Cone carving fun! Three words that describe the Fit to a "T". This thing is slow off the line, but can be a little monster in the corners. I've been active in the Houston area SCCA autocross for a year now and I noticed a few other guys seem to be into it as well. So I wanted to put together a thread where we can post our thoughts, ideas, and proven results in one place.

I would love nothing more than to see a national champ rise up from this forum.

 

To start things off:

I run in STF (Houston only) class and hope to get my times down enough to be competive in STS. I don't have a lot of compitition in my class and will be the STF champ for 2008. A few people show up here and there and but I'm the only one that continues to come out month after month.

Mods:
15" Konig Heliums (11lbs ea.)
Crappy Cooper Zeon tires 205/50/15
Skunk2 Springs
Crash bolts -.9 on each side
Progress RSB

 

a stock fit is really bad at low speed courses since it understeers so much and it can't accelerate. high speed courses the understeer goes away. launching can be quick if you launch from ~5krpm on a grippy surface...if it's a slicker surface that will give you too much wheelspin. pretty much the fit has 0% chance in H-stock competing against mini's '99 si's mazda3's and some others. it won't have much of a chance in STS either...civic si's are just too good for that job. i own a fit, and i never seek to be competitive in the fit. i just want it to be more fun so i've stiffened an engine mount and am planning on getting a progress rsb to help with the understeer.

 

If you look at the results over the last year, ( http://houscca.com/solo/results.asp ) you can see that in January and February I out drove a guy in a Mini. My times are better than half of the people in STS for the Houston region so that tells me there must be people out there that can take the Fit to the top of the charts. Is this a way to keep the hopes of others down? Because that is not what I started this thread for. I want this to be a positive and encouraging thread that will help those needing that extra push.

 

are any of the drivers you're comparing to going to nationals? did they trophy? if not then there's really no point in arguing.
yea sure i've beaten many people in certain cars 'should' be better than the fit even on street tires, but that does not mean the fit has potential. the drivers are not up to par with nationals drivers.

that being said, i think the fit can do well locally, it will just never be nationally competitive.

if you can do so well in a fit, then congrats to you, if you want to take it to topeka go ahead and try, but my two cents is just that it will not go far at all.

try going to national tours and see how well your fit does...

the fit is tons of fun to throw around the cones and it's very good at it, it's just not good enough...

 

Wow. Did I press a button? I guess I should not have mentioned Nationals. I don't plan on going that far. I don't think many of the people on here have been racing long enough to even think about going to topeka in any kind of car, let alone the Fit. So let's just call it a day and say "nevermind, I don't want to talk about autocross with others as I can't make it all the way anyway".

 

i haven't given up on autocross in this car...i just won't take it very far. I do it for fun, not to be competitive. i do plan to go to nationals eventually once i get enough money and a capable car. i believe i can trophy at nationals as soon as next year if i were to drive a competitive car all year next year. i've driven with a multiple national trophy winner and have come pretty close to his times in as early as my second event in his car. with some more practice and some more guidance i'm sure i could at least match his times.

i'm not trying to kill this thread...it should be a good place to discuss driving techniques to get around the fit's shortcomings. this is also a good place for everyone to share the shear joy they had in autocrossing the fit.

the only thing that kind of had me going was that you said you were getting competitive in STS...this will never happen if you were competing with the best cars with the best drivers. also you were comparing yourself to other cars...at the local level, the driver makes more of a difference than the car.

 

Well put. The Fit does have a few shortcomings. Trying to achieve actual rotation in the sweepers IMO is the hardest part to overcome. I have yet to install the rear strut tower bar or the c-pillar bar, but I hope these combined with the rear anti sway bar will aid in possible oversteer.

 

 

There already is a lot of information that has been posted in other threads about the particulars in setting up a Fit for autocross. The exact things to do are limited by what class you run in.

Basically the Fit is fine for autocrossing.

The best configuration for H stock class would be-
Fit sport with manual transmission. Add R compound 205/50-15 or Extreme summer tires in 195/50-15 or similar and you'll be fine.

The automatic is not well suited for the tight courses of most events- your local area may be OK depending on how the course is designed.

The base fit in Manual could be good if you have the right tires on the 14" rims.

In Street Touring classes you can run any DOT Street tire- best would be Extreme Summer tires and you can run non stock sized wheels which is good. Lowered suspension will help.

While fun to drive the Fit is not competitive at the national level for Autocrossing in any class.

At the local level you might do fine. Depends on you and the competition you have.

I have tried to drive the Fit Sport AT in H stock and while I can be a strong 2nd or 3rd, the Toyota Corollas with Street tires or MINIs are too fast to beat.

Two Fit Sport MTs are driving in Street Touring S in my area and finishing about middle of the pack for class and on the day. They have upgraded suspensions but not optimal tires. One has all season Falken 912s and the other Federal 595 Summer tires.

The point of autocrossing is not being the top driver nationally/locally but to enjoy driving your street car in a safe environment while you learn the limits of your car's handling. You can develop your skill at driving with minimal need for upgrades other than buying tires when needed.

 

best setup for Fit in HS (IMO):
225 front, 205 rear hoosier A6 wrapped around some impossible to find lighter wheels within specs.
snatch up a set of tokico hts shocks that are supposedly coming out this month.
cat back delete or exhaust.
k&n or similar high flow filter.
camber bolts for max camber in front.
1/16" to 1/8" toe out front
do some bending of the rear suspension to get zero toe or even toe out, and less camber...

until those shocks come out, it is impossible for a fully prepped HS fit.

