Ran my first two autocross events in the Fit on Saturday and Sunday. (My SCCA region does 'em back-to-back like that.) The car did well. Final results aren't posted yet, but I'm pretty sure I won my class (H Stock) both days and probably wound up just above the halfway point in PAX times.

There was another Fit running Saturday (our own Mr Froge), as well as a new Suzuki SX4 sedan and a couple other cars. But there was no Mini or Mazda 3 to contend with on this weekend!

You can see an in-car video of my best run from Sunday at this link (apologies in advance for the shaky camera mount!):

BIG PICTURE Racing: First autocross weekend

The big surprise was that understeer wasn't overwhelming. By playing with tire pressures and trail-braking, I even got the rear of the car to rotate a little on corner entry.

I'm running on Kumho v710 R-compound tires, 205/50/15, crash bolts in the front struts to get -1 degree camber and zero toe in the front. Otherwise, no suspension mods. (I did take the rear muffler off for the runs, however). I settled on 34 psi front and 45 psi rear tire pressures, but next time I'll try even less pressure in front.

Another nice surprise was that power seemed adequate most of the time. The big limitation was wheelspin. The course was similar both days and included some big sweepers. The Fit would lift the inside front wheel all the way through these turns and I couldn't get all the power down. I might be able to reduce some of this by learning how to drive the car better.

I also found that first gear is too short. I was hitting the rev limiter launching from the green flag before I even got through the first corner.

I think better front brake pads would help, too. I probably could have dived deeper into corners with brake pads that have more initial bite. On the other hand, this could be a driver-education issue, too!

So for next time, I'll be looking into front swaybar mods to deal with the wheelspin, and probably order up better front brakepads.

 

Looked like a good run. I wonder if you would prefer an axleback or cat back exhaust vs. the muffler removal. I went ahead and installed the progress rear swaybar (puts me out of HStock), and I plan on running my first autocross at the end of March. I'll be definitely out classed, but I really love the way the car handles with the swaybar. I'll let you know if that heps wheelspin.

 

Looks like a pretty clean run. Grats.

I remember my first auto-X runs years back in the Integra. I took many cones with me along for the ride. Been so long if I went auto-Xing again I'd probably take a few more for a ride. Stoopid cones.

 

Looked like a great run man. Nice write up and great driving!

Tyler

 

good run, looks like a faster track setup for higher speeds. I found that running around 40 psi in the front and 38 psi in the rear for tire pressure. I am far from stock but for my setup this works the best.

I would look into other tires though if you run again in r-compound
kumho = poop

 

Thx for the replies! I thought about an aftermarket exhaust, but I've gotta keep the wife happy and she likes a quiet exhaust. Plus, the price of the aftermarket systems out there really turns me off. I could build something myself or get a local shop to make something cheaper, maybe. But removing the rear muffler is only two bolts and two hangers. Takes me 5 minutes at the track and it also takes 10 pounds off the car.

I've read that the new Kumhos (like mine) work better with lower pressures, so next time I'll keep dropping pressure in the fronts a little to see how that works. My thinking is that higher pressure in the rear reduces the contact patch so you get less grip and more tossability.

 

I dont know about the Fit so much (especially right now) but I would if at all possible remove the spare and jack for the event only. I had really good results doing so in my civic. And For what little and I mean little It would be worth I would fold down the rears and lay the front passenger seat flat back.(not so friendly for camera mounting though ) There are tons of things that can be done legally or not but... those I would think would top the list in terms of quick and functional (especially for us lazy folk)

Indeed it seemed like a relatively quick layout, and the exhaust note made me giggle with the wheel hop and undulations.

Thanks for posting the vid it was fun

 

Skimmer, just wonder how did you mount your camera?

 

I like the idea of folding down the seats. You may bea ble to shift a little weight lower in the car (like 5 lbs), but you see guys moving the battery for a small advantage also. It's free and takes only a few seconds to do!

Maybe Skimmer can try that at his next run. Looks like the first sessions in my area wont be until the first week in April (it is snowing a little this morning).

 

I did fold down the rear seats and I also rolled down all the windows to get that weight a little lower in the car. And I also removed the spare tire, jack, and anything else that wasn't bolted down. That is pretty common practice when autocrossing, but you'd be surprised how few people do it. On the starting grid over the weekend, I saw people with trinkets hanging from their rearview mirrors, maps and CDs and junk in their door pockets. Not only is it unnecessary weight, but it could fly around and create a distraction or even a safety issue.

slimjim: The camera mount was a homemade deal, which is why it was so shaky. It was the first time I've used it so it was sort of a trial run. What I did was find some metal tubing that matched the diameter of the headrest posts. I removed the front passenger headrest, inserted the tubing into the headrest mount holes, bent the tubes toward the rear of the car, then bolted the ends together with a small camera ballhead mount (which I bought at an electronics store for under $20). The camera itself threads onto this using the camera's tripod screw hole. The camera, btw, is no fancy videocam but just a regular digital camera set on the motion picture setting. The whole thing was dirt cheap and I think it worked pretty well except for the shaking. I'll have to brace it at a third point somehow next time to deal with that.

 

Hilarious because I follow the same practice and I'm also suprised how few people take advantage of this.

