Dimistry’s Honda Fit: Revitalizing the Family Heirloom

Coming from a family of gearheads with a great history of hand-me-downs makes venturing into the track world that much easier. Not many would regard a second-generation Honda Fit as something worth writing home about, let alone much of a contender on the track, but when it’s been gone through with a fine-toothed comb and given the motor swap a stellar chassis deserves, an exception should be made.

The Fit wasn’t the first car that Dimistry’s dad gave him. A slightly shoddy S13 came first, and though it was a great way to get acquainted with tuning, it had been mistreated by the previous owner. Numerous eBay mods and questionable maintenance solutions made the Nissan more work than it was worth.

By the time the Fit was given to Dimistry, both his brothers had enjoyed it — thoroughly. It might’ve been crashed by one of them somewhere along the way. Nevertheless, the family heirloom was in respectable shape, and Dimistry had dreamed about the potential of this stellar chassis when paired with a K-motor.

There wasn’t much information on such a swap at the time. Five years ago, he had to look hard for a forum or another resource which might aid him in giving the city car the bump in power it needed.

There were a few brave trailblazers ahead of him already, and one such person happened to be selling a complete K24Z3 package that was just about ready to drop into a second-generation Fit. The price was reasonable, but Dimistry thought he might be able to do it without opening his wallet. Thankfully, it didn’t take much to convince the seller to trade their motorset, axles, and Hondata ECU for Dimistry’s rusty S13.

Going by one YouTuber and a few helpful forums to guide his swap, he started mid-August and started the K-swapped car in early November. The process wasn’t too challenging, but he made sure to take his time, do it right the first time around, and add all his desired bolt-on parts in one fell swoop.

Among these parts were a K&N Typhoon intake, Hasport mounts, a J37 throttle body, an RBC manifold, Bosch 1000cc injectors, a KTuned fuel rail, a KTuned fuel pressure regulator, a Deatschworks 300C fuel pump, and a 3” custom exhaust. Thankfully, the one item he needed to replace was the water pump – the OEM K24 pump wouldn’t fit in the Fit’s engine bay, and so he sourced a pump from a ninth-generation Civic Si.

A ninth-generation Si also provided the transmission. Its six-speed boasts strengthened first through fourth gears and slightly shorter ratios, through which power is sent through a 1.5-way MFactory limited-slip onto 17x9” Advan GT wheels wrapped in 245-section RE71s. That might seem like excessive meat for a little Fit, but with the motor making north of 220 horsepower at the tires, it’s now necessary. Even now, the torque-steer out of slower sections is something he has to work around.

“It still struggles to put the power down in second gear,” he adds.

Where it shines is in braking and quick direction changes. The rigid chassis – the GE chassis is made of 51% high-tensile steel – responds well to steering inputs and only has 2,700-odd pounds to move. To make the most of this strength, he installed Silvers’ Neomax coilovers with Swift springs in 8K all around, replaced the factory control arms with Hardrace units sporting hardened rubber, and drilled the towers for TCS tophats. The final touch to make this front-end as incisive as could be was a Hardrace roll center correction kit.

The Fit’s dartiness, exacerbated by the short wheelbase, had to be tempered somewhat by the J’s Racing-style wing settling the rear. At the other end, the JDP lip doesn’t do as much for downforce, but it does look cool.

The FIt’s nimbleness borders on twitchiness due to the aforementioned mods as well as narrower 225-section tires in the rear.

Underneath the big Advan wheels are the brake setup – a striking arrangement for a lightweight car with moderate power. By using the contemporary CRZ’s front hubs and its entire rear beam, he could convert the car to five-lug and run rear disc brakes in place of the factory drums. Up front, the Endless six-pot brakes clamp down on two-piece Endless rotors and MX72 pads, while the factory CRZ rears clamp down on bigger Endless rotors. These massive binders and a weight of just 2,700 pounds, even without the aid of ABS, makes it hard to match in the heavier braking zones.

Pushing the car on track over the last year has been informative. “It struggles in the low-speed stuff; hairpins are tricky with how much torque there is going through the front axle. It’s also not quite powerful enough to hang with the M3s at the end of longer straights, which is frustrating.”

However, he’s put his laps in and with the right circumstances and a more technical track, he can keep a few BMW drivers honest. “It’s great in the third-gear sections now that it's dialed in. I found that softer damping settings at the rear help the car rotate more predictably. Run the rear too stiff, and it hops excessively, which makes it hard to feel confident pushing. As long as you keep the rear sliding a little, it’s hard for the M3s to get away.”

Best of all, this project hasn’t been a headache. Once the swap was completed, it’s been nothing but smooth sailing. “So far, I’ve had no problems running the motor. The stock L15’s radiator has been enough for hot days, and the motor’s run flawlessly, even after a custom e-tune from @yoshtuned.”

Picking the right parts has paid off too; the car has held up under regular trips to Buttonwillow and Laguna. “It does chew up fronts quickly, but it’s been easy on the wallet otherwise,” he reports.

The car is rapid as it currently sits, but Dimistry’s hoping there’s more he can find with a few choice modifications. Among them is a turbo kit, more aero, and a rollcage – if the need to convert it into a dedicated time attack car wins out in the end. He’s undecided on his future with the car, and he’s even posted it for sale, but with the way this car has made track days cheap, easy and fun without compromising its versatility as a street car, he’s had a hard time believing he’ll find a suitable replacement in the short term. He might be wise to wait.