Changes....

So lets face it - there is always something about our cars we'd like to change and improve. For some its the looks, while others want more handling or speed. Most modern carowners today - regardless of how much they love their car - want something more.

But What?

Well thats what this thread is about. Which changes you would want for you Jazz/Fit.

From where I come from, it has always been about two things. Making power, and putting power to the ground. The first thing I look for when I get my hands on a new car, are ways to improve its power output, and handling. For me - function always came over fashion. Even tho the Jazz wan't ment to be a fast ride - there are ways to improve the output of the engine, and putting the power to the ground. Getting there will be my path...

What About Me?

Yeah - what about you? What would you like to upgrade, or change about your Jazz? Where do you go to find you best bang for the bucks? Do the Poll and tell us how you want to upgrade your Jazz to your dreamcar!

 

First thing I do to any car is the EXHAUST!

A good exhaust changes the driving experience considerably. That "Vrooom Vrooooom" makes me smile everytime I step on the gas. ( I'm one of those crazy folks that sit there and listen to Ferrari exhaust clips over and over again too!)

Next Rims.. Rims can change the look of the car dramatically. Especially if you choose an offset to make the wheels flush with the fenders. It gives any car an aggressive stance.

Window Tint a must.

Then a ball shift knob.

Next I do handling mods. These are mods you can feel right away.

I hardly ever do any power mods unless the car comes turbo charged from the factory. NA cars give very little performance gains from bolt on mods. Especially hondas, unless you are ready to dump a LOAD of money into the motor.

Body kits last.

 

For me, it's the interior - the sound specifically. Having done the 'fast cars' thing, I'm looking at the Jazz for economy, flexibility and comfort. If i wanted a fun drive (not that I'm saying the Jazz can't be such), I'd buy a SMART Brabus roadster.

Ideally, I'd like to change the factory fit radio for something aftermarket however, it seems Honda is unwilling to help in my search for a replacement Facia so I think I'll be adding an iPod link in the first instance - It's a shame as I'd like a DVD player with MP3 and DAB radio...

I'm still not sure whether to have the Honda alarm system, or get that fitted aftermarket with something that does 'everything' (windows and sunroof open/close, etc). I don't expect anyone to try to steal it - it's more for the functionality than anything else.

I already have a PDA sat-nav, so I need to mount that as well.

I guess I'll probably look at tinting the windows, if I can find a decent company to do them, and maybe in the future look to new rims, although the stock sport rims aren't too bad for a while.

There're lots of things I'd like to do, but money will be the governing factor, and everything will take a while I guess - too many years of doing this before !

Michael.

 

I still haven't gotten my Jazz, but when I do - the first thing I'll start working on is the suspension. The car im looking at now is a Milano Red 2003 1.4iDSI.

- New suspension bushings in Poly Urethane
- Spoon Sport Coilovers with 12k/10k springrate (GoKart-style y0)
- Spoon Sport Lower Arm Bar
- Mugen Tower Bar
- XForce Lower Front Bracekit

 

Since I'll be using the Fit as a beater, I'll upgrade a few simple things... wheels, HIDs and stereo.

 

i'd say exterior...

i don't really dig the design of the current jazz/fit....hopefully the second year will be better....LOL

if the second year's design looks like the drawing, that'll damn c000ll...

 

here in the philippines, mine particularly is the suspension, am looking for the tanabe brand but they say it wont be available here in the philippines till late december.

the interior, from 2 tone id lyk it all black just lyk in the fit vtec........

 

My first plan of change over would be suspension, lightweight wheels and braking.

Suspension: Adjustable coilover system with tunable shock/springs.
Wheels: Keep them at the stock 15" diameter but at an increase width to 6 or 6.5. And of course, has to be lightweight and when I say lightweight, it has to be under 13 lbs.
Brakes: Bigger calipers(maybe a swap from a Civic SI), bigger disk(also from a Civic SI) and Axxis Pads.

Just Off-Topic, I know we are all intelligent and smart human beings. Would it hurt not to talk and spell ghetto in this forum. All good forums I know gets ruined by new members acting "Ghetto". Just ranting, can't stand to read things where you need to shorten spelling because you're too lazy to spell things out. Spelling of lyk doesn't sound like "like" but more like "lick". Sorry had to point it out.

 

Are you just looking for Tanabe lowering springs? A lot of shops have this in the Manila.

 

If I find myself in one.

-ditch the stock seat for a bucket
-"hasta la vista" to the stock steering wheel (spare me the airbag lecture )
-Omori gauges for water temp, oil temp, oil pressure
-ATS final gear set, clutch, LSD and some suitable flywheel
-KYB double SSG dampers (if released yet)
-Performance brake pads/SS lines
-Some 15X7 +38mm wheels on Advan A032Rs

To start anyway.....

 

i'm just gonna do some little exterior work and make this puppy for daily driving.

 

Ok since I've been driving it myself for a while now I'd probably change the tires. I prefer sleepers so the LEO's don't think I'd be helping them to make their quota. Better brippier tires and nice but not too fancy a rim. I don't go for spoilers as I'm just not into that any longer. I had a Superbird with the big spoiler and a lot of hot cars years ago. Still wish I had the Superbird or the money I could get for it now! I think the Stock 1.5L Jazz in Siverstone with a remapped engine chip and gummy tires would be best. here in Cebu the roads aer awful so a tight suspension would pound you. I drove Civic Type R and just couldn't buy it as it was too brutal for the roads here. If I wanted real power I'd add a turbo and an intercooler to the 1.5L and tighten up the suspension a bit but not too much. Tires are the best investment you can make, ask anyone who races. Then take the car out and autocross it in the
SCCA www.scca.org
or race it. Solo 2 is better as you are far less likely to go shiny side down with it. After you really drive it and get hooked up with the drivers in your class make performance adjustments that will work, usually depends on if you want to be in stock class or modified. Either way other than tires you need to really drive the car. I'd love to Autocross here in Cebu but not a big enough place to do it. The US has lots of places.
I'm a performance oriented guy and while I can appreciate the innovative stylings that many people do it's your car and your personality as an individual that you are showing. I want power and I want the car to do what I want it to do, so dialing in the car so it has neutral or a bit of oversteer would be very helpful to me. Sorry for rambling
Interesting thread tho and enlightening
Steve

 

i don't really think this car can go too fast so spending money on performance parts will never be enough to get close to a S2000.

