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Smart rear end
aeroluke - 19/9/08 at 08:13 PM

Has anyone (successfully) used a Smart rear end with the de Dion. Seems like a ready made rear end suspension and shouldn't be too heavy. Don't know how much one'd be from a scrapyard...
What're the reasons not to? Track width is perhaps little narrow... just a thought!

akumabito - 19/9/08 at 08:56 PM

I believe many Smart cars end up with pretty bad engine problems. I'm not entirely sure, but I believe it's the turbo that goes bad on 'm.

Also, there ain't a whole lot of power in those cars so I'm not really sure if it'd be worth the hassle.

FUORISERIE - 19/9/08 at 09:09 PM

Michalak is using a Smart fortwo donor for its C7 kit.

http://c7.michalak.eu/

Hope it helps
Cheers
Italo

smart51 - 19/9/08 at 09:54 PM

Early smarts (600cc) had some turbo problems if the car was thrashed. Later cars had a new casting which seemed better. 700cc cars didn't seem to have problems. 1000cc cars are too new to tell.

600s had 44, 54 and 61 BHP as standard with 74 from the brabus version and 80 from after market remaps.

700s had 50 and 61 as standard with 80 from Brabus.

The 700cc roadster and coupe had 61 if you were cheap, 80 as standard and 101 from Brabus. The block is the same as the ForTwo but the turbo is bigger and the exhaust is more free flowing.

The roadster has a wider track but is otherwise much the same as the ForTwo.

If 101 BHP is enough and you want a simple bolt on DeDion rear subframe then the smart might be for you. I guess to make it work, you'll have to keep the ABS / ESP system or the clocks and engine managment won't work.

smart51 - 19/9/08 at 09:55 PM

quote:
Originally posted by akumabito
I believe many Smart cars end up with pretty bad engine problems. I'm not entirely sure, but I believe it's the turbo that goes bad on 'm.


I've seen pictures of early engines that have literally melted.

aeroluke - 20/9/08 at 08:00 AM

I was a bit unclear in my original post - I didn't mean use the engine I just meant the suspension. So the idea would be to use the de dion suspension with something like a bike engine and chain diff.

StevieB - 20/9/08 at 08:33 AM

A better option would be to buy a smart roadster and get an r1 shoehorned in.

We used to have a roadster and they're cracking little cars to drive with decent handling and the engine is actually quite peppy - but the gearbox is appalling and lets the while thing down as it just can't make the shifts quick enough and you loose lots of speed and sometimes end up barrelling into a corner in too high a gear.