What jumps out is how small everything is. Small battery. Small alternator. Puny clutch reservoir. Tiny intake manifold runners.
At first glance, the engine appears crammed in there. Look closer and you notice it's an illusion created by the absurdly short nose. In fact, the hood is wider than it is long. And the radiator core support is pushed way inboard relative to normal cars. Craning my neck around back, I see there's oodles of room on the exhaust side of the engine. Turbo kit, anyone?
That airbox looks montrous, but it's not. The photo's perspective distorts it's size. It houses the smallest air filter I've ever seen. And the diameter of the tube feeding the airbox is about the size of golf ball. Turns out 1.5 liters don't need a lot of air. Check this out:
To meet US crash regs, Honda engineered a lot of crush space in the front of the Fit. There's fifteen inches between the back of the core support and the nose:
A light car doesn't need big heavy supporting equipment. Inherent smallness reverses the death spiral of size found in most modern cars. Small cars can be small because they're small. Colin Chapman would be proud.
Jason Kavanagh, Engineering Editor @ 10,250 miles
mopar424 says:
06:34 PM, 05/ 3/07
You should see the engine compartment of the PT Cruiser, WITH the turbo. Now thats a compact space- the hood doesnt even open enough of the compartment to access the battery, good times fiddling around in there. great post!
boxermike says:
06:35 PM, 05/ 3/07
Not to nit-pick, well, actually, to nit-pick quite a bit (Sorry!), human hands vary widely in size-- Greg Oden for example could probably palm the filter in my home's heater-- a static-sized object (coke can, key fob, iPod) as a reference point would be more helpful.
mopar424 says:
06:35 PM, 05/ 3/07
...it also just dawned on me that the Fit was designed to be accessed by small asian hands.
arumage says:
04:44 AM, 05/ 4/07
Try a 2nd gen Dodge Intrepid for a full engine compartment. To get the battery out, you have to remove the air cleaner to remove the bolts, then you have to turn the wheels all the way to the right, and then you have to remove a plate in the wheel well to get the battery out. My old 1995 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme also placed the battery under the windshield wash reservoir and a front brace, but that was just poor engineering, not a small engine compartment.
vvk says:
05:53 AM, 05/ 4/07
2.2l OHV Chevy Cavalier engine had air filter about the same size. No worries.
When I first crawled under my BMW I was shocked to see how BIG everything was. The thing is built like a truck! Amazing for a car the size of a Civic.
kevlang says:
06:17 AM, 05/ 4/07
my one beef so far with the Fit's engine compartment - the coolant reservoir is kinda hard to see since they tucked it under where it doesn't get much light.
7driver says:
11:52 AM, 05/ 4/07
Unlike Chapman's designs, I don't think the Fit is meant to fall apart 5 feet after crossing the finish line. Plus, it seems to tip the scales a little further than others in its class but trumps in terms of packaging. For these reasons, I'd say it's more a spiritual decendant of Alec Issigonis than Colin Chapman.
esoterica says:
04:03 PM, 05/ 4/07
I'll second the 1998+ Intrepid for the most packed engine compartment I've seen (at least with the 3.2L, can't vouch for the 2.7L -- or as I affectionately refer to it, the 2.sludge).
Ostensibly it was the first car designed completely on computer, and one could tell by not just the utilization of every last cubic centimeter, but how tidy everything under the hood was without the need for huge plastic engine covers.
The placement of the battery was odd (though I had no problem getting it out from the top after removing the air box) but I suspect it was partly engineered that way to keep the center of gravity low. That car handled shockingly well for its size.
roar02ram says:
10:24 PM, 05/ 5/07
I think everyone had forgotten just how good those LH cars were by the time they were finally replaced. Chrysler won a lot of awards in the '90s, amazingly enough for CARS. Can't say the same about either GM or Ford.
autoboy16 says:
09:15 AM, 05/ 6/07
"Turbo anyone?"
Maybe honda has a 200hp Fit SI in progress...? Or could that be room for the "upcoming" fit hybrid?
-Cj
jerrywimer says:
08:25 AM, 05/ 7/07
Maybe all that space in front of the radiator support has more to do with pedestrian-friendliness than with US regulations? That seems to be the trend lately- designing the front end and hood to take more damage and give less to a person's body in the event you hit a jaywalker..
eldaino says:
07:25 AM, 05/16/07
autoboy... i'm pretty sure no fit hybrid is in the works, as for an si, i doubt it.
But just for the record, many tuners have been able to shove k series engines into that engine bay, with relatively few mods...even the 2.4 from the tsx!
bennetpullen says:
04:16 PM, 06/13/07
jerrywimer, the front and rear bumpers/supports have been extended for the US market Fit compared to the rest of the world. In the front this actually means we have a new bumper, hood, headlights, fenders, bumper reinforcement bar and radiator support.