Paul Tan's Automotive Industry News

Smartuki – Smart ForTwo with Suzuki GSXR1000 superbike engine

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smartuki_small.jpgPeter 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!



32 Comments »

  1. Gallardo1988 said,

    April 30, 2006 @ 3:39 pm

    WALAUEHHHHHH!! i like!!!!!! but dont think it wud handle well la.. hahaha.. smarts handle like crap..

  2. jet said,

    April 30, 2006 @ 4:33 pm

    hey, the ex proton ceo planned to use mv augusta m/cycle engine for future proton cars (small car); can you blame him now?

  3. raptorclans said,

    April 30, 2006 @ 5:43 pm

    omG… the car runs like an F1 racer… and it can drift!! omGG

  4. blazerSST said,

    April 30, 2006 @ 6:37 pm

    It’s a remote control car you can ride in.

  5. mystvearn said,

    April 30, 2006 @ 8:02 pm

    Nice, but the car is too high, maybe it can roll over taking high speed corners

  6. daze said,

    April 30, 2006 @ 8:06 pm

    SHould be a perfect nice little cute car for city or carpark driving.
    keke
    anyway.it’s nice

  7. neurra said,

    April 30, 2006 @ 8:13 pm

    wow.. there there, someone really proved the hopeless car could do wonders with an engine transplant.. i wonder how’s the handling like

  8. aksMs said,

    April 30, 2006 @ 8:16 pm

    Wahh….good idea lah! Paul, how much does a Smartfortwo weight anyway?

  9. acbc said,

    April 30, 2006 @ 11:03 pm

    Wicked!

    New SmartForTwo: RM 90k
    New GSXR1000 engine + subframe assemble: RM 70k
    Smoking a bunch of K-cars or ‘Mat Rempits’: PRICELESS! :)

  10. Paul Tan said,

    April 30, 2006 @ 11:40 pm

    curb weight – 740kg

  11. cbljkkj said,

    May 1, 2006 @ 3:05 am

    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.

  12. ingolstadt said,

    May 1, 2006 @ 5:10 am

    silencers? its not the exhaust that we’re hearing…. its the high pitching sound of the engine revving over 10,000rpms… motorcycle engines SYIOK!

  13. silverfish said,

    May 1, 2006 @ 4:08 pm

    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…

  14. HMMaster said,

    May 1, 2006 @ 7:10 pm

    no reverse gear?

  15. DAN said,

    May 1, 2006 @ 7:22 pm

    why dont try our pro2kancil , see how it is!.

  16. HatukNgkau said,

    May 1, 2006 @ 8:54 pm

    humm… i still prefer that engine in between my legs.

  17. dfendy said,

    May 1, 2006 @ 9:15 pm

    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??

  18. Paul Tan said,

    May 1, 2006 @ 9:50 pm

    the suzuki bike engine is mounted at the back, and powers the rear wheels.

  19. lance said,

    May 2, 2006 @ 7:52 am

    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)… :D

  20. rexis said,

    May 2, 2006 @ 8:53 am

    Hmm seems like they hv tuned the handling, wheel seem mounted further out from the car, should increase stability. Anyhow, expensive toys.

  21. damion said,

    May 2, 2006 @ 10:11 am

    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? :P

  22. acbc said,

    May 2, 2006 @ 6:58 pm

    Paul: SmartForTwo is RR.

  23. acbc said,

    May 2, 2006 @ 7:04 pm

    Refer here: http://frase.id.au/pics/smart_fortwo5_533.jpg

  24. dfendy said,

    May 2, 2006 @ 10:51 pm

    so if these car given more boost, surely can do wheely la? hah

  25. mr.nice guy said,

    May 9, 2006 @ 4:59 pm

    kecil-kecil cili padi.. :-)

  26. mr.nice guy said,

    May 9, 2006 @ 5:01 pm

    i like dat..

  27. torch_love_evo said,

    May 10, 2006 @ 4:39 pm

    now its worth RM90+………

  28. ALI said,

    June 9, 2006 @ 7:02 am

    what is the word with the smartuki and the TRX “who run this”?

  29. smartistas.com said,

    June 12, 2006 @ 6:26 pm

    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

  30. Smart ForTwo Crash Test » said,

    June 18, 2006 @ 10:12 pm

    [...] Related Posts: Smartuki – Smart ForTwo with Suzuki GSXR1000 superbike engine Top Gear tests Smart ForTwo cornering ability [...]

  31. obmhost said,

    July 19, 2006 @ 9:42 pm

    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.

  32. Fiat F500 Prancing Mouse said,

    November 16, 2006 @ 2:02 pm

    [...] Related Posts: Smartuki – Smart ForTwo with Suzuki GSXR1000 superbike engine New Fiat 500 to use two cylinder turbo engine [...]

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