Honda corporate suits won't confirm it, but we still think it's likely that the U.S. will get a version of the Honda Fit (aka "Jazz" outside of Japan) for 2006. Honda execs in Japan have acknowledged concern about Korean automakers making inroads into the compact econobox segment, especially in America, and believe they have the weapon to fight back.
The Fit is a cool little car, about the size of a Civic three generations ago. In line with America's fixation with supersizing, the current Civic gets bigger with each introduction. And given its slight size (it really isn't THAT small, at least those we've ridden in Japan). The Fit is also a prime candidate for the kind of track/road-race conversions that made the CRX such a winner.
The Fit we have here is direct from Japan and it's a purpose-built racecar. Spoon Sports' American distributor, OPAK Racing, had the car built in Japan as a follow-up to the JDM Integra Type R they imported last year. That car came to these shores to race at the Thunderhill 25-hour enduro and was tuned in-house by OPAK's technical director, Alan Sensier. These guys are no strangers to making cars go fast.
Spoon also campaigned an Accord Euro-R in last year's Thunderhill race, winning its class. The OPAK Racing guys are all about racing and what better car to attack the 2004 race than the Fit? Spoon Japan has raced its Fit to some success, largely due to its excellent fuel economy and brilliant balance.
For Thunderhill, OPAK ordered up a fit from Japan, then promptly stripped it down to the dash and welded in a cage (admittedly, a little harder in a four-door than coupe). The dash keeps most of its content, a plate for fuel pump and fire suppression switches replacing the radio. At the top of the center dash cluster sit DEFI gauges for oil and coolant temp. A Spoon steering wheel replaces the stock offering, as does Spoon's ultralight Kevlar-based race seat. Crossing the seat at five points is a Takata harness.With the interior complete, the Spoon team moved to the suspension. In a car with limited, near-stock power, suspension is a critical component, one that can make lap times drop faster than all but the largest power adders. The Fit features a compact strut design up front with separately mounted struts and springs at the rear to add to interior space.
Up front, the team added custom-damped KYB struts coupled with Swift springs. Brake rotors are stock, but the pads are Endless endurance racing versions with Spoon braided lines and Motul synthetic fluid.
According to Sensier, "The entire suspension got very little modification because I didn't want to change a whole lot. The car is really good from the start and this is an endurance race. We actually ran the race with used rotors and I was worried and constantly on the radio to the drivers to make sure they were easy on the brakes. But they made it. We had no problems and used just the one set of pads for the whole race."
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