Gulf GT40 Smart Car

Mathew R Hall BA Hons (Sand)……… Honest…

Research Engineer for a medical device manufacturer based in Reading.

Bought Smart as a cheap and funky run-around after my 2.3 Audi 90… (How wrong was I????)

Other cars in my collection:

1965 Series 11a 88" Land Rover.

Previous cars owned, Audi 90 2.3, Vauxhall Astra 1.8SXi, VW Polo…

Background to the Gulf Smart.

I bought my Smart in the May of 2001; it was one of the limited edition Mk5 Pulse SEs in Bay gray. It wasn’t long before modifications were being made, first off, it was the GB air scoop, soon after came a Smart tune dump-valve and a Turbo boost gauge. At that point, I was happy with my shiny modified smart, little did I know what was about to happen? [pay]

In the summer of 2001, I made the fateful mistake of going to a smart meet. My nearest convenient meet was Fleet, which became the home to the S2 crew. This was a gathering of like-minded individuals with the intentions of making the smart even better. It was there that I met people like Steve Forster, Ian of BIG Performance, Will Bartlam (the original Smart-arse) and so many more to mention. It was these guys who gave me the incentive to make something special out of my humble smart car.

The ball started to roll, first it was the wide wheels, then came the sports exhaust, 6 pot callipers followed the Brabus suspension kit and the S2 remap… Now the car had the speed, the handling and the braking, all it needed now was a new look…. The Gulf Smart was born…

The idea of the Gulf panels came to me about 2 years ago. I mentioned it to a few people at the Fleet meet who thought the idea was good but weren’t sure if it would work. A few sketches later and the final colour scheme was complete.

The idea had stemmed from my passion of GT cars built in the late 60s and early 70s. Cars that battled on the race circuits of Europe such as the Ferrari 512s, 312s, Porsche 908/3 and 917s were and still are my favourites. The cars that always caught my eye were those sponsored by Gulf Oil, these being the Ford GT40 and the Porsche 917 plus a few more I suspect.

The number 7 was chosen because when I was researching the colour scheme, I could only find pictures of a Gulf GT40 with number 8 and number 6, so in order to fill the gap, 7 was chosen…

Since putting on the Gulf panels, not much has changed on the car. It’s still a bit of a head turner even though it’s been around for nearly 18 months, but I have to say, every time I walk away, I still have to look back with a smile… Something I have never done with any other car…

Spec of ‘The Gulf Smart’

MCC Smart Mk5 Pulse SE

Reg:

Friday 18th May 2001 Y602 UGN (Now S2 6ULF)

Colour:

Originally Bay gray,

Now, Gulf Blau over Gulf orange, both colours manufactured by Porsche

Interior:

Blue with grey plasticky bits.

Mechanical Mods:

• Graham Baker (GB) Scoop… Later replaced with S-mann.

• De-lipped air intake.

• K&N air filter

• Smart Tune Dump valve, now sold on.

• BIG Performance exhaust (Loud option).

• Brabus fully uprated suspension kit.

• Mk6 replacement Turbo and manifold

• Big Performance 6 pot callipers using standard disks as they work better when they are hot.

• Braided Brake hoses.

• S2 Remap, of undisclosed origins, all I’ll say is that it’s quick…

• Switchable Trust.

• Smart-shift paddle gear change.

• Oil cooler, own sourced components.

• Under car scoop for engine bay cooling

Visual mods:

• Brabus front spoiler.

• S-mann side skirts.

• Modified Brabus side pods with front mud flaps.

• Different headlight bulbs, the type that give a hint of blue.

• Meshed front grills.

• Tinted Windows by Gatwick autoshades.

• Chrome indicators.

• Gulf Panels.

• Silver door mirrors replaced original black.

• Vertical wipers. 21" nearside, 19" offside to prevent wiper collisions at speed.

• Windscreen heavily rain xed… to prevent use of wipers at speed…

Wheels:

• Brabus Mono V.

Tyres:

• Front: Bridgestone potenzas RE720 195/50/15.

• Rear: Bridgestone Potenza S-03 pole position 195/50/15.

Interior:

• TIM Boost gauge with modified S2 face to read to 1.8 Bar.

• Aluminium dash kit Supplied by Mr Forster.

• Aluminium Gear knob, handbrake and pedal set from Bonalume in Italy… Picked up personally on a tour of Europe last year.

