Honda Fit: Why It’s Better to Drive a Slow Car Fast

Yes, really. Hear me out…

I bought a 2013 Honda Fit after I sold my E46 M3. I wanted to still have a fun car, but I wanted it to be cheap to buy, cheap to maintain, and have enough room to fit two car seats. The Honda Fit checked all those boxes.

Sure, there were other cars that also checked the boxes. Finding a good condition Fit in my price range was easy, though. Plus it wasn’t modded and ratted! A nice blank canvas.

I was also big into HPDE and taking my car on track. The Honda Fit seemed like a sensible choice because you can take it to the track for cheap. Parts are plentiful. If something breaks, it's cheap to fix, and it's easy to fix.

There's also the Sundae Cup series in GRIDLIFE, which seemed really interesting to me. It’s basically a bunch of slow commuter cars with minor modifications to suspension and handling.

I figured, what better car to put in my garage than a Fit?

When I bought the Fit, it had about 230,000 miles. I bought it from the second owner, who had only had it for a year or two. The first owner had owned it for about 8 years and put about 200,000 miles on it. Clearly, they had a long commute.

Mechanically, this car seemed like it was in great shape. It drove well, and the motor felt fine.

The interior was clean — the cleanest interior I have ever seen for a car with that many miles. Granted, I haven't seen many cars with that 200k+ miles. I assumed if a car had been driven that much, the interior would probably show a bunch of wear. This car did not. It was, and still is, in great shape on the inside.

The car was completely unmodified when I bought it. It was black. A base model. Pretty unassuming and pretty boring. That's what I loved about it.

It looks like your average commuter car, and that's what most people think of it as. But when I get behind the wheel, it turns into a very fun (but very slow) race car.

For starters, the car is no longer black. I wrapped it in gloss Dragon Fire Red because, why not? Kudos to the team at Distinct Wraps for doing a great job on the car at a good price. I didn’t want to spend a fortune on the wrap, and they came in at the sweet spot. I think they did a pretty good job, too. Hit them up. Don is great.

Then I threw some 15x7 +35 Advanti Storm wheels on it that really pop with the red.

I wrapped them in 225/50/15 Falken Ziex ZE960 all season tires. Not the grippiest but a fine tire for the price.

Then came the shifter from Hybrid Racing. This doesn't make a huge difference in my opinion, but the original shifter is pretty light, pretty sloppy, and doesn't have a whole lot of feel.

Since the shifter is what you touch the most besides the steering wheel, it’s a common upgrade.

I would definitely recommend this one because it makes the car a bit more engaging even when stuck in traffic.

Next, I put on the Progress rear sway bar. It's a small addition, but it completely changes the car. The Fit becomes much more planted, much more predictable, and much more fun. Probably the best $250 I’ve spent on a car.

After the rear bar came KYB shocks and Swift springs. The suspension on the car might have been original, so it was squeaky and tired. The KYB shocks stiffened things up just a bit… the KYBs are as close to OEM as you can get. The Swift springs added some stiffness, too, and dropped the ride height a bit.

The car became sporty but not harsh. Certainly not slammed. I wanted this to be comfortable on the street, which means no scraping on speed bumps!

Lastly, in order to take the car on track (eventually), I wanted to put on some APR wheel studs.

The wheel studs are a common point of failure when you track the Fit, so this was more of a safety item than anything. I think they look neat, too.

I went with the extended studs. Shorter studs would also work.

To each their own.

Note: some wheels studs will fit certain wheel hubs but not others. Buy new hubs first, measure the inner diameter of the stud holes, and then buy your wheel studs accordingly. Ask me how I learned that tip…

Well, I still have the car. That should tell you a lot. I don’t normally keep cars for very long and I’ve had this one for 3+ years now.

I love driving around in such an unassuming car. It’s slow, it’s quiet, and you see them everywhere. I sort of love that about the Fit.

It’s just a regular car that also turns into a big go-kart with a few proper mods.

I feel like this car sums me up in my current stage of life: practical, occasionally sporty, and more fun than it looks.

Also, my daughter loves it. She calls it her “little car.” She lights up every time I tell her we’re taking a drive in the little car.

Honestly, I have thought about selling it a few times. That’s usually after I haven’t driven it for a couple weeks. Once I take it back out for a drive, I’m reminded of why I can’t sell it:

It’s slow, but damn it’s fun to wring it out. That’s the point, right?

This is the first of a new series between the feature issues: cars I keep, cars I wish I kept, cars I didn't keep, and cars I want.

Issue 002, the Honda S2000, lands Saturday, September 26.

Cars We Keep: Great cars. Better stories.