Peter Bee, a Smart car enthusiast wanted somemore power out of his little Smart ForTwo. The original Mitsubishi engine in the Smart ForTwo made about 60hp, and through some tweaking he managed to get this up to 100hp. But it wasn’t enough for him.
He approached Z Cars, a kit car company specialising in putting motorcycle engines into cars. Z Cars had put Yamaha R1 engines into Mini Coopers. They seemed like the right people for the job. He also approached Phil Seton of Seton Racing, who provided a personally tweaked Suzuki GSXR1000 engine (stuff like Yoshimura exhausts, etc) which made a maximum of 180hp, screaming all the way up to 13,500rpm. The engine was mounted at the rear of the car. The result was called the Smartuki, a mash of the names Smart and Suzuki of course.
The Smartuki goes from 0-100km/h in 4.2 seconds, does the 400 meter dash in 12.4 seconds and tops out at 213km/h. There are two videos of this monster after the jump. The pocket rocket sounds like an F1 car on the track… enjoy!
After dabbling for years in the IT industry, Paul Tan initially began this site as a general blog covering various topics of personal interest. With an increasing number of readers paying rapt attention to the motoring stories, one thing led to another and the rest, as they say, is history. An avid electronic gadget aficionado as well as big-time coffee lover, he's also the executive producer of the Driven motoring TV programme.
WALAUEHHHHHH!! i like!!!!!! but dont think it wud handle well la.. hahaha.. smarts handle like crap..
hey, the ex proton ceo planned to use mv augusta m/cycle engine for future proton cars (small car); can you blame him now?
omG… the car runs like an F1 racer… and it can drift!! omGG
It's a remote control car you can ride in.
Nice, but the car is too high, maybe it can roll over taking high speed corners
SHould be a perfect nice little cute car for city or carpark driving.
keke
anyway.it's nice
wow.. there there, someone really proved the hopeless car could do wonders with an engine transplant.. i wonder how's the handling like
Wahh….good idea lah! Paul, how much does a Smartfortwo weight anyway?
Wicked!
New SmartForTwo: RM 90k
New GSXR1000 engine + subframe assemble: RM 70k
Smoking a bunch of K-cars or 'Mat Rempits': PRICELESS!
curb weight – 740kg
Impressive, but God is it ever noisy. Needs like 10 or 20 silencers just for it to be road legal (joking). Fast it may be, I wouldn't want to risk my life in that huge plastic remote control-esque car thingie.
silencers? its not the exhaust that we're hearing…. its the high pitching sound of the engine revving over 10,000rpms… motorcycle engines SYIOK!
Holy Screaming Superbike Engine Batman!
Hmmm…gives me an idea. Stick that engine into a Smart Roadster, that would be stonkingly fast.
Now, if only I had the cash…
no reverse gear?
why dont try our pro2kancil , see how it is!.
humm… i still prefer that engine in between my legs.
sound more like superbike, i like it
paul, one doubt we've seen on the video the wheel spin on its rear? originally FF or RR??
the suzuki bike engine is mounted at the back, and powers the rear wheels.
Sigh… what's the point when the car handling is worse compared to a Perodua Kenari (Top Gear episode)? What satisfaction can a real driving fan have from a car that can't make the turn; even if it can smoke people on the straights (any person can hold a steering)…
Hmm seems like they hv tuned the handling, wheel seem mounted further out from the car, should increase stability. Anyhow, expensive toys.
if it couldn't handle properly, i doubt it would be able to handle the tracks in the first movie…
it would've spun out somewhere along the chicanes or hairpins…
i want one of those pocket rockets!
where do i sign?
Paul: SmartForTwo is RR.
Refer here: http://frase.id.au/pics/smart_fortwo5_533.jpg
so if these car given more boost, surely can do wheely la? hah
kecil-kecil cili padi..
i like dat..
now its worth RM90+………
what is the word with the smartuki and the TRX "who run this"?
That is really a excellent project, there is only a problem, in your article you write about the Smartuki, the Bee car, the one developed in England. But the video clips are about SmartDiablo, Arrepiado's car, a portuguese project developed by a freestyle rider. More info's about the second project can be found on the driver's official page ( http://www.arrepiado.com) or on the portuguese SmartCar community forum (www.Smartistas.com) some threads are (http://forum.smartistas.com/viewtopic.php?t=2686 http://forum.smartistas.com/viewtopic.php?t=1800 )
A big hug from the portuguese SmartCar fanatics
noticed all your comments. have you guys seen
http://www.smartuki.com yet?
it is the official UK site for the Kit, subframe etc. It features some video and pictures, it is being updated all the time.
hope this entry isn't too old.