Englishman drops GSXR1000 motor into Smart car
It's called a "Smartuki", and it's the brainchild of Englishman Peter Bee who works for MHP exhaust. While smitten with the Smart car in its mild mannered state, Bee felt the urge to take it to the edge by having Z cars drop in the engine of a Suzuki GSXR1000 that had been tweaked to 180 hp, which equals nearly 120 more hp than a stock Smart car. The result is a microcar that gets to 60 mph in 4.2 seconds and through the quarter mile in 12.4 seconds at 132 mph. Insanity ensues well before the car's 13,000 rpm redline. Read about the project here at The Kneeslider, a website that's probably not used to reporting on things with four wheels.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
ABG 11:07PM (12/18/2005)
Urge... to mod... mom's car... rising...
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Jon 11:07PM (12/18/2005)
Top speed is 132, not speed at 1/4 mile.
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Joseph Willemssen 11:07PM (12/18/2005)
Cool.
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C-Jo 11:07PM (12/18/2005)
Ok so that's pretty much the coolest car ever.
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Motorin' 11:07PM (12/18/2005)
Two words..."Freakin' Sweet!"
However, I'm not sure if I'd want to attempt to slalom a Smart. It would be nice to see the Autosport mag article they mention.
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Aaron B 11:07PM (12/18/2005)
Can you imagine if they put that engine into something even lighter? Like, something that had no roof for weight savings...and hey they could even take out two of the wheels! Wow, that'd be seriously fast.
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poutinemaster 11:07PM (12/18/2005)
NICE! I'm wondering if they can do wheelies with it... :)
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MikeCapone 11:07PM (12/18/2005)
Yeah, it's pretty sweet.
TH beat Autoblog to it:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/09/motorcycle_engi.php
But we got it off Jalopnik so I guess it doesn't count...
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rollie demay 11:07PM (12/18/2005)
True story-I knew a guy who put a 350 Chevy in an MG Midget once. Tunnel ram, two fours, headers, roller, and some more. Wicked fast. I think he's dead now. Too bad. Twin turbos could have had him at 1200 horsepower or so. If he had lived just a tad longer..............
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Bigel 11:07PM (12/18/2005)
So can this be registered as a motorcycle?
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maximaowner 11:07PM (12/18/2005)
not very SMART!
I knew a guy that put a chevrolet engine in a Jaguar...he called it his jagrolet...
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freshsci 11:07PM (12/18/2005)
yeah its a smart car until you get hit by a vehicle twice your size - are these crash rated?
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Kurt B 11:07PM (12/18/2005)
I find this was the coolest use of a Suzuki bike engine (GSX-R/4 )
http://www.mcarsweb.com/suzuki/gsxr4.htm
But putting a 1000 in a smart car..seems like a recipe for disaster. Maybe we'll see Jeremy Clarkson going full out on the Top Gear track with it next season.
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Joseph Willemssen 11:07PM (12/18/2005)
Not nearly as crazy as this thing, its mirror image:
http://www.dodge.com/tomahawk/flash.html
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md 11:07PM (12/18/2005)
I have hopes of one day soon buying an old VW Rabbit Caddy (those little pickup trucks) diesel and converting it to run on biodiesel. there is a little steakhouse near my house that must go through about 15 gallons of oil a day that would love free disposal and removal that I would offer. from what i understand it has to be extensively filtered and i will have to get special injectors, dual gas tanks....one for regular diesel to warm up the car with, and one to hold the vegatable oil, and a buch of other mods that I can't remember off the top of my head to make it work. It probably won't be fast, fun to drive, or even cost effective, or reliable, but it would be worth it to me just to see if i could pull it off. and it would be different.
I wonder if VA would give me a clean special fuel license plate and let me in the HOV lanes. not that i would use it because i think VA's law on those vehicles is a bunch of B.S, but still.
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md 11:07PM (12/18/2005)
oops meant ot post that under "PHRs list of Nine Cars You Need To Build" where they asked for our project car ideas.
DOH!
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Bigel 11:07PM (12/18/2005)
Structurally, the Smart holds up pretty well against bigger cars. Below are pics of being test crashed into a Mercedes E-class sedan. The apparent lack of energy absorption worries me though.
http://www.wheels.ca/jpg/5393.jpg
http://www.wheels.ca/jpg/5387.jpg
I don't see how anyone can gripe about this Smart's safety, yet rave about the Ariel Atom. Talk about flip-flopping.
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PJ 11:07PM (12/18/2005)
freshsci, here's an article on Smart's crash safety: http://www.canadiandriver.com/articles/jk/040908.htm
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Galley 11:07PM (12/18/2005)
Is the Smart Car really coming to the U.S.? It's exactly what I'm looking for.
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Chris 11:07PM (12/18/2005)
The GSXR1000 would have been more fun had he left the engine in it. I'm sure it doesn't sound quite like my Ducati though.
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