RE: Smart V6 Twin Turbo
Monday 21st July 2003
Smart V6 Twin Turbo
Engineers let loose to make rapid roadster prototypes
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The 1400cc engine fitted to the new smart roadster is of course sufficient to pootle about in the sunshine but it's not going to set any speed records.
It hasn't taken long however for the petrolheads at smart to persuade management to let them loose on little project.
They've taken two of the three cylinder engines and bolted them together to make a V6. The resultant twin turbo V6 has around 170bhp and can launch the roadster to 60mph in less than six seconds.
Eight roadsters with v6 bi-turbo engines will participate in the 'Solitude' races next Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Legendary racing drivers of the 50s and 60s will sit behind the wheel of the prototypes. They will do several laps of the 4.6 kilometre course and try to drive a time set by the former silver arrow pilot Hans Herrmann.
100 years ago the first Solitude race was held on a hill-climb course from Stuttgart to Solitude castle. Over time this has become a famous race in Europe. After the second world war, the world champions and European champions met there every summer to compete against each other on the difficult course. 200,000 spectators watched the last race which took place on July 18th 1965.
Discussion
There are already quite a few in this country already (even one for sale on e-bay for 9k!!) The Smart Pulse I have, has been err... 'tweaked' and really flies (81 BHP if you don't mind!!) not quite up there with the V6 turbo nutter version, if they produce this then fantastic, would def go out and buy one - though the group 2 insurance and 60 to the gallon might go out the window 
!!
!!stedale said:
Am I wrong or is that 170 bhp from a 2.8l twin turbo V6? That's a bit poor isn't it?!
Sorry but you'd be wrong if you said that... The engine in the Smart Roadster is a 3-cylinder suprex turbo engine (698cc) with charge cooler not a 1400.
The 1400 comes from 2 x 698CC (sorry not meaning to give a math lesson) both engines already have a turbo bolt the two engines together an bingo a V6 twin turbo.
A 170BHP from 1400cc isn't too bad, the Renault 5 Turbo managed 120ish BHP from the same CC
Not a great fan of the original Smart but then again i have never driven one. However i really like the roadster and with the extra bhp i imagine it would be a bit hairy to drive without suspension mods etc. Does anyone know if Brabus have designs on the roadster yet?
The original Brabus Smart
Taken outside Canary Wharf
The original Brabus Smart
Taken outside Canary Wharf
Mark_BT52 said:
It's actually a 700cc engine in the Smart, so I guess the article means two of those are stuck together to give a 1.4 V6...
600 (598) cc up to and including the Mrk 6 Smart then with the introduction of the Mrk 7 and the roadster the engine cc went up to 700 (698 to be pedantic)
Glad to see that mad boffins are alive and well somewhere.
What a super idea. Now this looks like a mini BMW Z3M (the bread van one). If at the right price it could be a really good laugh.
I think the standard little 3 cylinder makes a nice growl as you wind it up, so the V6 noise should be very interesting.
Really hope this goes into production.
Chris
What a super idea. Now this looks like a mini BMW Z3M (the bread van one). If at the right price it could be a really good laugh.
I think the standard little 3 cylinder makes a nice growl as you wind it up, so the V6 noise should be very interesting.
Really hope this goes into production.
Chris
All the work carried out on this car has been done by Brabus and Smart to produce 8 cars. 0-62mph is sub 6 seconds, which for a smart is very good, although i wouldnt like to imagine how long the clutch would last. i would hope that with the extra power this car has, that the suspension will have been tweaked. I would love to drive one to see how different it really is. For the first 4-5 years of production the smart ran a 599cc 3 in-line cylinder engine ranging from 44hp for the basic pure model, to 61hp for the pulse model. This all changed when they introduced the Generation 2 smart (mk7) this year, which has a 698cc 3 in-line cylinder engine, the same as fitted to the new roadster and roadster coupe models. in the city-coupe and cabrio, this engine is given between 51 and 61hp, or about 71-75hp in the brabus models. in the roadster and roadster and roadster coupe you have a choice of 62hp or 80hp, but tuning companies are already working on this to produce close to 90-100hp without major modifications.
whittaker52 said:
All the work carried out on this car has been done by Brabus and Smart to produce 8 cars. 0-62mph is sub 6 seconds, which for a smart is very good, although i wouldnt like to imagine how long the clutch would last. i would hope that with the extra power this car has, that the suspension will have been tweaked. I would love to drive one to see how different it really is. For the first 4-5 years of production the smart ran a 599cc 3 in-line cylinder engine ranging from 44hp for the basic pure model, to 61hp for the pulse model. This all changed when they introduced the Generation 2 smart (mk7) this year, which has a 698cc 3 in-line cylinder engine, the same as fitted to the new roadster and roadster coupe models. in the city-coupe and cabrio, this engine is given between 51 and 61hp, or about 71-75hp in the brabus models. in the roadster and roadster and roadster coupe you have a choice of 62hp or 80hp, but tuning companies are already working on this to produce close to 90-100hp without major modifications.
If only they'd do something about that abysmal gearbox, it'd be a cracker.
If they can manage 0-62mph in sub 6 seconds with the 170bhp roadster, then i would dare say something has been done to improve the gearbox, although it is no-where near as dire as the magazines make it out to be. The newer model smarts have much better gearboxes, certainly seem to shift a fair bit quicker.
whittaker52 said:
If they can manage 0-62mph in sub 6 seconds with the 170bhp roadster, then i would dare say something has been done to improve the gearbox, although it is no-where near as dire as the magazines make it out to be. The newer model smarts have much better gearboxes, certainly seem to shift a fair bit quicker.
Fair point - two gear changes in a standard smart takes over 6 secs anyway
Seriously though, I test drove one in Milton Keynes (was seriously looking into getting one a couple of years back), and the gearbox was as appaling as everyone makes out, I just couldn't believe how slow and rough the gearchanges were. Nippy enough in gear (liked the engine note, very willing to rev too), but the car was bloody unstable above about 50 (ish).
Always thought the smart would suit a CVT box really well...
bilko said:
Does anyone know if Brabus have designs on the roadster yet?
www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/ae_news_story.php?id=38378
AutoExpress said:
Based on the standard Roadster, the Brabus comes with a detachable hard-top, chunky alloy wheels, a 95bhp version of the 698cc Suprex engine and revised gear ratios.
Darran
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