It all started when Peter Bee, who spends his days around MHP, makers of high performance exhaust systems, got himself a Smart Car. Immediately, he had a liking for it and he kept on buying them, great second car, nice for running errands, quick scoots around town, all very sensible. But as he constantly used to see high performance vehicles of various sorts , driving around in a sedate 60Bhp car didnt make sense to him. He managed to get the engine up to around 100hp which isn’t a bad jump from the 60hp in the stocker, but Pete wanted more.
He got in touch with the fellows at Z cars, who make R1 powered Minis and the rest is history. What you are looking at is a Suzuki GSXR 1000 powered Smart car! A separate frame had to be made to house the engine along with a Cosworth differential and complete independent rear suspension. The stock engine was massaged till it was putting out a reliable 180hp. Peter also built up a full race MHP titanium exhaust system and then created a handmade wiring harness to integrate all of the Suzuki’s engine controls along with the tach, the one that goes red around 13,000rpm!And to slow down the lil beast, full floating wavy rotors up front with 6 pot calipers and solid wavy rotors in the rear was put in.
And to keep the name simple, they called it the Smartuki! And does it perform? 0-100 in 4.3 seconds, 1/4 mile in 12.4 seconds and tops out at 211km/h. Definitely not your average Smart! Peter adds that running up to the traffic lights at 13,500rpm is always amusing since other drivers move over when they hear what sounds like a bike coming up fast. Autosport Magazine tested it against a Mistubishi Evo FQ-330 - it didn’t win but fared better than the Subaru they tried a week earlier.
A few other features:
One off LED lights in the rear
A nice set of minilights
All braided hoses throughout
Brake bias with lock out for lighting the rear wheels
Electronic shifter with full power shift ability
Nice grill from Smarts R Us
Full alarm with remote start and roof open and close
The car using clocks from the GSXR too!
You can visit their official website at SMARTUKI
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