smart_roadster_v6_biturbo_richard_hammond_review¶

1 excerpts.

Excerpt¶

youtube.com/smart_racer/smart_roadster_v6_biturbo_richard_hammond_review · p. 1 · Applies to: 450, 451, 452, 453, 454, #1, ebike

of the moment when we have this the smart roadster on earlier in the year we criticized it for its miserly boot space barely enough room we reckoned for a tray of potatoes well it seems that the germans have been listening trouble is i think they might have got hold of the wrong end of the stick i mean yeah they have looked at the miserable boot space and then they've filled it with another engine the ordinary car has a three-cylinder 700cc turbo in here but now we've got two engines welded together to create a v6 and because each brings its own turbo it's a v6 bi-turbo smash it this all is strictly necessary i mean the ordinary car is no slouch it feels fantastic well because the engine count has been doubled the naught to 60 time has been halved now it's under six seconds and the top speed nudges 140 miles an hour so to answer my own question yes it is necessary very especially when it feels like this this machine is the work of german tuning house brabus a company with a history of taking mercedes cars that are already fast and making them much much faster tom cruise has a promise so does michael schumacher so does brad pitt there is no price list at bravos every year they sell a handful that touch the half million pound mark but brabus do like to give you a bit more than just power for your money the smart has got chrome and leather everywhere bucket seats and harnesses and a fire extinguisher nicked from an oil rig and it looks good too with shark fin grilles on the side and a spectacular view of that unique engine but what brabbers give with one hand they taketh away with the other they've nicked the air conditioning and the radio for packaging reasons what in case they want to stick another engine in there and there's your boot space full of fuel tanks so there's the packing done bloke heaven oh foam rubber that tank like our formula one fuel tank so let's empty it shouldn't take long it now produces 218 brake horsepower per ton that is the same as a porsche 911 carrera 4. it's got the little smart paddle shift gearbox which is all right actually it's not too bad as long as you remember where the paddles are to shift and there's no traction control either apparently they haven't been able to reprogram it yet for all that extra go good i say what's amazing is just how much low down power you get it's got huge grunt it feels like a much much much bigger engine than it really is it's like a bottle of sports car concentrate now for the bad news this particular car cost 330 000 pounds to build the good news though is that brabus will be making a roadster next year true enough it probably won't have this two engine business but it definitely won't have that price tag either then again rabbits are always open to commission so if you're feeling flat [Music] three hundred and thirty thousand pounds strikes me as being a bit steep for a plastic car it is a bit steep for a small car an actual fat and they've only made nine or ten of those to show off what they can do it is very expensive are they going to do it for real they will do don't know exactly what that will be like but it'll still be expensive i'm sure right so what that's the standard car and that is i think 14 grand yeah it's good i like it you like it yeah i do would you have one no why not i'm going to stick to our guns on this james because it is a cracking little car and i'm sure that will be when they make one but it's still too expensive just too much money he's right you know [Music] you