Smart roadster - schizophrenic automobile on test
from Automotive (1605 articles)
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Image Gallery ( 6 images )September 15, 2004 In the case of the smart Roadster, the word Smart is both a brand and an adjective. The global automotive industry is a voracious user of global resources. This year it will create 60 million cars and consume around 50% of the world’s oil production, 50% of rubber production, 25% of glass production, and 15% of steel production. If everyone drove a smart car, we’d make a massive shift towards smart sustainable living. The feel-good Smart Kart is two cars in one – a ballsy sportster and a good citizen with modest consumption for everything except fun.
The Smart Roadster makes sense the more you drive it. With an engine output of 60 kW and a weight of just 790 kg, the machine has just 13.2 kilograms for each kilowatt of power, which enables it to fight way above its division in every aspect of the car’s performance.
With less weight to push around it can accelerate and decelerate very quickly. It sits on the road more like a go-kart than a roadgoing car, offering incredibly responsive steering and handling. Like all small cars, the way to make them perform is to use their superior handling to attain higher cornering speeds, and though at times skittish, the Smart Roadster really excels in the swervery. At these times, it is an out and out racer, and on a sunny day with the roof off, you’ll find yourself heading for an empty mountain road to sample the car’s remarkable ability to maintain momentum.
Senior motoring journalist Peter McKay drove one of these beasties in the Targa Tasmania and stunned the other drivers with the car’s on-road performance in comparison with the full array of exotica it was classed alongside. McKay’s high cornering speeds enabled him to humble many cars with a price tag, engine capacity and engine output an order of magnitude greater than the Roadster’s. It may only have a 700cc three cylinder motor, but it is a true sports car and Mercedes engineers have admirably achieved their goal in creating a modern interpretation of the classic roadster.
And if sporting performance is what you’re after, the Roadster can be enhanced to the hilt. In Europe, Brabus is to Smart as HSV (Holden Special Vehicles) is for Holden. Brabus makes a wicked enhanced variant of the roadster with 74kW – enough to propel it to 200 kmh. You can order most of the go-fast and look good bits from the Brabus version directly from the dealer.
That’s the male perspective. These words are being written by a female, and I put around 800 kilometres on the Smart Roadster and fell in love with the many aspects of its personality. It’s sporty and frugal and most of all, FUN!
The car is so distinctive, everyone notices. That’s the first part. The sense of fun the car exudes from every pore is the infectious bit though. Everyone wants to chat and say hello. Everyone! I had a week of being approached by dozens of people to ask about the car, from enthusiasts driving hotrods to one frail old lady who must have been Octagenarian or more – she propped on her walking stick as I parked the car in a country town. As I stepped out, she clenched her free hand, waved it in the air and grinned, “good on yer love.”
She normally took no notice of cars, but could tell that this was very different. I suspect she was pleased to see someone doing something she had always dreamed of. Going out in the Smart Roadster was like going for a walk with a cute puppy on a lead.
The frugality can be measured at the pump – an average 45mpg or 6.22 litres per hundred kilometres over a week in which the car was driven in a spirited manner, and occasionally even faster than that.
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