The Smart Roadster - And why it's my dream car - #Blogpost by Smart Roadster (Otaku)

Oh the Smart Roadster. A little two-seater that is not really known in the car community since it’s overshadowed by the other two-seater roadster, the famous Mazda MX-5… But why do I like it more than the Miata and why should you?

The origin of the idea

In autumn 1998, Smart’s design and engineering team with Jens Manske as director began to sketch possible future Smart cars. They soon realised that the powertrain of the City Coupe was ideal for a small sports car, with the same drivetrain as the City Coupe. Two quarter-scale exterior and two quarter-scale interior models were made in February 1999, with Volker Leutz’s exterior and Christoph Machinek’s interior proposals selected for development into full-size development models. The design of the car had progressed considerably by the time Michael Mauer officially arrived from Mercedes-Benz’s Japan design center to take over Menske’s position in May 1999. Mauer worked closely with the design team to quickly develop the roadster, with the intention now of producing a show car for the upcoming 1999 IAA motor show in Frankfurt.

The concept

By June the full size models of the roadster were handed over to Stola in Italy for production of the show car model, which was produced in about three months for the car’s debut at the Frankfurt show. The Roadster concept was well received at Frankfurt and helped to convince management that the car should be developed for production. At the same time a decision was made to develop Mauer’s idea for a coupe version as a concept car for Paris motor show a year later. As development of the coupe concept began, so the roadster show car was developed over the following year with both exterior and interior designs completed by November 2000. However, colour and trim design continued until a year later.
In March Mauer left Smart for Saab, succeeded by Hartmut Sinkwitz in May. As the third design director of Smart during the Roadster’s development, Sinkwitz had to bring the concept to production in a very short time. This task may have been made somewhat easier by the Roadster having been designed from the start to use existing powertrain and other City Coupe components. Given some of the advanced design features, it is a credit to the design team that so much of the concept car made it to production.

The ‘Roadster Coupe’ as shown at the 2000 Paris motor show was already on its way to production form. It shared the design of the Roadster from the doors forward, but had a glass targa roof and rear structure resembling a small shooting brake, in the same way as the BMW Z3 coupe and the Saab 9X concept car developed under Mauer at Saab a few years later.
Production versions of both Roadster and Roadster Coupe debuted together at the 2002 Paris Motor Show and were available to buy within a few months. Both cars were unique in the market, being significantly smaller than the Toyota MR2, MG TF, Fiat Barchetta and of course the most famous one, the Mazda MX-5. It also offered similar performance and practicality to the base versions of these cars, while being significantly more fuel efficient.

Specifications and features

The Smart Roadster is like every other Smart rear engined and rear wheel drive and was available as a coupe and a regular version. The coupe has more space in the back and looks more like a shooting brake. The roof was available in two options: a convertible one that was able to be taken off or a targa one. Both of these were able to be stored inside of the car. It has the same style Tridion cell from the Fortwo to keep you safe from collisions. Also it features a stock turbo pressure gauge

It came with a choice of three engines, all being 698cc petrol-powered inline three turbocharged ‘Suprex’ engines, build by Mercedes-Benz. The least powerful engine has 61hp, which is not much, but enough for a car that only weighs 790 kilograms (1742 lbs). This engine is only available in the regular Roadster. The second engine offers 82hp and is available in both the regular car and the coupe. The engine is capable of hitting 100kmph (~62mph) in 10.9 seconds and it will go on untill it hits 180kmph. The last engine is the Brabus one, which develops 101hp and brings the car to a 100kmph in 9,8 seconds and hits a top speed of 190kmph.
Also they can average 1 liter per 24 kilometers/53 miles per gallon, which is a quite good if you ask me.
There were optional F1 stylish flappy pedals to control the semi-automatic gearbox, which is good since the gearbox alone wasn’t really a good idea… It wasn’t that good.

