Archive for smart

Daimler AG is planning to launch two electric vehicles in 2010 - an electric-powered smart and an electric-powered Mercedes-Benz. These electric vehicles will be powered by batteries, but a limited run of fuel-cell powered vehicles will also be introduced in 2010.

You can expect these vehicles to be smaller models such as the next generation Mercedes-Benz A-Class or whichever vehicle replaces the A-Class as we know it in Mercedes-Benz’s model line-up.

There is currently a batch of 100 electric-powered smart fortwos crunning in the UK, modified by Zytek Electric Vehicles. It is called the smart ed (ed = electric drive). These are powered by a 30kW (41 horsepower) electric motor at the rear, with sodium-nickel chloride batteries. It can travel a maximum of 110km on a full charge, and can charge up from 30% to 80% in four hours, or 100% in eight hours. It goes to a top speed of 120km/h.

The BRABUS ULTIMATE 112 is a special edition 112 unit run of the drop top smart fortwo powered by a 112 PS inline-3 turbocharged engine with 150Nm of torque between 2,800 to 4,200rpm mounted at the rear of the car. Equipped with a Brabus Widestar bodykit and 18 inch Brabus Monoblock VI wheels, It is available in a single special edition colour, a metallic pearlescent orange.

Other than engine and bodyworks, the BRABUS ULTIMATE 112 also gets a height-adjustable Brabus coil-over suspension, a stainless steel dual tailpipe sports exhaust system, and a Brabus colour-coordinated interior chock full of Brabus emblems featuring black Brabus Mastik leather with orange seams. 0 to 100km/h takes 9.5 seconds and top speed is electronically limited to 170km/h.

More photos after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Brabus Ultimate 112: special edition smart fortwo

If you’re free with nothing to do this weekend, you’re spoiled for choice for events to attend! Other than Auto Eurokars’ event, you also have Cycle & Carriage Bintang’s promotions in the Klang Valley. There will be Cycle & Carriage Bintang Carnivals at both CCB’s Lot 9, Jalan 219 showroom along the Federal Highway, as well as the CCB Mazda Showroom at Jalan Ampang from 10am to 5pm. The Lot 9 Carnival will have refreshments. You’ll be able to take a pick from a wide range of well-maintained Mercedes-Benz and smart company cars, demonstrator units, showroom models and pre-owned vehicles - Mercedes Benz A, C, E, and S-class as well as smart demo cars. The demo cars are attractively priced and in mint condition, complete with the latest registration, full after-sales facilities and fast delivery. Up to 90% financing, up to 9 years is also available.

There is also a road show being held at The Street in by far the classiest shopping mall The Curve, Mutiara Damansara from the 15th December to 17th December 2006, from 10am to 10pm. All latest models are being displayed with discount prices just for visitors of the roadshow. Also, the smart cars are being sold at CCB staff price. There are also door gifts upon test drive enrollment.

For more information, contact Cycle & Carriage Bintang Berhad - PJ Autohaus ( 03–7872 8000), Mutiara Damansara (03-7727 3213), Ampang (03-2144 9999), Johor Bahru (07-238 2299), Ipoh (05-506 4266)

Despite how the smart fortwo looks like it’s a disaster waiting to happen during accidents, smart says that it’s actually safe because of the use of a solid steel “Tridion” frame, left visible at the exterior as a major design element. While on paper it looks alright, but how does the smart fortwo perform in real life crash tests? 5th Gear decided that an experiment was long due… video after the jump!

Click here to read the rest of 5th Gear smart fortwo Crash Test

Most of you associate smart cars with tiny little toy cars which don’t look like they belong on highways at all. This is something outrageous - introducing the smart forfun2! While there were talks about an SUV smart car called the smart formore, that project never materialised. Instead, here you have a concept car called the smart forfun2. It’s hard to put the smart forfun2 and the word tiny in the same sentence.

It was developed by 4X4 Rally Race champion Stefan Attart using a Mercedes Benz Unimog 406, which is actually a really huge truck. The Unimog 406 is given a smart fortwo body and a 5,675cc six-cylinder diesel engine. Ever wondered what those huge monster truck-style wheels actually measure? They’re 26 inches wheels with 140cm diameter tyres. Ground clearance is a high 65cm, while the entire smart forfun2 is 3.7 meters tall.

More photos after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of smart forfun2

Just last month contributor Dr. S.P. Long tested the Brabus K4, somewhat of an uncle-car which just so happens to have the ability to go faster than the average E200K.

Since the tuned Mercedes-Benz E200K report drew so much of flak of still being an old mans car, Dr. S.P. Long has decided to visit this ‘old chaps garage and check out his other boring and conservative ride.

Enter the smart roadster, a small two-seater, rear engined, rear wheel drive roadster by the same people who brought you the E200K. Let’s have a look at how the smart roadster performs in an uncle’s hands.

Click here to read the rest of smart roadster Test Drive Report

Ever wonder how the Smart ForTwo would fare in a car accident? Sure the car looks small and fragile, but apparently it has good passenger protection because of it’s Safety Cell unibody. An independant German team did an experiment, orchestrating a simple head-on collision between a Smart ForTwo and a Mercedes Benz S-Class to see what would happen. What I really want to see though is a collision between a Smart ForTwo and an SUV. Video after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Smart ForTwo Crash Test

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!

Click here to read the rest of Smartuki - Smart ForTwo with Suzuki GSXR1000 superbike engine

In one of my previous posts I mentioned DaimlerChrysler’s efforts to restructure and replan Smarts business model, a company which has not turned a profit in almost 8 years. Casualties of the restructuring operation includes the Smart formore SUV and it was rumoured that the Smart Roadster would also be scrapped after it’s production ended at the end of 2005.

Although Smart will not be producing the Smart Roadster anymore, you will still be able to see it around as DaimlerChrysler has sold the rights and production equipments of the Smart Roadster to a British consortium called Project Kimber. Project Kimber was originally formed to bid for MG, but it lost out in that deal to Nanjing Automobiles.

So the Smart Roadster lives on, though I’m not sure if it will be still called the same name. Maybe Project Kimber will license the name too.

Mitsubishi Motors and Smart gmbh have signed an agreement where Mitsubishi will supply its next generation normally aspirated and turbocharged small-capacity engines to smart to be used in the successor to the Smart Fortwo model due in 2007.

This same engine will be used in the Mitsubishi i minicar. The Mitsubishi i will be available in January 2006. The engines will be produced at Mitsubishi’s engine plant in Mizushima. According to spec sheets of the concept, it’s powered by a 3-cylinder turbocharged MIVEC engine, so likely that and a normally aspirated version would be supplied to smart.

This deal will help ailing Mitsubishi Motors Corporation realize better economies of scale for the new minicar engine series, lowering costs per unit.

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