The GE8 Fit Sport

The Honda Fit is a great platform for a few different kinds of project. We got ours to be a first car for new drivers and a first car for us to use as a family track toy...

I have a son who is now 16. He got his learner's permit on his fifteenth birthday. He really wanted to start driving and he did. He has a September birthday and we were looking for a car during the spring and early summer. I pitched the idea of a Honda Fit and he thought it was a good idea after I explained my reasoning. We could probably get one pretty cheaply. We could get a manual transmission, lowish insurance, great gas mileage and big aftermarket support for a project car since its a Honda and shares a lot parts with several other models.

After some looking we looking we found a rough example that fit our basic requirements: It was cheap and it had a manual transmission. It also came with a happy chance encounter with a fellow fit enthusiast who showed up to look at it while we were on our test drive. We started talking and after he took it out for a spin and gave us his opinon("It drives like the other Fits I have driven") we made the dealer an offer and bought the thing.

Of course, it had some issues. It was a smelly car. It had a bent beam axel out back. It had a scratched up windshield. It looks like it has lived outside its whole life so the paint is in need of some TLC plus it has a nice little dent near the right rear wheel well. Which is where it got the bent beam axel. Its a diamond in the rough as they say.

So far there have been a few highlights. We replaced the beam axel with a used unit. More on that in a later post. We took it to an autocross event where Jack and I each got to drive it on our first autocross event 2 days after he turned sixteen! I also got to drive it in a time attack event that day which marked the first time I have been on a racetrack in a car. That has been on my list of things to do since I was a kid at Road Atlanta with my dad back watching Can-Am races.

The car is a riot to drive. It is slow enough that you can run it up through the gears as fast as it will go and no one notices......

This car is one of our projects where we are figuring it out as we go so there will be updates......