The Brabus V6: The ultimate version

In 2003, Brabus merged two of the inline threes together to create a 1.4L V6 engine. Since every engine also brought their own turbo with them, it was a Biturbo engine too. It produced 215hp and it weighed 840 kilogrammes, giving it the same power-to-weight ratio as a Porsche 911 Carrera 4S and the ability to sprint to 100kmph in under 5 seconds. Also the fuel tank, which was now more like a fuel bladder that’s used in F1, was relocated to the front, since the bigger engine needed more space of the engine bay. Therefore you don’t have any luggage space left for you groceries… Well, you can still put them on the passenger seat, that’s still there. And because of the same reason the rear suspension had some work done to it too, with the coil springs and dampers changed into concentric units. To save weight, the stereo has been removed, so you can’t listen to Eurobeat while thrashing down the mountain.
Only 10 Brabus V6’s were made, of which none of them were for sale or road legal, and probably only two or three are left over now, the rest is dismantled for parts. Some Mercedes racing drivers took guests around on a racetrack with the V6. I hope they’re still doing that today because I would like to sit in one and hear the engine (drools)…

The AC Ace: The spiritual successor

You might be thinking now: “What has the AC Ace to do with the Smart Roadster?” Well, let me tell you.
In 2006, David James initiated ‘Project Kimber’, an attempt to restart production of the Smart Roadster in the United Kingdom. Initially intended to be rebadged as an MG model, but after an unsuccessful bid for the MG marque, the revised Roadster was later referred to as the AC Ace. Production was planned to happen in 2007, however, that never happened and the project has been dropped.

Tuning

Smart Roadsters don’t really have tuning parts available for sale. Although there is a engine swap kit available from a british company called ‘Smartuki’ (you can see the kit in the picture). These swap the engines for Suzuki GSX-R motorcycle engines. These have more power and a better throttle response. Also, those engine swapped Roadsters were featured in the final chase of the 2010 movie ‘Knight and Day’!

But now... Why do I like it, and why should you

• It isn’t really known in the tuning world, which makes it a original choice as a project car, but also a challenging one since there aren’t really tuning parts available apart from the engine swap kit.
• It hasn’t got much weight (only 810 kilogrammes for the coupe and 790 kilogrammes for the regular one) and it hasn’t got a huge amount of power that can get you in deep trouble. Because of those two factors it’s cheap to insure and it doesn’t cost much in road taxes.
• Main cause of it being so light is that it isn’t big at all: It’s only 3,43 meters long and 1,62 meters wide, which makes it smaller in dimensions than the average hatchback that’s on sale now. And it doesn’t cost you leg room because the engine is behind you.
• It’s practical (I’m talking here about the coupe, the regular one isn’t good at this point). You can still take your groceries with you or something else, because above the engine is a storage space and up front there is a frunk where you can also put stuff in
• It has a rear engined, rear wheel drive layout, which basically means it’s the same as a Porsche 911 (of course it isn’t, just stereotyping things here)
• They’re not that expensive: You can pick a decent one up here in the Netherlands for around €4500,-, and a Brabus is in the price range of €14000,-. That’s like the price of a equipment-rich Dacia over here!
• The biggest reason why it’s my favourite car: I saw it parked somewhere on the side of the street when I was younger. It was a dark blue with a grey Tridion cell and bumpers (how do I remember this?) and I liked it! After a short while I forgot about it until, and I still don’t know how, around a year ago it popped back in my mind. So I googled it, saw some pictures and fell in love with it! Then I realized how unknown it actually was here and I wanted to change that. That you’re reading this means that I’ve succeeded in my mission.

This all sums up that the Smart Roadster is a great little car that most people don’t pay attention to… I’m not gonna say you should buy one immediately. The only reason I wrote this was to share my love for it and bring it into the daylight, out of the shadows. To the place where it deserves to be.

And now we’ve come to the end of this blogpost. If you want, leave some feedback in the comments on how to improve it, or if you think it was the greatest blogpost ever, which it certainly isn’t, and that everyone could learn from this. See you all in the comments!