No passing? There is always some "lap traffic" to get around. I've been waved to pass by bikes

By the end of the 11 mile run, I was pushing the brake pedal to the floor. Fit's are light, but it still takes some brakes to slow it from 70ish (had the Fit bouncing on the limiter in third gear through sections) down to 25ish to take some of those extremely tight turns.

The car has 50,000 miles on it, so I'm sure some new pads are in order. I think the heavy Rota wheels and sticky tires also made the brakes work a lot harder.

 

I'm glad I wasn't there for whatever it was that happened. Everybody seemed to get along just fine that Friday.

 

I had the same problem, man. I bought EBC slotted and dimpled rotors to help sort this out. I had gone thru 2 sets of rotors already at 50k from warping due to heat.....I bought HPS pads for them - wouldnt recommend. Slow initial bite, but pretty sure they hold heat better than stock. Looking to swap something else in there soon. I'm going to change the brake fluid before I completely give up on them. I've heard the Project Mu B spec pads are good, so I am looking at those next.

 

There was a guy who went with us last year, forgot his screen name but on his GD he did the rear disc brake conversion and had something different upfront too. Too bad this guy decided to stop in the middle of the Dragon.....FOR NO REASON

Do you have SS lines? Changing out the fluid to something that can handle the heat is a must, especially with how much you can/do go out there. Looking forward to seeing you out there with us next year, just hope you show up earlier so you can BS and get to know us a bit more

By the looks of it right now, the Fits could double out there next year and if so, I hope we have the same percentage of cool people we had this year, I mean who can complain with the near 100% rate we had this year Speaking of that, if your a noob to the Dragon and/or looking to join our run, one thing to consider is to leave your "driving creds" and "clown-ness" at home, we had too much of that on this years run( I consider 1-2 too many), especially when you don't know anyone. The "driving creds" impress NOONE either, just sayin'!

 

I started the research on brakes for the Fit and just put a new set of Yoko S-drives on the stock wheels. So far I'm thinking PowerSlot rotors, Hawk pads, SS lines and Motul fluid, but I'm looking for advice. Due to cost, the rear is likely to stick with the horrible drums unless there is another option. I'm not scared of hard work...I have plenty of tools.

I had Brembo calipers, larger rotors, Hawk HPS pads, SS lines and Motul brake fluid on my spec-V and was extremely happy with the results. Unfortunately, my year didn't have the Brembo calipers as an option so it was very costly to upgrade the brakes to that degree. I need a much more cost effective option for the Fit since I'm now poor

My driving "creds" include being almost 40, slow, and dim-witted. I don't think fast enough to stop in the gap Oh, and I'm teaching my one year old to wave as we pass other cars up here in the mountains. I'm hoping that will help to ease the NASCAR mentality of not letting others pass.

 

Yep, I 'warped' my rotors too. When I used to brake from highspeed the whole car would shake violently. Think of it as a badge of honor.

 

Haha, thanks man. I will hang my old rotors in the garage as such. I went thru 2 sets by 50k. I guess it goes without saying they werent designed for "spirited" driving.

 

That sounds like a pretty good setup. Thats a very similar direction to where I'm headed. I got the EBC rotors that are slotted and dimpled and I think they were cheaper than the PowerSlots.

 

I replaced the stock brake fluid with Ate Blue and I haven't had any issues with brake fade at the Dragon. The trick is to carry your speed as much as possible. I think it's natural for one to over brake approaching the corners of the Dragon. Minimal trail braking is really all you need.

 

See, this is why you keep your mouth closed when you come to something like this, you don't know anyone and why they do things, let me set you straight on a couple things here Jimbo:

1. the gloves, given to me by my late Dad as a gift, so that covers that, the serious stuff about those gloves. Now for the NOT so serious stuff about those gloves. About 4 years ago we were at the Fontana Dam and I went in to use the restroom and forgot to take them off and got some friendly raggin' about doing that, its even in my screen name on the Contour site still.

2. the Piloti's....well, they're VERY comfortable for sure, is that ok. Those were given to me by my ex-boss, so I took them and wear them every so often.

The LAST person whom takes themselves seriously is me and BTW Jimbo, when you were talking to the other Jim there, he too noticed how you were when he tried to bring up the SCCA with you, its not just me you rubbed the wrong way. Again, who in their right mind would come to a meet, not knowing anyone and then talk sheet about the person who organizes it for everyone. I'm not asking for a pat on the back at all for doing this, but I monitor 3 sites for this run, 4 coming next year with those CR-Z's you seem to hate so much, why I don't know. Speaking of that, I never said anything bad about the Fit on my way into the CR-Z, infact, I felt kinda bad about getting rid of it to be honest with you but as far as showing up my car out there, well, you go ahead and do that if that makes you feel better about yourself, our run isn't supposed to be about that anyways and if your trying to go out there and impress someone, we don't want your kinda out there anyways, that's how accidents happen and I for one don't wanna be connected in any way, shape or form to that....DO YOU?

