Not Driven: Smart Coupe and Roadster, the Smarts we didn't get

September 3, 8:27 PMAuto Review ExaminerJohn Matras

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Smart Gmbh, the Daimler Benz-owned maker of the fourtwo microcar that has been on sale in the US for almost a year now and can be seen nipping around mostly in major metropolitan areas where they’re most practical, is celebrating its tenth anniversary. And though it’s best known for that two-seater now available here, Smart made some zippy sports coupes and roadster, Smart sports cars, for a brief period in the early Ninties.

Like the classic sports car, the Smart roadster and coupe were based on the sedan and therefore had similar layout and powertrain arrangement, with the rear-mounted three-cylinder engine and semi-automatic transmission. Seating, however, was low and stretched out, and alas, though we’ve never driven one, they looked great sitting curbside in London.

Lack of seat time is even more frustrating, as a contemporary road test in Britain’s What Car? praised the pair’s handing and ride, hugging the road while “soaking up bumps and resisting shaking.”

The turbocharged 698cc three-cylinder engine made a “distinctive grunt under load, and a flutter from the turbo’s wastegate every time you back off the power, so it sounds like a miniature rally car.” It was more sound that fury, however, as the car required 10.9 seconds for a 0-60 mph sprint. On the other hand, the sporty Smart had a 55.4 mpg (Imperial) rating.

The German tuning company Brabus saw the need for extra power and raised it. Spiffing up the exterior with 17-inch alloy wheels, a Brabus radiator grille, side skirts and body-colored spoilers, the big boost was under the hood, or trunk lid or whatever you call it. Brabus modified the engine for a significant 19bhp power increase—thanks to a new turbocharger, cooling system and engine management chip—for a rating of 101 horsepower, dropping 0-60 mph to 9.8 seconds with a top speed of 119 mph.

The UK’s website CarPages said the Brabus-modified car would cruise easily at highway speeds though tire and road noise would get tiring. The Brit magazine Auto Express  said it “growls like a Porsche” though it rode stiffly. The handling was balanced but Auto Express opined that while the power was welcome, the car would have been more satisfying with the standard suspension and tires.

If the Smart roadster and coupe weren’t particularly fast, they were fun. But the run was short. Both were introduced in 2003, and although only about 8-10,000 units per year were needed to make their nut, first year sales were almost double that. Top Gear named it the Fun Car of 2005. But the car wasn’t a financial success for Smart and fun though it was in ’05, that was its final year.

In the end, the Smart coupe and roadster was a reincarnation of the sports cars of the Fifties and Sixties, small, light, good handling if not particularly fast, and affordable, and anyone who had signed on for that bit of fun can only look at these sports Smarts and say, what if?

Illustration: Smart roadster, courtesy Daimler Benz.