quick little Brabus Smart

On the way home last night I was driving behind a Brabus Smart car, the ForTwo variety.

I noticed it had very sooty tailpipes, something I don't often see these days on modern petrol cars with their lean burn engines and catalysts and all the emissions malarkey.

Anyway, boy did this thing go! I honestly had trouble keeping up in the Ti, where everybody blasts through the tunnels under Manchester Airport to get past the inevitable slow gits - except for every time the driver changed gear when I could see the Smart lurching about and slowing down a lot while it waited for the comedy gearbox to do something :)

The last I saw of the Smart was as it rocketed off down the sliproad to the M56 in the right-hand lane. I was behind a Jag XKR in the left lane and once I joined the M56 I couldn't see the Smart at all.

I know that the Brabus Smarts aren't really that quick but the sooty tailpipes hinted to me at some tuning. Anybody else seen it or got any ideas?

Reply to
fishman
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iirc its only a tuned smart, whats the ForTwo variety? do u mean the old one?

Reply to
Theo

they're all automatic aren't they?

11.9 0-60 - are you sure you didn't accidentally have your handbrake on? ;-)

I wouldn't have thought any amount of tuning of a 700cc engine would get it close to a Ti!

Bigus

Reply to
Bigus

No, they've all got a horrible little robotised semi-automatic sequential gearbox. It has a fully automatic mode, but it doesn't work or feel like a conventional automatic at all.

I had some videos somewhere of some people who had put crazy engines in smarts. I think it was the chaps at

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but I could be wrong. The link I have is dead. They might even have managed to cram 2 engines into one. The videos made the cars look loony-fast.

Douglas

Reply to
Douglas Payne

Hayabusa, GSXR and Fireblade engined Smarts.

Evil twin make them I think. Stupidly fast.

Reply to
Sleeker GT Phwoar

the smart coupe that was on top gear was rather impressive, iirc they are not producing that one, tis a shame though..

Reply to
Theo

Seconded, the "automatic" mode is truly horrible and kills the performance. Not that it's much better in sequential mode because it insists on changing up or down when it feels like it. The sensation of struggling with the car to get it to do what I want eventually pissed me off.

As car as 700cc cars go, both the 2CV and 652cc Visa were much better vehicles.

Reply to
Steve Firth

Bike engined one?

Reply to
¤¤¤ Abo ¤¤¤

Unleaded petrol makes for sooty tailpipes - gone are the days when you could look up your car's arse & tell whether it was running properly or not!

I,

Reply to
Iain Miller

Hello,

God knows what you were in then - I can go faster than one of those in 1st gear! The SMART is not a fast car, even the boy racer 1litre 3 cylinder Corsas are faster.

Reply to
Rob

He was in a 2.0 16v Turbo car.

Hence his surprised post.

Reply to
Nom

Shut up Rob, read the post. This was no ordinary Brabus Smart - I know those to be pretty slow really. This one was easily a match for the Rover Ti's 30-70 performance (except for massive slowdowns while changing gear!). I saw it again yesterday, parked in Wilmslow. It's got Yoko A539s on the front and IIRC Toyo Proxes on the rear. Good choice for the understeery little thing, get some sticky tyres on the front!

Reply to
fishman

It's not Rob, it's Brian The Troll !

Reply to
Nom

Hmm... stainless steel exhaust? We have the same thing with ours, and it's not exactly highly strung, heh! :)

Nor for that matter is it generally treated bad, but after a long motorway trip the tail pipes are _very_ hot.

Heh!

They may only have 600 cc (or 700 cc), three cylinders and one turbocharger as standard, but they also weigh considerably less than the Ti. About half.

As I recall there are plenty of upgrade kits that give that little 600cc engine somewhere around 125 PS. That's more than half the power of the Rover 620Ti... basically the little Smart becomes a flying machine until it's time to change gear. :)

The "standard" upgrade, as I recall, gave it around 85 PS.

Reply to
DervMan

They only weigh 650Kg ? That seems extremely light ?

Reply to
Nom

?????

iirc they are extremely small??? tiny engine etc..

however google tells me 750kg

Reply to
Theo

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;)

Reply to
Theo

Well yes. But still, 650Kg is absolutely nothing !

It tells me 730Kg :)

Reply to
Nom

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I don't understand ?

The TI weighs 1300Kg, not 650Kg !

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Reply to
Nom

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it was completely irrel. just nice pic :P

Reply to
Theo

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