough, didn't like the tires I had, all these excuses. If I knew then what I know now, I would have tracked her from Day 1. Sad I didn't get to put it where it belonged, on the track. OTOH, I probably would have had my hands and feet completely full, and it sure is great to learn how to track a car on a Fit vs. a HCIE 560WHP vette...

Sorry there are no track videos, I'll post the promised paddock walk tonight Cheers!

 

GS is a nice balance from a power delivery standpoint... much more forgiving than the instant torque from the supercharged Z06 (although there are times on the straights it would be nice to have the extra HP). The GS is faster than I am, and is quick enough to make-up for my mistakes compared to other vehicles on-track. IMO, tracking is what matters... the car is just a tool to do it with. Like you mentioned, driver mod trumps all.

 

Sounds like a lot of fun...

 

Yeah it is a ton of fun! Speed ventures is very welcoming, you should try it! Makes you a better driver...