They loved it, not surprisingly, but they obviously got a slow one. 0-60 took 10.6 secs., compared to 9.4 with the old one. I'm sure it's not a good example.

Plus, on their test car they had Bridgestone tires which provided less lateral grip and longer stopping distances than the outgoing model. Mine come with Dunlop 7000, and I can confidently attest that the grip on my car is far better than the old model.

Beautiful photos of the Silverstone Sport:

2009 Honda Fit Sport Full Test on Inside Line

 

It could be the car is new and needed to be broken in to get better 0 - 60 times. But same could be said about the old Fit they tested. Overall the only complain they had was the seating position being tall with no adjustment and that's exactly what I didn't like about the car, the tester must be a 6 footer.

 

Thanks for the link... good reading

 

That's not exactly what the article says. They mention that the seating position is much improved for taller drivers due to the steering wheel telescoping, new gas pedal pivot geometry, a dead pedal, and a larger foot well. The last line of the paragraph states that a height adjustable seat would be a desirable option.

Mark

 

SO HOT!!

 

Very nice review and photos.
Overall it seems like everything has improved with the 09.

 

A correction...0-60 was 10.2 secs., not 10.6.

 

Umm... actually they got 0-60 in 10.2, which is still pretty slow. Sounds like the tires really suck. Given the rest of the times and the trap speed, it sounds possible that they lost most (if not all) of their time on the launch, which could relate to the tires.

I'll be getting those tires/wheels off of there ASAP, since I don't think there are any decent tires in the stock size.

 

My car also has stock Dunlop 7000 tires. No idea of the tire itself but I know that Dunlop is overall a good brand. Do those in the US get different tires? Mine is a Sport model, in Canada.

 

USA, here, and I have the Bridgestone. Also a Sport.

 

I'm sure the car can get 0-60 in less than 8.7 secs. - that's what the old model did.

And to reiterate, for some reason they had these Bridgestone Turanzas which were probably responsible for the lackluster lateral grip and braking. My Dunlop 7000s are classified as high performance all seasons while those Bridgestones are merely touring tires.

I have yet to break grip on these Dunlops and I'm sure the car can pull at least 0.85g. It has lots of grip.

 

Dunlop makes some good tires, but brand is less important than the design of the specific tire. Over the years, Bridgestone has consistently made (IMO) the best high performance street tires in the world. However, the Turanzas are clearly not RE01Rs.

 

So how do the stock Dunlop 7000 rate overall? I'll have to do some googling. Like to know what I'm getting with the car!

 

Hard to say. I usually look to tirerack.com for reviews, but it looks like this tire is too new, or not reviewed because it is an OEM-specific model (not targeted at the aftermarket). In any case, I long ago had a set of Dunlop D60 A2 which are in the same general category and I was not at all impressed with them.

Dunlop Tires

In my experience, "all season" tires are an example of a product that tries to be do everything, but instead ends up being very mediocre in nearly all situations. In particular:

- In dry conditions, any decent high-performance summer tire performs much, much better
- In wet conditions, the best high-performance summer tires perform better in all conditions except standing water.
- In all but the lightest snow (anything more than an inch) all-season tires are almost as useless as Summer tires. If it snows a lot where you are, some decent snow tires are a night-and-day change from all season tires.

So... back when I used to live in the snow belt, I ran high-performance Summer tires in the Summer and snow tires in the Winter. Now that I live in California, I no longer need the snows

That said, sticky Summer tires will deliver noticeably worse mileage, but considering the twisty-mountain-road nature of my commute, the choice is clear for me.

 

After reading the article this morning I went out and tried 0-60 with my 09 Sport MT and I got 10.1 and 10.2 seconds. Realize that I do not have a lot of experience running 0-60. This was a quick try and I want to try some other runs. I have the Dunlap 7000 tires.

I was running the car nearly to red line before shifting gears. Is this the way to do it? Are there any other pointers? Anyone else with an 09 do 0-60?

I do agree with the grip of the Dunlop tires. I have been very impressed. I have done some crazy turns without losing traction.

 

Sudbury, eh? I know some folks that spend a lot of time up at SNO.

 

Get crazier then

 

My past few tires have been Bridgestone RE050A Pole Positions, which are phenomenal. It's just those Turanzas are not high performance all seasons like the Dunlop 7000s. I actually like these Dunlops so far - lots of grip and quiet.

As for doing 0-60 tests, there are so many variables and factors to it that if you do your own stop watch test the results are to be taken with a grain of salt so to speak, because number 1, your speedometer is not necessarily accurate, you have to find what rpms to best launch the car, you have to take the average of 2 way runs, and you have to correct the times for altitude, temperature, humidity, etc.

 

Don't have my car yet, so these are just general tips:

- The launch its pretty critical. You probably want to rev to at least 3000 or so and then dump the clutch at the same moment you bury your foot in the accelerator. If you didn't get some pretty significant wheelspin on the launch, then you could make some serious time there. Keep in mind that too much wheelspin (if the tach goes up near redline with wheels spinning) is also slower. There is a balance here that takes practice.

- You can make some serious time speed shifting, which means holding the accelerator to the floor while quickly shifting. This results in the engine sitting on the rev limiter while you shift, which basically stores energy in the engine's inertia which gets released when you re-engage the clutch. Now... THIS IS IMPORTANT... I don't know how tough the Fit drivetrain is and this may not be a good idea with this car. My old CRX Si was made of glass compared to a Volkswagen GTI I once owned that was shifted this way for a good number of it's 250,000 miles. The CRX killed synchros within a few months and I learned not to speed shift that car. Now that I am a bit more mature, I do this pretty rarely... in fact I'm afraid to do it in my other car because I think the power that is involved (370 hp give or take) could break some seriously expensive parts despite my faith in the way the car was engineered.

As usual, YMMV.

 

I know I can improve my time a lot by getting a better launch. I was just starting regular without spinning wheels.