Hello all,


Hope you are well. Looking for input on how to make GE8s faster. Reckon there are 2 approaches:


1) Make it lighter

2) Make more HP


Have bias for methods that are cheaper, easier and quick but would like to hear all ways.


I will start.


Make more HP:
Spend $150 on Amazon and get a HPS Short Ram (HPS 27-102P). This intake will drop your 5-60 MPH time by near 1.5 secs without much money, time or effort. Spend even less on a Racing SRI Short Ram.


What have you done on your car to make it faster?

 

23" tires on wheels give 5% wheel force boost combined with wheel/tires that are 22% lighter which does make the car faster. In the spring I will do a 20-40 run Engineering Explained style to test the difference.

Also I use a tuned koni coilover suspension to improve handling balance which carries more speed through corners and gives the car more stability and improves confidence.

There was a person on the forums who did a CAI, Exhaust, and plugs and gained 15hp on a dyno, but the next week he redynoed it and it spit out stock numbers. The computer hampers any untuned gains.

FI with a tune is the most cost effective way to make more tangible power in a fit. And for that money you could have a stock fit and 200WHP miata lol or an E36M3. Shame that we can't use the CRZ supercharger.

Taking out the rear seat is a great way to save weight but except in more extreme racing classes is banned as a tactic. Reducing weight can reduce safety and FI reduces engine life. Pick you poison. I would rather buy another car that is lighter or more powerful already lol. If I was that dedicated to it.

 

I love my fit but I knew it was a slow car going into it.

Now there are ways to make your car faster such as a turbo or engine swap, but these are expensive and will strain your car.

I know this isn't the answer you want to hear but the fit is an econo-box car, meant to get you from point A to point B with good mpg. Its not a civic type r or an s2000, its a slow 4 door hatch that is good on gas.

Its not a camaro, or a mustang or a 370z, so why try and make it pretend to be something its not. Now you can make your car a little more fun as most of us here do, and even make it sound nice with exhaust and an intake.

However it will simply cost too much money, time and effort to make it a "fast" car.

Now if you really, really have too much money in your bank account you can always focus on suspension and the breaking system to help you grab some better times on the track. Upgrade to coilovers, get bigger sway bars & strut bars, get a big break kit, convert the rear drums to disks, get slotted rotors, upgrade the break pads and fluid, get wider & lighter wheels, get better grippier tires, and you will have your self a very nimble, well handling, grocery getter.

But in all honesty just focus on making a more enjoyable car for you to drive around town in. No bolt on will ever yield distinguishable results its mostly cosmetic and to get a little noise coming from our tiny engines.

I love my honda fit, and respect it enough to just enjoy it for what it is.

 

Mr.Hollow and rhop


Thanks for the posts.


I am not out to make my Fit competitive with Civic Sis or the like, just make it better with minimal amount of time, effort and money.


The HPS intake I installed made it a different and better car. Taking 1.4 secs off 5-60 MPH is fairly huge to me and I would think, many others. Reckon the intake gets 5 HP or so max. If another 5 HP can be found as easy, quick and cheap I will be on that like a bee on honey.


Thought about light weight rims to speed acceleration, but that isn't cheap.


Exhausts - not seeing dynos - why is that? Hate loud though so if I go that route, will need to get my own quiet muffler. Sure others have experience with exhausts. Love to see some posts on exhausts.


Thinking many others are interested in how to make their Fit faster/better with minimal amount of time/effort/money invested.


List all the ways, even if it isn't time/effort/money efficient. Let the Forum User decide on what to use.

 

the cheapest way to make a fit faster - in curves - is disconect the drives side link to the front antisway bar and for straight line aceleration mount shorterwder tires. Not bad ad a set of /4" spacers on the wheels.
All out: lowering by a inch to 1.5" (more will genrate difficulties in handling); adding stouter ASB to rear and re-installing front ASB; mounting hipo tires 205/50x15 tires on wider rims, like 7", with 45 mm offset, perhaps mounting 215/45 tires in front and that's as close as you can get to a 'sports' car with a Fit. It will let you whistle away from the minivan crowd easily with good mpg. Forget expecting observeable speed increases; thats available with tubo/super charging, cams, headwork, and exhaust systems unstreetable - and not worth it.
PS use tirerack to find the hipo tiresyou want. hint: their test lap times are more important than opinions. and lighter wheels are nice but not as important as the tires.

 

Remove radiator cap, drive Subaru Impreza WRX under said radiator cap

 

1.) 1.5 seconds off of one 5-60 run is meaningless. So many potential variations.

