Smart Car 0-60 in 4.2s
Discussion
Last night I was telling my wife about the Smartuki that was in EVO a while back.
For those of you who missed it, this was the Smart City car (now called the FourTwo) that had been to Z-Cars to have its engine removed and replaced with a GSXR 1000 bike engine. The EVO road tester (was it Goodwin?) managed to scare himself shitless by getting it up on two wheels and almost tipping it.
A real handful considering the short wheelbase and surfeit of power, but quite a blast.
I've always thought this conversion on a Smart Coupe would make a fantastic sleeper & daily driver, but thought little more of it as it was a one-off.
Or so I thought!
A bit of casual research last night took me to www.smartuki.com and showed a price list for this kind of conversion. £9k all in including labour.
Add on the cost of the car itself plus an almost-mandatory brake and suspension upgrade and I reckon you could still have change out of £20k. That sounds pretty damn tempting.
The thought of a Smart that can do 0-60 in 4.2s and standing 1/4 mile in 12.4s really appeals to me.
More here
>> Edited by JonRB on Friday 10th March 14:25
For those of you who missed it, this was the Smart City car (now called the FourTwo) that had been to Z-Cars to have its engine removed and replaced with a GSXR 1000 bike engine. The EVO road tester (was it Goodwin?) managed to scare himself shitless by getting it up on two wheels and almost tipping it.
A real handful considering the short wheelbase and surfeit of power, but quite a blast.
I've always thought this conversion on a Smart Coupe would make a fantastic sleeper & daily driver, but thought little more of it as it was a one-off.
Or so I thought!
A bit of casual research last night took me to www.smartuki.com and showed a price list for this kind of conversion. £9k all in including labour.
Add on the cost of the car itself plus an almost-mandatory brake and suspension upgrade and I reckon you could still have change out of £20k. That sounds pretty damn tempting.
The thought of a Smart that can do 0-60 in 4.2s and standing 1/4 mile in 12.4s really appeals to me.
More here
>> Edited by JonRB on Friday 10th March 14:25
Vid on this thread of what I assume is one of them....bit bonkers yes:
www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=250670&f=23&h=0
>> Edited by touchingcloth on Friday 10th March 14:39
www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=250670&f=23&h=0
>> Edited by touchingcloth on Friday 10th March 14:39
But in the EVO test they ranked the Brabus one ahead of the Z car version, my smart coupe has the Brabus Roadster 700cc lump in it mapped to 100 brake, better still is 100 ft-lbs of torque at the wheels. Done about 170,000 miles in smarts over 6 years & I have finally got the smart performance where I wanted it all those years ago. Got a 600cc unit producing 130 brake but with racing cam & a huge turbo it is only useable between 5-6k whereas the 700cc one produces max torque at 2,700 & brake at 4,500 which makes the latter much more useable despite the fact that I have obtained 120-130 MPH in the 600 one & only 115 with the 700 lump.
The thought of a bike engine in the passenger seat or rear would be just too much pain to live with, cetainly compared to 600 brake in an HSV without mufflers, back boxes or cats!
Nothing would give me more pleasure than say two 700cc units mated together like Brabus did with the roadie giving 170 brake but with development costs it worked out at a million pounds per car, only 10 made I believe.
Most peeps poo pooh mutant engined smarts anyway, nitrous is always good for a big bang, especially in smarts.
The thought of a bike engine in the passenger seat or rear would be just too much pain to live with, cetainly compared to 600 brake in an HSV without mufflers, back boxes or cats!
Nothing would give me more pleasure than say two 700cc units mated together like Brabus did with the roadie giving 170 brake but with development costs it worked out at a million pounds per car, only 10 made I believe.
Most peeps poo pooh mutant engined smarts anyway, nitrous is always good for a big bang, especially in smarts.
12.4s 1/4 is rather optimistic too... having been side by side with an accelerating smart roadster (bike engined) I have to say the Cerb would have obliterated it (done several side by side accel runs with that!)
Equally, a smart can be picked up for £3k (mk5 onwards, necessary for the suspension mods) so £3k + £0.5k for adjustable bilsteins all round + £1k for some nice wheels + 9k = under £15k.
