Smart Roadster..
Discussion
Moose. said:
You'll want to talk to these guys:
www.zcars.org.uk/
Had a look and they dont actually have any info about the smart cars and bike engines.
I own a smart roadster, but unfortunately it doesn't have the bike engine transplant :-(
Z-Cars don't list it on their website, but they do the conversions with a Hayabusa lump, fully warranted for about £10k...
A standard smart suprex lump is capable of a reliable 115bhp, and up to 150bhp has been known from the same block (with extensive mods obviously!)
Depends what you want out of it, but I would drive a remapped roadster from the likes of Big Performance, or Smartarse Design before making your decision...
You can get a standard engine up to 115bhp reliably by spending less than £1000, and it is likely to have well over 130lb-ft of torque, delivered from about 2000rpm,w hich is more than most bike engines...
The gearbox is more about technique than anything else, and people who slag it off continually obviously haven't bothered to learn how to drive it properly!
Remap 115bhp and mods as above will get the car up to a comfortable 130+mph, with a 0-60 of less than 7 seconds (if the gearchanges are done properly! Remap improves the gearchange time ). It would also have a lot of useable mid-range which will give it more of an edge against the vast majority of cars on the road...
There have also been Roadster's with 1600cc Vtec engines, and even a 2.0 turbo A-Class engine both with fully manual gearboxes.
Or you could even go crazy and turbo a Hayabusa engine... Now that would be a whole lot of fun!! :-D
Z-Cars don't list it on their website, but they do the conversions with a Hayabusa lump, fully warranted for about £10k...
A standard smart suprex lump is capable of a reliable 115bhp, and up to 150bhp has been known from the same block (with extensive mods obviously!)
Depends what you want out of it, but I would drive a remapped roadster from the likes of Big Performance, or Smartarse Design before making your decision...
You can get a standard engine up to 115bhp reliably by spending less than £1000, and it is likely to have well over 130lb-ft of torque, delivered from about 2000rpm,w hich is more than most bike engines...
The gearbox is more about technique than anything else, and people who slag it off continually obviously haven't bothered to learn how to drive it properly!
Remap 115bhp and mods as above will get the car up to a comfortable 130+mph, with a 0-60 of less than 7 seconds (if the gearchanges are done properly! Remap improves the gearchange time ). It would also have a lot of useable mid-range which will give it more of an edge against the vast majority of cars on the road...
There have also been Roadster's with 1600cc Vtec engines, and even a 2.0 turbo A-Class engine both with fully manual gearboxes.
Or you could even go crazy and turbo a Hayabusa engine... Now that would be a whole lot of fun!! :-D
corradoboy1983 said:
I own a smart roadster, but unfortunately it doesn't have the bike engine transplant :-(
Z-Cars don't list it on their website, but they do the conversions with a Hayabusa lump, fully warranted for about £10k...
A standard smart suprex lump is capable of a reliable 115bhp, and up to 150bhp has been known from the same block (with extensive mods obviously!)
Depends what you want out of it, but I would drive a remapped roadster from the likes of Big Performance, or Smartarse Design before making your decision...
You can get a standard engine up to 115bhp reliably by spending less than £1000, and it is likely to have well over 130lb-ft of torque, delivered from about 2000rpm,w hich is more than most bike engines...
The gearbox is more about technique than anything else, and people who slag it off continually obviously haven't bothered to learn how to drive it properly!
Remap 115bhp and mods as above will get the car up to a comfortable 130+mph, with a 0-60 of less than 7 seconds (if the gearchanges are done properly! Remap improves the gearchange time ). It would also have a lot of useable mid-range which will give it more of an edge against the vast majority of cars on the road...
There have also been Roadster's with 1600cc Vtec engines, and even a 2.0 turbo A-Class engine both with fully manual gearboxes.
Or you could even go crazy and turbo a Hayabusa engine... Now that would be a whole lot of fun!! :-D
Was just thinking bike engine transplant as 600cc seems a bit small for a car and think it would put a lot of pressure on it and driving it round at 90mph (on private roads) would mean it doesn't last long.
That and the fact high revving hayabusa engine would be so much fun.
Any other companies do a transplant or is Z-cars the best?
ProPlus said:
Was just thinking bike engine transplant as 600cc seems a bit small for a car and think it would put a lot of pressure on it and driving it round at 90mph (on private roads) would mean it doesn't last long.
That and the fact high revving hayabusa engine would be so much fun.
Any other companies do a transplant or is Z-cars the best?
Hehe, that's a fair one. Although even the standard roadster engine will happily cruise all day at 90-odd, and is good for 120mph (despite what the manufacturers might say!) :-)
If using for track days etc, a bigger oil cooler might be recommended, but that's about it!
Agreed about the Hayabusa lump though! Might be rubbish round town, but would be great fun on a track, revving the nuts off it!
As far as I know, Z-Cars are the only ones that do the conversions. They are certainly the most knowledgeable, and they know how to fabricate all the new parts required to fit the engine.
Aside from that, there is a company called Smart Technique
www.smartechnique.co.uk - They are a bit elusive, but they undertake a lot of custom projects, and so may be able to help you.
I'm planning on buying a smart roadster coupe but the only thing that will probably stop me from buying it is the lack of a proper manual gearbox , so i got to thinking , is is possible to buy a gearbox of lets say a Toyota Aygo or IQ and transplant it into the smart , replacing the clutch with a manual clutch and removing the digital servo completely ?
chris
chris
chriscu92 said:
the roadster itself is around 800- 850 kilos which aint half bad
I guess you'll lose a bit of weight by getting rid of the smart engine and fitting a bike one. Then again it'll have to have a cradle and chain differential etc fitted adding weight. 800 kilos is light by normal car standards, but not by your average kit car. Most BEC are below 500 kg. Ye good point , all you need is time and money , I talked to Chris of zcar and he told me that it ts completely possible to install a Honda Civic 2.2 engine with an updated dif and a sequential gearbox , without the gearbox and dif it would set me back around 15k so it's quite high up there but look at it this was , it would make an amazing track / road car coz of it's short wheel base and relatively low curb weight , not counting the unlimited amount of carbon fiber mods that you can do through your body shop and anyone would know that Honda engines are geared towards a proper level of tuning with the right money imvested so it would / could destroy egos , evos and subarus quite easily .
Proplus
The engines in the roadster is 700cc not 600. That last hundred makes the difference you know.
I wouldn't worry about the engines strength I've 80 odd K on mine. I 've got a smart arse remap that increases the boost pressure from 1.0 to 1.5 bar. This helps with the gearchange no end.
The engines in the roadster is 700cc not 600. That last hundred makes the difference you know.
I wouldn't worry about the engines strength I've 80 odd K on mine. I 've got a smart arse remap that increases the boost pressure from 1.0 to 1.5 bar. This helps with the gearchange no end.
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