Small but fine
Defying all preconceptions, smart-BRABUS GmbH has converted the smart into a racing car. This is a special gift to mark the 15th anniversary of the joint venture between tuning specialist BRABUS and Daimler AG. The smart special edition at BILSTER BERG.
The small smart and great driving pleasure – two terms that have not been associated so often until now. Admittedly, more and more drivers admit that the Bonsai-Benz is fun to drive in the city because you can slip through even the smallest of gaps and find a parking space where larger vehicles would not even need to look. But if you want to get out of the city or step on the gas, some people also want to swap to another car. For many, the smart’s small wheelbase, narrow track and high centre of gravity mean that driving fun quickly gets left behind.
But now BRABUS CEO Bodo Buschmann has given the little fella a real makeover. For the 15th anniversary of smart-BRABUS GmbH, the king of tuners has built a very special smart: The smart “ready to race” is a small but fine racing car. “First of all, the vehicle was stripped and freed of unnecessary weight,” explains Sebastian Wittich, Product Manager at smart-BRABUS. “The smart was given a roll cage specially designed for this project, as well as particularly grip-friendly semi-slick tyres, Makrolon plastic side windows – as is usual in motorsport, racing bucket seats and racing seat belts. To optimise the driving dynamics to the maximum, the smart was given a racing suspension with adjustable compression and rebound damping, which was perfectly tuned to the lower weight and the sports tyres on a hydraulic test bench.” The engine was also made more powerful, of course. The smart BRABUS “ready to race” puts just over 125 hp and 200 NM on the road – compared to a maximum of 109 hp in the production models. “Whereby the new model was not made for the road, but exclusively for the race track,” says Wittich. There are just two prototypes. “But our customers also get something special for the anniversary,” says Wittich: the exclusive “15th anniversary edition”, of which there will only be 150 units worldwide. But the 25 journalists and car bloggers who were allowed to test the “ready to race” smarts on the BILSTER BERG with DTM driver Robert Wickens and Formula 1 safety car driver Bernd Mayländer were particularly impressed by the small racing capsule. “They were amazed,” says Wittich, “at the extremely high level of driving dynamics, which certainly no one would have thought a smart could achieve.” BRABUS worked on the smart racing taxi for four months. Then the speedster was ready. “We wanted to show what’s really hidden in the smart and present the maximum possible,” says Wittich. The smart “ready to race” was to prove this on the BILSTER BERG. “The track architecture of the BILSTER BERG features many differences in altitude and challenging bends, some of which have to be approached blindfolded. On a wide and flat Grand Prix circuit, the qualities of the smarts “ready to race” would probably not have come out like this, but the BILSTER BERG course offers the necessary rollercoaster feeling.” And it shows what the often belittled Smart is capable of. “It can do very, very much,” F1 safety car driver Bernd Mayländer also summed up in an interview with the MotorZeitung. “It was quite sporty here.” Especially in engine tuning, BRABUS used the experience gained from 15 years of cooperation with smart to its advantage, says Wittich, adding with a smile: “But more is always possible.”
Text: Nicole Thesen (Zimmermann Editorial)