Its too bad that we've now had 2 FF members show up and cause a problem but it also looks like, just the guy from last year, our 2nd FF member who caused a problem isn't going to show back up with our group again but its too bad though, your obviously know how to drive and your car looks great, remember, I had nothing but GOOD things to say about yours and then you TRASH mine for some reason, noone could understand where you were coming from with all the negativity about my ride, do you have stock in Honda Fits or something, geez You will be replaced by about 4-5 other FF members looking to go next year, to bad you had to say what you had to say but atleast you got it off of your chest and you probably feel better about it

 

I've got some help with finding a new place for the group to stay at and when we figure it out, I'll let you guys know. After seeing all the lowered cars, the cabins going down a bit, the need for running the Dragon in the morning and at dusk its apparent that we need to move things closer to the action but that's not to say we're not running the Skway anymore, that's never ever going to happen! The gravel driveway w/ the dip is going to catch someone's car and that's a reason right there and not to mention the drive to get to the Dragon/route 28, even though its the Skyway it takes a while to get there and when you run the Dragon at night, you almost wanna go to bed anyways because you've spent the majority of the day on the road, then we hit the restaraunt and then run the Dragon again, only to travel almost 60 miles through the mountain roads of the Skyway just to get back to the cabins, not the road to drive when your tired, you may think your not but trust me, you are!

Any input from your guys would be greatly appreciated, now is the time to speak up and be heard, we wanna have this buttoned up by the first of the year and get the ball rollin' on this by the end of January 2012, its never too early to set these things up, trust me

 

Hope I can stay longer this next time around. I'd like to run with that s2000 & rx8 again. That was a lot of fun.

Roger did they happen to make me a shirt in xxl? We talked about it but its no biggy if it was forgotten.

 

Not sure but you can come over to www. contour.org and get Randy's info there and hang out there if you'd like, we thought you were a cool guy and have the personality suited for our run, you fit in the right way w/o trying one bit, like you've known us for a long time, stick around

 

Without question, you are correct. That is the hardest thing for me to get used to with the Fit. I'm used to slow in and fast out with rear drive, high power cars. The Fit needs extreme entrance speed because it can not gain any speed through the corners in the gap. In many uphill sections, I was losing momentum despite being WOT.

That being said, you still have to slow from upper 70's to lower 30's for some of those crazy tight corners.

I actually had less trouble in the gap than around here where I live. I'm in the lower part of the mountains where I go from high speed sweepers to tight turns. I'm fine if going uphill, but the downhill sections really wear on the brakes and overheat them quickly.

Overall, the Fit and the brakes on it are pretty amazing. I'm just spoiled because the bulk of my mountain time has been spent on sportbikes where the throttle and braking ability is already waaaaay more than I'm capable of taking adavantage of.

 

I'll check them out...thanks!

 

GAFit, I like what you said about needing to keep the speed in up because of losing momentum, that is SOOOOOOOOO true with the Fit, "powering up" those hills takes on an entirely different meaning in the Fit I swear I put my foot through the floorboard many times in the Fit as well as my CR-Z out there on the Dragon, I needs as Jeremy says.....MOAR POWR!

IMO if the Fit/CR-Z had a small turbo or blower making about 160/160 would make it perfect HKS has a blower for the CR-Z which puts it up to 203 hp and 201 ft/lbs of torque, now I just need to win the Powerball, just 5 numbers would be enough, I'm not greedy

Kinda of a funny story, last year out there with the Fit, I had these cheap ass pedal covers from Autozone and broke the damn one on the gas pedal and chipped the one on the brake pedal....remember, my Fit was an auto!

 

You might want to consider staying in Maryville. It's within 20 minutes of the Dragon, but has tons of food options (and I'm sure hotels too, but I've never needed to stay there). If you head 30 mins from Maryville to Knoxville, you could hit up the bars in the Old City a night or two while you guys are here again.

 

Rodger, are you talking about me here? Up front I have Acura Integra Type-R brakes. Since I was the only other guy there in a Fit last year...

What do you mean I stopped in the middle of the Dragon?

 

Everyone told me you stopped right in the middle of the road and since you left afterwards they gave me a hard time about it, where did you go? They actually said you were kicking ass out there in the car and then stopped in the middle of the road and the cars behind you had to lock em' up

Baller Status would like to know what you did with your brakes there BTW

 

Yeah, I have seen his setup in another thread and thought about going this route (props, Jodele for exploring that route). I may still do it in the future, but I would like to get a better pad setup up front and replace the brake fluid and see how that changes the game. Looks like I may switch to the Project Mu's around Christmas time. I noticed this setup is forcing more braking force to the rear than w/ the stock pads (rear wheels are dusting way more than before, even tho I haven't changed anything in the rear).