 

I was the Novice Champion in the New England Division of the SCCA. I would be willing to bet that a skilled driver in Jazz versus an unskilled driver in an S2000 would do a comparable time. I've driven an S2000, it's a peaky engine and works better in the high rev range. The Jazz at least my model cost me P604,000 pesos. A Honda S2000 if it was available, would be almost 2 million pesos. I've seen all kinds of cars in Autocross and bigger isn't always better.

I posted a link so people could check it out. www.scca.org and then look under Solo 2 for more info. If I was still in America I would Solo 2 the Jazz 1.5L with no hesitation. But here in Cebu the roads are terrible.
You'd be amazed at what an SCCA driving course can do to improve the performance of the car. Quote most often herad t SCCA events to new drivers: "First you have to improve the nut behind the wheel." After you do that then you can actually see a difference in performance versus faith that it's faster or quicker. Many mods will actually slow you down. Solo 2 is technical time trial type of racing and only 1 car at a time and if you think it's easy try it some time. :-) Although it'll cost about $25 for non-members, it's very addicitive and easy for anyone to do. I saw all kinds of cars out there and you'd be amazed at what some cars can do, and I meen cheap older crappy $1,000 cars with some tires and a few minor allowable mods.
The Jazz 1.5L with better shocks and tires, probably a front tower brace and some sway bars would do a lot. Once you get into the modified class that's lots of $$$ to win. Plus you can put your sticky tires in the back of the Jazz, try that in an S2000. The S200 is a nice car although I'd probably pony up to buy a Lotus Elise if I wanted a 2 door convertible sports car. The Miata was cheap to run, the Jazz moreso and you can get some real sticky tires in 15"
It's never going to be a supercar but a fun car to blitz around in, absolutely!
Look at the Civic of old, a POS econobox to most people when it came out but after the tuners worked on it the CRX was a real fire breather , not a ferrari but still....
I think the 1.5L Jazz is going to impress a lot more people than the 1.3L I think it can be tuned up a lot and Honda knows that. But you are right no one will confuse it for an S2000. I'd be willing to bet in 2-3 years they might make a convertible Jazz, now that would be fun and they'd sell all they could make.

 

The Jazz beats the NSX in endurance racing in Japan!!! The reason the Spoon Jazz exists is because they see it has serious race potential.

People really underestimate the Jazz. I went from a 4litre 6cyclinder 154kw Aussie ute to the 81kw Jazz and don't find much power loss. Acceleration is about the same. Torque loss yes. The Aussie 6 had over 350nm (great for towing) but I didn't buy a Jazz to tow a 40 foot boat.

 

wow, good write up.. i'll do more serious research on this fit

 

I have an S2000 and autox'ed it many times. It would take a exceptional driver in a Fit/Jazz and an extremely bad driver in the S2000, for the Fit to come close to a comparable time.

I haven't driven the Fit yet but I assume that there will be an enormous power and handling difference. Its the same difference that makes the Fit an economical daily driver and the S2000, a world class, high performance roadster.

I'm not bashing the Fit but its not an S2000 or NSX, not even close.

 

hey mav,

i'm doing the samething you do...

 

An S2000 is the most powerful per litre naturally aspirated production car in the world. It is arguably the best convertible in the world. The Europeans have no match for it espcially when you factor in the small detail of price.

The European motoring press couldn't really fault it so had to say the only problem with it was it lacked soul. That would be the European soul of turn the key and pray it starts this time. Or maybe it will go for more than a week without visiting the mechanic. Or maybe it doesn't overheat in climates of greater than 20C. Or maybe the company that produces it isn't needing to be bailed out of bankruptcy for the 4th time.

Its horses for courses. I can buy 3 Jazzes for 1 S2000 and each Jazz can carry 5 adults and luggage or up to 3 baby capsules without sacrificing luggage space. Function over form.

If you want out and out performance forget cars and go buy a Honda sports bike. Still holds 2 people. Sub 3 secs to 100km/hr. 6 seconds to 200km/hr and then I'll use the other 5 remaining gears to disappear over the horizon while your searching for a gear. And you can buy a fleet of bikes for the price of the car. But then you can't ride bikes comfortably all year round in most countries besides Australia (don't have to worry about that snow stuff here).

 

One thing I hope that Honda does with the Fit when it arrives in the USA market is encourage a strong third-party market for body trim, tire/wheel, brake and suspension upgrades, just like what Toyota's Scion division offers for the xA and xB hatchbacks. Given that the US-market Fit will probably use the 1.5-liter version of the 1.3-liter I-4 three-phase SOHC i-VTEC engine used on the 2006 Civic Hybrid (with the new engine rated at around 108-110 bhp (SAE 08/04 net), I don't see much potential for performance upgrades unless somebody bolts on a turbocharger or supercharger.


Of course, there are people who will try to fit (pun intended!) a K-series engine into the Fit....