To be honest, I think a bike engiened something else would be more fun... just buy a standard smart and remap it or do what HSV has done, far more driveable and enjoyable on normal roads IMHO (I suspect, not driven the bike engined smart)
I unfortunately kept my car standard and never really looked into making it grip better/go quicker (was after a low grip/high fun experience!) I realise now (one spin + huge accident later) that I would have been better off concentrating on getting more out of it and using soemthing else for sideways fun, with a much longer wheelbase. I'll rebuild it soon
Dont mistake this into me bad mouthing the smarts grip/handling, in the dry it was nothing short of incredible and in the wet (with good tread) the speeds at which it would corner were frightening. On worn tyres at the rear however, in the wet it was edgy and very quick to let go completely - something I learnt at vast expense having aquaplaned into a big accident.
I must also stress that the cars strength is also ridiculously good, as myself and my passenger got out of the car pretty much uninjured (he suffered whiplash.)
Equally, a smart can be picked up for £3k (mk5 onwards, necessary for the suspension mods) so £3k + £0.5k for adjustable bilsteins all round + £1k for some nice wheels + 9k = under £15k.
To be honest, I think a bike engiened something else would be more fun... just buy a standard smart and remap it or do what HSV has done, far more driveable and enjoyable on normal roads IMHO (I suspect, not driven the bike engined smart)
I unfortunately kept my car standard and never really looked into making it grip better/go quicker (was after a low grip/high fun experience!) I realise now (one spin + huge accident later) that I would have been better off concentrating on getting more out of it and using soemthing else for sideways fun, with a much longer wheelbase. I'll rebuild it soon
Dont mistake this into me bad mouthing the smarts grip/handling, in the dry it was nothing short of incredible and in the wet (with good tread) the speeds at which it would corner were frightening. On worn tyres at the rear however, in the wet it was edgy and very quick to let go completely - something I learnt at vast expense having aquaplaned into a big accident.
I must also stress that the cars strength is also ridiculously good, as myself and my passenger got out of the car pretty much uninjured (he suffered whiplash.) BCA & V8HSV - thanks. All interesting stuff.
The idea of a bike-engined Smart (esp. Roadster / Coupe) just appealed to me as it seemed suitably wacky / loony.
Having said that, when push comes to shove and the wallet finally gets opened (or rather, filled then opened) I'd probably be more likely to go for a GTM Libra V6, especially as it has the wife's seal of approval over a bike-engined Smart.
Still, it's good to have flights of fancy, isn't it?
>> Edited by JonRB on Friday 10th March 16:23
The idea of a bike-engined Smart (esp. Roadster / Coupe) just appealed to me as it seemed suitably wacky / loony.
Having said that, when push comes to shove and the wallet finally gets opened (or rather, filled then opened) I'd probably be more likely to go for a GTM Libra V6, especially as it has the wife's seal of approval over a bike-engined Smart.
Still, it's good to have flights of fancy, isn't it?
>> Edited by JonRB on Friday 10th March 16:23
V8HSV said:
Story on the smartclub of one in an accident where the Fire Brigade gave up trying to cut into the Tridion (safety cell) as it was too strong.
Worst thing you can do in a smart is have an accident with another smart as there is no crumple zones, the smart relies on other cars crumple zones!
V8, im the "confused" guy on there
and I know who you are... similar accident, but we just got out and brushed ourselves off... FWIW both doors and boot open still (and it still drives/ susp still straight etc etc etc) INCREDIBLY STRONG. I disagree about using other cars crumple zones, you'll find that there are points on the tridion where there are inbuilt crumple points, I agree I certainly wouldnt want to hit another smart, but I think you'll find they are still pretty good at re-distributing energy. Smart v Smart would IMO mean both cars crumpling at the set points and then bouncing off eachother to get rid of the engergy.
I'll post a topic up in a month or so with pics of what happened and the rebuild in at the same time. For the moment I would like to ask those that have pics of it to please avoid putting them on the net, I will not be happy if I see them here.
>> Edited by BCA on Friday 10th March 16:28
BCA said:
For the moment I would like to ask those that have pics of it to please avoid putting them on the net, I will not be happy if I see them here.
Oooh get you. TBH Ben i don't give a toss about posting them or not, but if i want to i will, and as my shoulder still aches a month later i'm not exactly going to feel guilty about it either.
As for a Smart car 0-60 in 4 seconds? I'd rather be on the motorbike in the first place, probably a damn sight safer.
Cheers,
Rob.
Rob_F said:
Oooh get you. TBH Ben i don't give a toss about posting them or not, but if i want to i will, and as my shoulder still aches a month later i'm not exactly going to feel guilty about it.
Cheers,
Rob.
Where there's blame, there's a claim
*mutter* bloody compensation culture in this country *mutter* *mutter*
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff