Hey all,
I'm new to the Fit world. I actually have liked the Fit a lot since they came out. I've been a member of this board since 2008. Wow! Time flies when you're having fun. I'm in the Salt Lake City area. I've been driving a 2002 Subaru WRX, but it has 188,000 miles and I commute 78 miles/day (22,000 miles/yr) and I coach baseball and have 4 boys, so the Fit was a good fit for the family, my commute and my interest in cars. I was not going to buy a Camry or Accord. I did look at some 2010-2011 Civic LX's, but I'm stoked that I found this Fit in the color I wanted, with a manual transmission.
The Fit is a certified used car from Ken Garff Honda in SLC and has 27,000 miles and totally stock. haha I did remove the license plate and my friend who owns an xB1 said I could flip my rear wiper blade up, so I'll look into that.
I'm already scoping out wheels, following the track/autoX threads. Looks like 15x7.5 or 15x8 with 205/50/15 or even 225/50/15 are the route to go for good handling and improved looks. I'd also like to do lowering springs as well. I love the steering feel and general nimbleness of the Fit so far. I hope to improve that over time. I guess that's it for now.



In this last pic is our 2007 Metallic Slate Green Odyssey we love and my up for sale 2002 WRX with STi interior, exterior bits, BC Coilovers, 17x9 Grids and Stage 2 Tune and turboback exhaust. It's been an awesome car but time to move on.
This thread will be for me to log my experiences with the Fit and any mods I do to it. I'm also interested in my MPG. I've logged mpg in all my cars for the last 8 years. I'm interested in looking into simple mods that can improve mpg and responsiveness. I know this is a low powered 1.5L, but there's always room for improvement. My WRX averaged 28.3, my 1998 Civic LX averaged 41.5 and my 1995 Mustang GT averaged 22.7. Just the minimal driving I've done in the Fit so far it looks like I'll be around 40mpg.

 

Got some "JDM" yellow vinyl coming for the fog lights and just picked up a can of black plastidip for the emblems, maybe a rear bumper guard to protect against the baseball gear going in and out and maybe spray the rear lower valance black too.

 

Welcome from a fellow past subie owner! The fit is good with being responsive and I get 29.5 mpg no freeways while not driving like a grandma=)

 

Thanks man. Pretty good "in town" mpg there. You have any DIY mods or things you've done to the Fit that really wake it up handling or engine responsiveness wise?

 

umm the only mods i have a straight pipe axle back, tein stech springs. and 16x8 20 offset wheels on stock tires. from driving around the one mod that increased the responsiveness the most to me is stretching the stock tires to fit the 16x8 wheels.

 

from experience the stock intake will probably give you better response than those aftermarket intakes for some reason.

 

bigger throttle body will probably improve responsiveness

 

I have been researching wheels. Not many good tires sizes that are really close to the stock diameter (I'd say really close is probably about .25"). So, put the stock tires on some wider wheels is one of my best options as you've done.

Any rubbing issues with those springs and that offset of wheel?

Pics of your axle back? I actually have a 3" straight pipe I kept from my suby that I'm thinking of having it modified/redone to fit the fit.

 

only slight rubbing hitting dips on the street going over 40 mph. my axle back is straight pipe with an exhaust tip. i dont have a pic right now but the exhaust tip i chose fits the little space in the bumper perfectly.

 

You do realize that when you stretch a tire you decrease the overall diameter.

185/55/16 is 24.01 in diameter
205/50/16 is 24.07 so you gain 0.2%
195/50/16 is 23.68 which is -1.4% smaller
195/45/17 is 23.91 which is -0.4 % smaller
You can figure out the width but all 3 listed are good for 7 or 8 in wide wheels so there are options out there.

 

I know there are options, but I was wanting to go 15" wheels to add lightness so I improve handling instead of degrade it.
So how does stretching a tire change it's overall diameter? That doesn't make sense.

 

When you are stretching the tire over a larger portion of the wheel then it was intended for you are thus changing the aspect ratio of the tire

15" tires are so cheap you might as well just get the correct aspect ratio or a larger aspect ratio for the increased performance and looks

 

So when you have a tire designed for a specific width of rim with a certain sidewall height and you take that tire and stretch the side wall you thus lower the profile of the tire.

 

Since you mentioned 15's a 205/55/15 is 23.88 in in diameter which is only
-0.6% difference.

 

going on about wheels and tires. the stock wheels for the sport model(16") are already pretty light already in running 205/50/16 on my fit and the over all grip and responsiveness have greatly improved over stock

 

Thanks for everyone's input.

For a 16" wheel, the stock weighs about 17.5lbs, give or take a little I'm sure. When I can get a 13lb 15" wheel for $100/ea (konig wheels for example), then 4lbs per corner is significant. Plus I can get a 7 or 7.5" wide wheels and put a 205 on it. If I put a 205 on the stock 6" wide wheel, that's gonna make the sidewall even more squishy. I'd rather have a more square tire setup for better turn in and cornering. I wouldn't put a wider tire on the stock 16x6 wheel, that's just me and my experience though. Good discussion!

 

^I went that route and I will say the lighter wheels and decent tires make the Fit feel like a real car, the stock shocks respond well to the lighter wheels even lowered.

I have 205/55/15 and I do notice the car sits a little higher in revs cruising over the 195/60/15 I had before on the base wheels, but cumulatively it's a decrease of 1.5% over what I was used to using for a long time. You will notice less going from 185/55/16 sport wheels to 205/55/15 because there is less of a change. I was going to go to 195/55/15 on the stock wheels and i'm glad I didn't... it would be cool for fun driving but I think it'd be a bit much to DD for me.

 

Good to know Wanderer. I saw the 205/55/15 as an option, not a lot of tire selection, but the size is right. I really don't wanna go with a taller sidewall, but I really do want to go with 15". Maybe 15x7.5 or 15x8 would be optimal width with the 205/55 width and ratio. hmmm...

 

Sidewall is fine really. Not too flexy if you pump the pressure up a bit and I have mine on 6.5", 7" would be better. There's a few wheels with 7.5" but more than I wanted to spend.

I'm not doing track work with this setup though...

 

Ok, I picked up a $6 can of black plastidip from Home Depot and had at it on the emblems. My first time with plastidip, funny stuff. Had to clean the emblems as best I could. Been snowing off and on this week. Used a blow dryer to make sure the emblems were dry and then used it to help dry the dip as the garage was in the high-mid 40's F.