Well this is the 2nd time I take my car out on the "El Tuque" road course in Ponce, PR. This time around I added a progress rear sway bar, T1R front A-Brace, RaceTech RT1000 seat w/SafeQuip 4Point Harness and Kuhmo VictoRacer Tires. My times droped 6 seconds overall and I was spanking around a couple of the faster cars in the curves.

At the half way point of this video you can see some action between me and my friend's highly modified Acura TSX. I was so on him that he let me pass after a few laps. Can't take the preassure!!!

Once again I was HIGHLY impressed by the Fit's road racing capabilities. This is an AWESOME car to learn to road race in.

YouTube - Honda Fit Track Action @ El Tuque in Ponce Puerto Rico #2

BTW my Kenwood Headunit has a G-Meter and the car averaged 1.4 lateral G's the whole day!

 

nice. i just want to make sure, you only have a progress bar and victoracers? or do you have additional suspension work? and, what brake pads and fluid are you using?

 

i was wondering the same thing. i'd bet he has other work done to the car just because of the sound, shifter, and racing seat. plus it looks pretty bumpy. we'll see what he says though. nice vid it was fun to watch!

 

comments? um yes please...well dont mind if I do...

@4:09-4:14 da hell happened? physics need not apply or what?
@6:22 ahhh yes I feel your pain...
@6:48 (is that where he let you go...cuz it looked like you whooped him in the turn and he fummbled...
@7:37 were you going off road or something? Daaaaaamn!!!

Thanks for sharing very enjoyable... any one up for some WRC incars?

 

next time you go, you should see if the track can set you up with telemetry so you can post that. i would be extremely suprised if you were pulling 1.4g's. im not sure i trust a headunit to give an acurate reading.

cant see the vid at work unless its hosted on google videos, but if ya busted up a modded TSX, thats still pretty impressive!!!

 

Well I've read a little on the G meter on the Kenwood HU and it's supposed to use a mercury filled gyroscope. It might have been a peak but the times I had a passenger in the car he did fix his eyes on the guage and it read 1.3 - 1.4 Gs steadily throughout the faster curves.


As for the mods in my car, here goes:

Skunk2 Lowering Springs on the stock shocks.
Cusco Front and Rear upper strut bars.
T1R Front A-Arm brace bar.
Progress Rear Swaybar.
T1R Braided Lines
Motul RBF600 Brake Fluid
Hawk HPS Pads
Skunk2 Shift Knob ONLY (no short shifter)
Racetech RT1000 Seat
SafeQuip 4 Point Harness
Stock Muffler deleted (everything else engine-wise was STOCK at the time of the video, more on that later)
Kuhmo VictoRacer V700 Tires (On borrowed Konig Network wheels, I use Konig Feathers with Toyo Proxes4 for daily use)
ProSport Oil Pressure and Temp guages custom mounted on the Metra Dash Kit with my Kenwood HU wich I had laying around from my previous car.
To top it all off I use AMSOil 0W-20 Series 3000 Full Synthetic Engine Oil with an AMSOil EA Filter and AMSOil 5W-30 Synchromesh Full Synthetic M/T Transmission Oil.

I don't consider the car to be heavily modified.


The guy in the TSX actually offered me a small sponsorship. He gave me a Fujita CAI and an Apex'i AFC Neo piggyback in exchange for some representation for the brands the times I go to the track and that I give people his number if they are insterested in any of those products. Sounded good to me, so now I have the CAI and the Neo, thanks to that, even though my initial intention was to keep the engine stock for a while longer, I'm gonna invest in headers, exhaust and the Mytheology light weight crank pulley so squeeze a few extra ponies out of it. I will soon super charge it but I've got other economical priorities right now rather than spending 3.5K in extra horsepower. I already have a TON of fun the way the car is.

 

That's the layout of the track, in your first and last comments the area that I am in is in curves 2, 3 and 4. With the short wheelbase, low weight of the Fit and high grip level of the Victo's I literrally FLY by this section of the track. Even faster than the Subies. In a few occasions I entered this section behind cars that were faster than I was in the straights but if I wanted to I could tap their bumpers mid-corner through this section. The rumble strips are a little bumpy thats why it shakes so much through there.

