Fun Car: smart "Crossblade"

[Haltickling]

It looks a bit like a dune buggy, and it's certainly more of a fun car than a method of transportation. No roof, no windows, no doors...

It's incredibly small: just 8'2" long and less than 5' wide, but it's powerful: 70 bhp, and the top speed is electronically limited to 83 mph.

Only 2000 of these cars were built, and Robbie Williams owns car number 0001 (he got it for a commercial). But the price is exorbitant: almost 30,000 US $. Nevertheless, all 2000 cars were sold in record time.

BTW: There's also a "normal" version of the "smart", with roof, doors etc. The regular version has a 50 bhp engine, top speed 93 mph, for a little over 10,000 $.

If you're interested, I'll post some unusual cars here from time to time, especially those which are almost unknown in the States.

😎

 

[AffectionateDan]

Amusing, yet scary, too...

...I for one would be afraid to drive/ride in one of those microtinydeathmachines! All the damned SUV's on the road these days would squash that thing like a bug on the grill and not even feel the bump.

 

[qjakal]

Nice!

I'm a bit of a car nut when it comes to the unusual rather than the run of the mill...

What sort of gas mileage do the various versions of these get Hal?

Q

 

[MrMacphisto]

Cool car, except for one thing.... with no windshield, bugs will be smacking you in the face as you drive down the highway. At least, in the bug-infested humid areas of NC, you would have that problem.... I don't know about Germany....

 

[BOFH666]

Ain't they great? Smart's have been around in Europe for a fair few years and it has to be said for the size of car they're pretty good as far as safety goes (though no safety cell is any use when an inattentive SUV driver *Splats* into it a silly speeds).

Petrol mileage is about 60mpg (If I remember right) on the petrol models, 80mpg on the diesels. Figure it's actually 5mpg below that in the real world. Top speed is limited to 84mph and develops about 61bhp from a 698cc turbo charged engine. That said there's a growing intrest in tuning these things, and some of them are deeply scary. 120bhp is certainly possible, hell they've even taken one rallying: http://www.smartcar-owner.co.uk/smart_tune_rally_smart.htm

And for the true loony toons in the audience we have a Suzuki GSXR1000 engine shoe-horned into the back: http://www.pistonheads.com/doc.asp?c=61&i=7802

12,000rpm and 180bhp in a car 2.5 metres long! Oh, and if that's not enough you can always add a Turbo and Nitrous!

Oh, and on the subject of Smart's in the US, one UK motoring magazine decided to take one over there and drive coast-to-coast. Put the Smart on a standard size shipping pallet, took a spare wheel as luggage (the Smart doesn't normally have one), picked it up in New York and drove over to LA. From what I remember it was a case of everyone going "nice car, but why would we buy something so small"?