A few Fitful thoughts tonight....

I've been tracking my car at Mid-Ohio these past two days. Tomorrow I'm cleared to drive without an instructor if I choose to. I'm the only Fit here (kinda surprising considering the Spec B class is supposed to begin next year). It's been getting an awful lot of attention. Yesterday, the attention was mostly because it's an oddity. Also, we ran almost the whole day in the rain. I was consistently one of the fast cars in my group of novice/intermediate drivers, mostly because my car handled like it was on rails no matter how wet it was. It took rain, drizzle, semi-dry, misty - pretty much every possible cold and wet condition - and treated them all like a walk in the park.

Today (a day that started cold and cloudy and eventually got very nice), as the day went on, I had people stopping me to tell me how impressed they are with Fit. Drivers, instructors, even the Hawk Brake Pads' bigwig noticed and paid attention to how great the GE handles the very technical Mid-Ohio course.

I was asked a dozen times what suspension mods it has. Every single person was surprised to hear "just Swift springs". People can't believe how the car digs in and hooks up with almost no body roll.

I was still attacking turns deep into the session with almost no brake pad fade (using Hawk HPS) thanks to the weight and nimble handling (even with 200lb me and 150lb instructor weighing us down).

Now, all of that being said, the lack of get-up-and-go with the 1.5 vtech makes for a loooooong backstretch haha. It takes sooooo long to get up to speed, meaning this is a true momentum car. If you lose your momentum, you're dead in the water. Buuuuut carry some good speed into a technical section and hit all your marks, and it's about the most fun you'll ever have on 4 wheels.

Tomorrow it's going to be 80 and sunny. Should be a wonderful day on the track!

I'll post pics in the days to come.

 

This weekend was awesome. NASA is a great organization full of great people. By Sunday, I had learned the track and my car well enough that I had the tires yelling at me around half the track. One photographer (who sent me some pics including the track pics below) said "You were tearing it up out there! That was fun to watch!"

I'd like to think that after this weekend and all the attention the little Fit got, there are a lot more people taking the new upcoming B-Spec class seriously.


That Lotus was a tenth of a second faster than me on Friday, and then he took it out of first gear....

 

That sounds like a blast! Did you run race rubber? Would love to drive that course sometime.

 

Dunlop Direzza Star Specs. Couldn't be happier with them. By Sunday afternoon I had the utmost confidence in them and felt like they would do whatever I asked of them. On Friday, it was wet all day and the car drove like it was on rails. We saw weather everywhere from 40 degrees with rain to over 80 and sunny, and the Dunlops handled it all wonderfully.

 

one of the many reason why I'm still on Swift spring... lovin your fit!

 

Star Specs are an amazing tire, done plenty of track days on them. Great for the price and performance. I honestly stumbled in here just as something that I have been just joking around with doing since I'm selling my track car. However, from the sounds of it especially with all the new Spec B stuff, it seems like the Fit could be a fund weekend warrior.

I look forward to seeing some more updates of your track experiences and whatnot!

 

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you all, on Sunday between the 2nd and 3rd sessions I installed my progress rear sway bar. I figured in a controlled track environment I could get a real sense of exactly what it does to the handling. It was awesome. The car started ripping around tight corners that had been giving me some trouble.

Without the rsb, the car sort of digs in a little - which feels wonderful but isn't as fast. With the rsb installed, it feels more like the car is sitting up and attacking the corner.

The basic ride characteristics are essentially the same. It's only when I'm really driving it in track conditions that I can feel a difference.

 

@Tauwolf: do you have an A/T? your signature said "Honda red-stitched a/t shift knob"

@forum04pl: if you'll read the latest testing and update on the b-spec cars from Honda and Mazda, all that were done to it are as simple as a cat-delete for the Fit, an axle-back exhaust for the Mazda 2. Both cars share the same tires and suspension setup, a gutted interior, seats+harness and a cage and you're already in "spec". News & Updates - Welcome to B-SPEC.net

 

<sigh> yes, it's an automatic. I had no idea I'd be tracking this car when I bought it.

 

were on the same boat on that but hey... if you get b-spec certification on AT, why not??? I'd take on it

 

This thread just further encourages my plans to get a Fiat 500 to go along with the GE, and prepping the latter for the Circuit of the Americas, complete with Turbo. The Fit already isn't quite fitting for my professional image, and especially not lowered on lightweight wheels. I see no reason, with some power, why it couldn't go out there and walk all over a bunch of "sports cars."

 

Do you think they'd allow an automatic? I would hope they'd allow us to install a transmission cooler.

 

I'm curious about your quickest lap time in the dry. Did you have any brake fade issues?

 

Unfortunately I wasn't in a timed group, so I'm going to have to time the videos when I get the chance to put them together.

As for brake fade, I'm using Hawk HPS (this is my daily driver, also), and only after 2-3 hard laps would I experience even the ever-so-slightest brake fade. Half a lap of taking it easy fully restored the pads.

 

(for the record, I was catching that Miata when the session ended... hehehe)