IMO shocks will not help much though since the fit is already superb at transitions and corner entry.

 

what about if we bring the a&j racing fit out or the skunk 2, they did hella good on the track.... lol i did it before and i loved it, i had a lot of room for improvment but i just got caught up in ham and electronics,(that makes me money) but plan on getting back into in and since i was referred to this thread i think i might get back out there and have some fun again...

 

Adding shocks would be a plus. Lets hope they do arrive.
Cat back exhaust- take your pick, any is fine, don't expect too much
Air filter for stock classes must be similar to stock filter but any brand is OK and should be clean. You can save one filter only for autocross use and one for street or daily use.
Camber bolts (2 each side) for the front are ok but only help a little- you can get a max of about -0.8 degrees front camber. Sometimes it will be more or less on each side.
Rear camber is very negative- not good as more negative will tend to increase understeer- so less negative if you can but that is tougher to do.
Any front swaybar is possible- try to find a foreign Jazz bar that is smaller diameter.
In stock class the wheels for a Fit Sport should be 15x6 with about +55 offset but that isn't easy to get.

205/50-15 tires will fit OK. Either Kumho V710 or Hoosier A6 tires
225/50-15 normally will fit a 15x7 or 15x8 rim better. Don't expect the wider tire to do as well when on a more narrow rim. Using a 225 mm wide tire in front and 205mm wide tire in the rear will likely affect your handling a little and increase oversteer a little.
1/8" toe out in front is fine and within stock alignment specs. Go for it.

 

Track is not the same as autocrossing.

At our last event we got four drift specialist cars (sylvia and 240s) and they were not fast, just showy. Roughly 5+ seconds slower than the top 10 out of 120 drivers.

Track cars will handle high speeds but not handle well enough to finish high on courses that require skill (autocross vs track) and fast thinking. Our average course is only 0.4 miles long with 30 turns in less than 30 seconds. Our highest modded cars don't do that well, even their raw times can be beat by stock class cars with race tires. Depends on suspension tuning and driving skill.

In the past we had some drivers that were the top at time attack on the track and didn't do as well with autocross. On the other hand we also had some drivers that did well at both but using cars specifically set up for each event. We see very few good track cars do well at autocross.
The Lotus Elise is a good example- great on the track modded or stock but difficult to do well at autocross.

 

people have crammed 275 hoosiers on a 6" ITR rim for D-Stock...

 

It is technically possible to use wide tires on narrow rims and narrow tires on wide rims. A determined mechanic can do it.

This combination is not optimal for best use of the tire as it was not designed for that fitment so don't expect optimal results. Usually you get more wear and less use of the available tread.

Personally I'd put 275mm Hoosiers on a 15x9 to 15x10" rim for best results.

 

well when you're restricted to a 6" rim you have to do with what you can...275 is gonna be better than 205

 

15x6 rim is required, no changing that.

H stock requires stock suspension (or nearly so) and limits front and rear camber.

I have tried stock and modified front wheel drive cars on the track using identical new 15" wheels and track tires and found the lack of front negative camber to have- poorer handling and faster treadwear on the outside edges.

That is a big handicap in stock classes that don't allow for enough front negative camber in a front wheel drive car.

Using overly wide tires may not give you as good results as you expect.
Wider tires may not even fit without rubbing. Have you tried it in a Fit with stock suspension.

I know that 15x8 rim +36mm offset and Kumho V710 225/50-15 will fit in a Fit Sport with stock suspension. One driver only.

275/35-15 Hoosier tires will normally fit rims 9 to 11" wide. 6" wide rims would be? at the limit?? Not sure if I could get my trusty mechanic to agree to that install. Usually when you install wide tires on a narrow rim, the narrow rim will force the wide tread to have less surface to interact with the road so it is not the full tread you use.

To me, if you want to use a $244 tire for competition, you'd want to match it to a rim that will do it justice. Hoosiers are fast wearing and usually are optimal for about 6 events then performance degrades. If you are sponsored and get tires free that's different.

If I had 15x6 rims and wanted to use wider than recommended tires then I'd try-
225/45-15 - fits rims 7-8.5" wide and has a stiffer sidewall.
or
225/50-15 - fits rims 6-8" wide and has a taller tire diameter by 0.9" which is not as good for lowered gearing advantage.
vs.
205/50-15 - fits rims 5.5-7.5" wide

 

Good stuff. Now this is what I wanted to see. And for those of you who would like to see what the 2008 Nationals looked like... http://gotcone.com/pgallery/?level=collection&id=12

 

The Fit is a great little autocross car, I think it has the ability to be on par with the Mazda 3 and Mini in HS with a proper setup.

I ran in FSP with mine and did well, however I was pretty much at the bottom of the FSP lineup with just one aftermarket product putting me into that class... one product that after testing appears to maybe have been better to have just left off.

With that said driver skill is pretty much the most important, with a good driver behind the wheel the Fit could be very sucsessful.

Unfortonatly my Fit autocross days will be limited as I am retiring it to "daily driver" and switching over to something more affordable to beat on, I just hope it does as well as the Fit did! Looking forward to next season for sure