2.) 5 whp is less than a 10% power increase...you can't feel less than a 10% increase.

3.) Intakes/exhausts do little/nothing on stock Fits.

 

Fast. Cheap. Good. Pick any two.

 

The biggest bang for the buck would be weight loss.
When I was challenged to go against a stock Vette in my stock Fit.... He was being an ass and I knew I wouldn't win, but I would try my best. This was my combo;


Reduce Rotating weight
Lightweight 15" wheels and much stickier tires
Reduce unsprung weight, I put on some KW1s


Reduce sprung weight
I took out the spare tire, rear seats and passenger seats.


The tire/rim combo reduced 50lbs of rotating weight. The suspension reduced 35 lbs of unsprung weight. The rear seats were 220lbs! The spare was 50 lbs and the second seat was 60 lbs. Or about 330 lbs combined with 1/2 tank of fuel which was another 35 lbs. SO... about 360 lbs. Rule of thumb is 10hp per 100 lbs. So approx. another 30-40 hp. Still not a huge amount for our cars, but I was within a few seconds of him around the track. Not a whipping, just a beating....
My other car is completely different..

 

Thanks for the info.


How hard is it to take out and put in the rear seats and passenger seat?


Race autox. Regularly take out spare and drive with 1/4 tank.


Looked at Fit Spec B sized rims - 15x7 is a funky size that doesn't have much in the way of street tires to fit it. Getting light rims and sticky tires is probably around $1k or more. An option for sure, but probably not in the top 3 right now due to expense.


The order at this point in time looks like:


1) Intake (already done), -1.4 secs 5-60 MPH
2) Plugs (IK22, indexed), estimate -.1 sec
3) Exhaust (quiet), estimate - .3 sec
3.5) "tune" for what have included in above estimates.
4) Spare, Back Seats, 1/4 gas [lighten car] estimate -.2 sec (more time take off, harder it gets)
5) Lightweight rims and tires, -.3 sec
..
Supercharger - 1 sec

 

Back seats 220lbs?!?! The back seat is more like 34.5kg (76lbs), not exact, but more in the ball park compared to 220.

 

Rear seats are 4 bolts in the trunk, and they come right off. Also the Rear seats are NOT 220lbs. They're 77lbs combined. The front seats though I imagine are significantly heavier, but taking out passenger side might affect weight distribution I am thinking.

I have a friend that drives Formula Vee, and he's given me tips to drive with momentum to incrementally reduce lap times. Basically incrementally try to optimize your cornering speed and minimize the braking incrementally to the very limits.

 

How do you make a GE8 faster?

My best advice: track time. To have a faster GE8; get onto the track and gain driving experience. Besides the tracks a hoot. I'd rather spend $300 for a track-day than any car-part.

 

Great advice! Working on that part right behind the steering wheel. Figure I did 4 autox races last year. Will try to do more this year. Won my car class once! (Just don't ask me how many cars were in it)

 

as with most of the other advice here its about making you faster, not the car.
and if you can take one of the drivers schools offered at most tracks. you don't learn well self instructing; you need to take advantage of instructors, preferablty ones with extensive racing experience.
cheers and good luck.

 

I'm making my Fit into a Sports Car or as close as I can get!


Figure with the bolt on mods I have in mind, 5-60 MPH in the mid 8 sec range might be possible (with the knowledge of this website helping).


This quickness will be kinda sporty.


Anyone else have mods to share to make a GE8 faster?

 

I did this the other day: You could adjust your clutch pedal. Of course how much is on you. On my car several inches of the pedal travel was dead space. So I adjusted the pedal travel a couple inches so that there is still a little bit of disengagement, but now the time to depress and release the pedal has been reduced quite a bit and the engagement zone is in the middle of the new travel instead of the top.

Its gonna be tough to make the fit a sports car, but its not terribly hard for it to be as fun!

 

What would make the Fit competitive with a Civic Si time wise? Just curious! And I'm not talking autox or track since that is driver based. Thanks!

 

Honda Civic Si Reviews - Honda Civic Si Price, Photos, and Specs - CARandDRIVER

 

"Now making 205 horsepower and 174 lb-ft, the 2.4-liter four-cylinder pulled the Si to a slower-than-expected 6.5-second 0-to-60 time and a 15.1-second quarter-mile. We’ve seen a 2012 Honda Civic Si sedan do these deeds in as little as 6.1 seconds and 14.7 seconds and believe the 2014 is capable of quicker times. "

Got it! Using the Civic Si as a benchmark. Thanks!