 

Dang I'm the guy thats usually having a heat stroke because I try to keep all the windows rolled up for aero dynamics...Glad im too old, too cheap, and too busy to auto-x these days hehe. Still fun reading about others experiences though.

 

Great feedback, Skimmer! Interesting how even with r-comps wheelspin is a limiting factor for the Fit. I bet that BE front sway and some adjustable rear shocks might really help keep that inside front tire down. I'd sure like to squeak as much performance out of a sticky street tire as I can, as I'm not sure when I'll be able to justify dedicated race tires. If I can make my Saturn wheels prettier (powder coat), I wouldn't mind running some Kumho MX's for 8 months of the year...

HF

 

Glad to hear you did well.

Seems like the 5MT version of the Fit does much better than the 5AT version I ran at Autocross last month.

I have 2008 Fit Sport AT with:
4 crash bolts giving -0.8 degrees negative camber up front
Aligned to 1/8" toe out in front which is at border of stock specs.
Stock air filter and exhaust
Sport Edition D4 15x6 rims with +50 offset about 14 lbs each
Kumho V710 tires 205/50-15
Minus spare tire and tools, mats, rear headrests, and rear seat folded down.

Overall-
Fit handled OK, no big complaints. Not bad on understeer- there was some.
Power- definitely not enough even in lower gears
5AT- unable to find a good gear to make use of power, first gear too low- hit rev limiter easily, second gear lacked torque
Wheelspin- None even when mashing on the throttle
Tipping the rear tire off the ground- minimal to none though in my other autocross car I can't seem not to be on three wheels a lot.
Brakes- no big problems, didn't notice significant trouble
Paddle shifters- useless in turns since steering wheel was upside down and ease of shifting was improbable. Often revs were too high to down shift coming out of a sharp turn, Fit stayed in second which was not the right gear to get going.
Sport mode in AT- nearly useless as it downshifted at the wrong times
2nd gear in AT- not too bad but I feel that using the shifters to downshift would have been helpful
Fun to drive- yes definitely although I was some 5 seconds behind the best time of the day out of 100 cars. Finished 2nd in H stock to a good Corolla running on street tires (RE-01R)
Best find- I also ran on Bridgestone RE-01R in 195/50-15 and got within 0.1 seconds of my best times using R compounds so the RE-01Rs mounted on stock rims would be a great less expensive and very good alternative that doesn't require changing wheels for events. RE-01Rs felt solid on handling as well compared to stock tires- like a big suspension upgrade with tires alone.

 

Thanks for the replies. That's good feedback on the Bridgestones. I thought about going that route and may end up doing it next season (or when the Kumhos wear out).

It sounds like the AT is a limitation. What are the ratios compared to the MT? Is 2nd gear that different?

In my car I was seeing wheelspin not just in corners but also when launching at the green flag. I could pretty much spin the front tires at will by launching at anything above 2500 rpm. Of course, the tires never got very hot because these were short runs on a pretty cool day. More heat might have prevented that. But it was actually kinda fun!

I may play around with trying to make the front swaybar adjustable before committing to an aftermarket bar. I was also thinking about trying Monroe air shocks in the rear. Some people have installed a Chevy Cavalier part number to deal with carrying extra loads in the Fit, and it occurred to me that an air shock might actually increase spring rate, as opposed to a conventional shock, which would only increase transitional stiffness. What do you guys think?

 

Nice writeup and the video was pretty nice for a home made mount. I dont know anything about auto-x but maybe someday i will try to get into it. To bad with the suspension stuff i have already done i would be out classed and always get beat. If something ever comes up in NC im gonna have to try it. Again great write up and nice run.

 

If you have manual transmission and suspension upgrades you just need good wider than stock rims like 15x7 or 16x7 and good sticky tires like
Bridgestone Potenza RE-01R in 196/50-15 or 205/45-16 and you can do well in SCCA autocrossing for Street Touring S (only DOT tires of 140 rating or higher) or F Street Performance classes (this allows R compound tires).

The stock suspension is OK with the right tires so you can have fun right out of the box. Improving suspension would improve performance and lower run times but you do have a larger handicap to make up. It would be very fun to drive.

Camber kits for the front would be legal and possible for FSP and STS classes as well- more front negative camber would help.

 

lots of stuff comes up in NC...i go to them...

 

Just got a chance to view the video. Flowing and open course good for faster runs, need to really get on the gas enough all the time and slow enough for the tighter turns. Smooth inputs for steering and a good line will help. Nice job of driving.

We have a lot of hairpin turns at least 3 per run, some very tight in some areas. This is to keep speeds down and often we only get up to 42 mph.
As a result second is not torqey enough but I'll be going a little too fast for 1st. Your video shows that your manual transmission did a better job than my automatic at providing power.

 

Thx for the feedback. I'm certainly still learning to drive the car better, and with some practice, maybe I can cut down on the wheelspin some. I don't know what speeds I was running (no time to look at speedo) but it was a fast course. My region is run by a lot of Corvette guys and they like to design fast courses, so we don't see a lot of hairpins. My best times were in the 31-32 second range, about 4 seconds behind the fastest 'vettes. So with that in mind, I was pleased that I wasn't hitting the rev limiter in 2nd gear too!