plan was to only remove the 2nd row driver side seat but ended up ridding both...

nothing but "bungee" cords now

 

interested to see how the insight drums fit. how much heavier is the fit drum?

 

Looking good mang. Removing left and right seat belts with bolts shaves another 5 lbs.

 

Im curious as well. This is kind of uncharted territory...I haven't seen anyone else make the swap besides the Spoon endurance racing Fit. It looks like it's gonna require a complete brake swap so this will be a slow process of planning and acquiring parts. I'm meeting with my "mechanic" a little later this afternoon to brainstorm.

As always, I'll post official weights verified with a picture of the parts on the scales.

 

Ordered some lightweight parts today....

Odyssey PC-680 battery (15 lbs)

Aluminum hold down box
Odyssey battery aluminum hold down


I'm gonna relocate the battery to the spare tire well. This will serve two purposes:
1) free up space under the hood for a SRI
2) help redistribute weight to the rear

 

Very cool! How are you planning on running the wires back?

 

Awesome man. Please take some pictures of the battery relocation.

 

Update on the Insight rear brake swap. It looks like everything should directly swap. The only thing we're worried about is if the wheel cylinder for the insight is 3/4 just like the Fit. Otherwise, I'll end up with too much front bias. Apparently, the cost of a cylinder conversion kit would be prohibitive. If that's the case, then I'll look into a Wilwood rear disc swap.

Good news is that the Insight rear drum cover is NOTICEABLY lighter than the Fit. The overall package is smaller as well, which should translate into significant weight savings. Again, I would be happy shaving 8-10 lb of unsprung weight per rear corner.

 

I'm on it

 

It will just be one wire, the other is the ground wire. I plan on tucking the wire under the carpet. Hopefully the battery and box will be in by Friday and I can knock this out on Sunday.

 

Count on it.

 

Do work son!

 

The Insight drums are a win win. On relocating the battery to the rear, you might want to consider the weight of the cable since a long run may require one of a larger gauge....Moving it to the opposite side of the engine compartment and more forward would seem to be better distribution of the weight.

 

Hmmm...my thought process is that moving the battery rearward would offset the increased forward weight bias resulting from the loss of the jack, spare, seats, etc. I would think the total weight of the cable would be minimal...

Why do you suggest moving the battery forward? I'd love to mount the battery while the car is on corner scales

BTW, we need a larger selection of smilies on this forum

 

DOHCtor had some literature on Neon track cars that were using a full size lead acid batteries mounted forward of the right front wheel as a means of equalizing weight over the drive wheels..... You can use less pre load on the rear coil overs to compensate for the weight loss in the rear.

 

Wonder if that's a peculiarity of the neon? Is the battery supposed to be counterbalancing the driver? Lastly, I'm using springs not coilovers so that is not an option unfortunately.

 

Yeah I was thinking the weight of the cable as well, but it will be spread out across the length of the vehicle, so not so bad. It will weigh a good amount, you will want to at least use 2ga wiring, but probably 1/0ga. Just get the cabling and while rolled up, put it on your scale and you will be surprised at the weight. Again though, it is not centered in one location so not as bad.

About moving the battery to the other side of the vehicle in front, thankfully with mine being right-hand drive, the battery already resides the opposite side of me. I countered the excess weight loss in the rear with the 8" sub box I built and installed. Ended up with it, sub and amp mounted to be about 35lbs if I remember correctly. This weight is low and as far back as it can go pretty much, so even though adding that weight and losing only about 32lbs versus the 67 with the seats out, it may have actually improved the handling characteristics of the car. I haven't noticed any detriment to the handling; so a win-win as I was missing the low notes in music and this thing doesn't sound like it is what it is.

 

It is pretty obvious that front wheel drive cars are extremely prone to under steering and removing weight from the rear and having an equal side to side load over the drive and steering wheels is desirable on any FWD car unless you are planning to only make left turns.... I have owned sports cars with the battery mounted in the very rear most area of the trunk but they were rear wheel drive 2 seaters...

 

Tex, so if you could remove all the weight from the back you would? I'm trying to figure how a light back end would effect a FWD car. How would removing weight from the back affect understeer?

 

To me, going back to my old 5R Teggy, it was completely gutted in the rear and when I would take people on drives they could not believe it was a FF chassis. I would be just about full counter-lock laying on the accelerator to keep the car going in the direction I wanted. It didn't understeer, it was an oversteering ball of joy. The Swift stabilizers and Toda sussy played a big role in how it handled. With just the Swift springs and stock sussy, it would oversteer, but pretty much only on lift-off situations. The car was quite a handful to drive really, but it did nothing but put a smile on my face everytime I strapped in.

The Fit with an even shorter wheelbase will snap around quickly if pushed really hard with all weight removed and no compensation in the rear; well this is what I feel would be the result. The handling might not be what one wants when pushing the car hard and in the wrong hands bad things can happen quickly. Just think of the first 2 years of the Snisen, sure it was a blast to drive, but it would make many people's rear-end pucker up and then later out comes a diamond. Granted the Fit has only 1/2 the power, but with the drive wheels up front, it's not as easy to modulate and control the rear-end whip.

Now with all that being said, don't be like me and do this kind of driving on empty winding roads and take it to a circuit. Although hopefully this weekend the roads I travel to will be empty and I can have a bit of fun in the Fit.