Here's my Jazz in action

hi there. im thestig, im from the Philippines, i bought my Jazz(Fit) GD3 last september, 2009 and started planning on how to modify it bit by bit in a way that i can feel how each mod affects how it drives on and off the track

within the first month i got an hks intake and an apexi titanium muffler which must have helped out a bit... perhaps improving psychological performance more than actual performance but at least i could already hear my blips

November 22 autocross - first racing event i joined with my jazz. was competitive in the stock/novice category finishing 2rd overall in my class against a corolla which wasn't exactly stock. yes, we have very lenient rules here so running a car like mine against a race prepped car with a "stock" engine was like pitting an econo box against a touring car - oh wait thats exactly what happened, so there... anyway it was fun anyway and at least i saw that the little jazz had potential.





December 5 trackday - this was the first time i brought my jazz to the circuit (subic international speedway - short track). got a 57.1sec time on crappy tires, my car rolled like crazy and my brakes overheated. enjoyed the day so much and saw where i needed to concentrate on in modifying my jazz. tires, brakes, suspension and RELIABILITY






December 20 trackday - finally got good tires. 195/55r15 Goodyear Eagle RS-Sport - these are non DOT legal tires and they have endless endless grip. considered neovas but i got these because they last longer. being the cheap bastard that i am this was a major consideration. my times improved instantly. got a personal best time of 54.7sec today up from 57.1 during my last trip.

this is how my car looks everytime i go to the track

throughout the day i was stuck at 55sec but i figured that if i remove whatever i can from the car, it might help lower my times...

i removed everything inside except the driver's seat. this move really lowered my time down to 54.7sec




Thats type 100's Aibo parked beside my car


January 24 trackday - my birthday - i recently added coilovers and got to really push the car this day. new personal best time of 54.51sec in Subic international speedway. pretty disappointing considering my times only improved 0.2 sec over my times when i still had my stock suspension. it feels really good though to be the underdog and surprise people with what the jazz/fit can do.




March 7 autocross - did an autocross this day. but since the track was so dusty it almost seemed like rallycross. I got really good times throughout the day (33.9sec) during my noon time runs. 2nd overall in the middle of the day behind a evo3 (33.6sec) driven by local celebrity and professional race car driver Dominic Ochoa and ahead of an sti (34.1sec) the track was really tight and dusty so my little jazz had a pretty big advantage over these high powered monsters. by late afternoon however everybody's times went down to as low as 32.2sec because the dust on track had been cleared by all the previous runs and the temps had gone down. there went my advantage over the high powered cars which kept sliding around all morning. had to leave early so i forfeited my afternoon run oh well, not my day but at least once again proved that the jazz can hang in there with the big boys. great fun nonetheless









March 21 trackday - my most recent event. i added new headers which gained me 11.5whp on the dyno. now my jazz makes 103.4whp. back to subic international raceway. just got another personal best time. 54.41sec but this time the conditions were pretty bad. most of the frequent racers were around 1sec down. when i let my mentor Don Pastor drive my car, he did a 53.69sec lap! that was a bit hard on the car but at least now i know what my jazz can do in the hands of the country's top driver. i was just happy to have gotten a new personal best time in spite of the conditions. i'm sure i can still get lower times during my next trip.


i will post photos of my upcoming modifications and events soon. more power to the hamsters

 

great progress! thats a big gain for just a header though..

 

Sweet! You're the 2nd Filipino on FF I know that is into motorsports. I love it! And I didn't know the Stig was Filipino...

 

its a WR race header oh also forgot to mention i have a runstop big brake kit and tanabe brake pads

 

Welcome to FF Justin! JM here. I wish we could have more trackday meets together

Unfortunately my own trackday activity has to be put on the back burner for now... Maybe before the year ends I could have one or two more blasts.

 

Very impressive improvements on your lap times. Tires make so much difference.

What's your next step with the car?

 

Not to mention the RS-Sports are a fraction of the cost of the AD08 Neovas. Cheaper, longer-lasting, just as grippy - you can't lose!



Man I wanna have another shot of our rides together at the Subic paddock!

 

thank you my plans for my car?

-nardi classic steering wheel - already have one, just need to install it
-stainless steel brake lines
-racing seat
-mid pipe
-modify the headers to make a bit more torque. ive got a friend who fabricates exhausts >
-change my intake
-piggyback ecu
-swaybars
-foam fill the body for added stiffness
-a couple of extra the jazz
-low temp thermoswitch
-relocate battery to trunk
-rollcage?

nothing drastic. i just want it reliable and responsive

 

i might go to batangas this weekend for another trackday

 

Nice. Definitely seems like you know what you want for the car. Refreshing change of pace.

Have you ever considered swapping out for all polyurethane bushings too? Not sure if they make any for the Fit but they should. I did that to my track toy and it helps a lot on switch backs and tighter corners. You can definitely feel less flex and vibration all the way throughout your subframe/chassis.

 

oh yeah forgot about those.. poly bushings would be awesome if i could find a set. if not i could have them fabricated.

also planning on getting an LSD by the way


-for now i'm pretty happy with the handling. what i really need is to find just a bit more power without sacrificing response. so no matter how much i want the power from a turbo, i'd rather have a weaker but more responsive car than a more powerful one which suffers from even marginal lag. haha NO.... seriously i'd die to have a turbo or a supercharger but bottomline is I CANT AFFORD IT i could hardly keep up with running my car a couple of times every month

 

Lol...yea, I know what you mean. As soon as I started going for more power and running it at the track, weaknesses in my build showed up so I had to start doing damage control and fixing things here and there before hitting the track again. Unfortunately, that still doesn't solve my issues of going through tires and brake pads.

Track days are expensive but still sooo worth it, haha.

 

Wait, you could have polyurethane bushings fabricated?! There's nothing made for our GDs. Hit me up if you can find a shop that does!!!

I recently had to replace my entire left lower control arm because one of its bushings was cracked. Apparently you can't get just bushings here, you have to buy the whole LCA.

 

Wow, are you serious? That suckksss. Never heard of that before.

 

Yeah it does. No one makes aftermarket bushings for GDs, at least no one that sells here in the Philippines.

Apparently not even Honda makes just bushings for GDs either.

If our cars were EGs or EKs, then buying bushings alone would pose no problem.

 

there are several shops which make bushings here in Manila. You could go to Zee or Cruven to have them made. the only problem with the poly bushings is that they can get noisy after a while. Another very ingenious Filipino practice is making bushings out of used truck tires (i'm considering these) - the bushings are copies of the original except they are machined out of used truck tires. they're almost as hard as poly bushings yet they aren't as noisy. well so i've heard. i think theyre worth a try. a shop in lower antipolo does these

 

what engine have you got? 1.3 idsi or 1.5 idsi or 1.5 VTEC? and are you at the coast?

 

He's got the L15A1 motor with VTEC.

 

I want to again but my wallet has yet to recover

 

Man I can't wait to get back out on the track...