My second favorite section is turns 11-12 into the long straight. I barely need to decel anything through those corners, just blast by them in 3rd pedal all the way on the floor with a little bit of left foot braking.

And btw, he did let me go by, he fumbled because his brakes faded in that corner. Realizing he couldn't keep a faster pace than I could he decided to let me by and calm down. :P

Here's a real pic of the track:



The track has the large road course, a karting layout and the obvious drag strip wich you can see in the real pic.

 

ok i take it back, i can see those g's with the suspension mods, and especialy the v700's lol. very nice setup, and thats awesome that you got some free stuff.

 

wow that was very cool! I like the pass at around 7 minutes into the video

 

nttdemented - THAT WAS THE BEST REPLY EVER!!!!!

YOU ROCK!

 

No probs buddy! I just thought that the track layout was needed so that everyone could better see what was going on.

The interesting thing is that with the VictoRacers I'm not even pushing overly hard on them, they barely squeel any the way I was driving. And they were BRAND new during this event. In 2 more events they will be entirely slick and should grip even MORE. Thats the best part of competition "street" tries. The more they wear in, the better they get, until you reach the Nylon strap then its time to change them out. And $427 for a set of 4 Victo's in 205/50/15 size isn't a bad deal at all since I can get 3 - 4 events out of them. So for the next 2 or 3 events all I need is a brake bleed, maybe a set of pads by the 2nd event and the inscription. Road racing on a budget!!

 

i'm just really surprised, in a good way, that the skunk2's had enough spring rate (with the rear bar, of course) to be able to handle that sort of steady state cornering without serious rub. but i hear you with the victoracers - i'm also surprised at how reasonable they are. the engine sound, too, made me think that you had an intake. but in any event, road racing on a budget is where it's at.

 

Yeah the Skunk2's shine on the race track. 6.4k spring rate in the rear (progressive) and the front is 3.2k (linear). When viewing the car from the outside ther was VERY minimal body roll with the car flying out through the chicane into the straight. I have another clip where you can see that. I'll try to get it posted up soon.

 

wowza, now i'm starting to think that i can get away with skunk2's instead of going with the mugen 5-way because in any event the progress rear bar would be going on too.

lemme see, skunk2 springs - 250
progress bar - 200
RBF600 - 100
Ferodo DS2500 - 100
RA1s + RPF1 - 1200

total: $1850, plus RA1's can last a whole season considering how light this car is and given that I don't go ape until the last 8 minutes of a session. this is indeed a good development. looks like it's time to do some research on skunk2 springs (you're comments are welcome, though). how bumpy is that track? i ask because i want to know how quickly the stock shocks react to high-speed damping situations and if the fit's attitude has improved over stock during mid-corner bumps.

 

Damn dude that looks like a blast, it seems like your Fit is hangin with the faster cars great! I would LOVE to track my Fit someday but im a bit scared lol, its not fast but it will handle like crazy!

tyler

 

Honestly the Fit's stock shocks with the Skunk2 springs react really well in the track, steering response is insanely fast since the shocks have such a low rebound rate and the front and rear rates are quite a bit higher than stock (coilovers are insanely higher like 8k/f 10k/r these are 3.2k/f 6.4k/r). And even though they compress and decompress quickly they only rebound once maybe twice over bumps after I installed the Progress Rear Swaybar and T1R Front A-Arm brace. I'd still like some adjustable, re-valved, short strocked Koni YELLOWs (GRRR KONI!!! FINISH!!!) to limit suspension travel a little and help keep the car's rear end in check as the speed with wich it reacts makes the ass come around quickly, not unconrolably so but it bites out very fast.

This track is actually quite bumpy in a few of the corners, 2-5, then 7 and 8-9 are all pretty bumpy sections. On the street the car feel pretty siff and this is where the Koni shocks will help the most so that they can better control the rebound of the spring rates over regularly bumpy conditions as they are here in PR.

 

i'm debating now. the skunk2's obviously can actually sustain steady state heavy cornering. but, they are progressive. i was thinking of the swift springs. have you had a chance to ride on any linear springs other than stock?

 

Skunk's rear springs are progressive to try and calm them down on the street but they are still pretty rough. The front ones are linear.