• 3rd pod housing a digital compass

• Alloy footrest.

• Momo Shoulder protection.

• Garmin GPS navigation.

I.C.E.

Standard. The music to my ears is the exhaust note at 4000 rpm; windows wide open driving down any one of Berkshires fantastic B roads. Nuff said.

Others:

Registration plate S2 6ULF

Gulf stickers supplied by Gulf Oil UK.

Roundels, Number 7s and other stickers supplied by Paul Murphy.

Some kind of device that keeps my car safe…

Bike carrier

First Aid kit

Allen key

Pavarotti tape (for those moments when it’s too cold to have the window open)

Duster

Mer polish

KFC wipe

Legal number plate for the front… just in case.

Performance:

Good enough. I have seen 119 on the track (M4) officer…

0-62 relative… but surprises a few…

Braking:

Awesome.

Car was purchased from Smart Chiswick, serviced by Smart Brentford…. Modified by me with a little help from Top1, Sasha and BIG Performance. [/pay]

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The StormTrooper

I got the Smart back at the start of November in 2001.  I had no original plans to actually get the car at the time, as I had a Rover Kensington which was running fine, and, was a decent car.  It was only when I saw an advert in one of my local papers advertising a garage that was offering test drives of these ‘smart cars’ that I decided to go down and try them out.  Naturally, curiosity got the better of me too, ending up in me just having to go for a test drive! Hehe!  I arrived at the garage a couple of days later and stepped out into a ‘Formula S Smart’ – it was a ‘sporty’ model made by Andrew Moss from Colne Car Centre (who now has nothing to do with the cars). 

As I got stepped in the car and sat in the seat, I was instantly impressed with just everything, the feel of the car, the driving position, the design of the interior, the look, just everything.  It felt so comfortable – a lot more than my Rover.  There was only one thing I found strange, not the fact that it was left hand drive, but where the hell was the clutch!!!!  After a few minutes and me coming to terms with the fact that it had a sequential (‘Colin McRae’ – as I like to call it ha) gearbox, we set off down the road, taking it easy at first.  I was really enjoying myself!  I’ve only driven a few cars but this by far was the best ever!  I was soooo chuffed! Ha!  After a few minutes of driving the salesman told me to put my foot down – I certainly didn’t refuse!  So I dropped it a gear and stuck my foot down.  At first there was nothing, then “BLAAAAA” went the car giving me a kick in the process – that’s when I found out it had a turbo – which made me even more chuffed as I instantly started thinking 18 year old, turbo’d car - ‘dump valve dump valve dump valve’! [pay]

Eventually after a while we arrived back at the garage.  No more than 10 minutes later I had bought a smart.  I just had to have one I was that impressed with everything, including the way that I would be driving around in a car that is engineered by Mercedes!  Hmm, Rover or Mercedes, wonder which ones better!

So there I was a couple of days later with this fantastic (second hand) smart car, the looks I got (and still get) are so amusing.  With me being a young lad, of course modifying was the first thing I was thinking about.  After a long while my fist mod came in the form of a dump valve.  Now I was really impressed!  Tinted windows followed shortly after, then a change of panels, a K&N air filter, air scoop, custom exhaust system and a boost gauge.  This was all over a period of when I got the car to the present day.  I’d had an idea in my mind of how the car looks now in my mind for absolutely ages, and had been wanting to do that since I first thought if the idea.

I waited and waited, getting more eager to completely remake my car, but of course the money never came!  It was only until completely out of the blue I came into some money, which of course meant that finally I was going to get to transform the car!  I’d always been a big fan of Star Wars, and of course Darth’s very own army of storm troopers.  I’d always wanted one of the outfits too, I think they are one of the best suits ever! Thank the lord for George Lucas! Ha!  It was quite funny when the guys at Smart-R-Us showed me the car, and told me they had been looking at it for ages knowing that it looked like something they had seen before – but what?!  Of course I was confused too, until it came into Paul’s head – “it’s a storm trooper!” he shouted!  At that moment everyone chuckled, and I did see where he was coming from!  I was quite impressed too!  I’d made one of George Lucas’s creations without even realising!  That’s how the car got it’s nickname of being a Storm Trooper!

List Of Mods!

External

• Full respray in Opel Casablanca White
• Colour coded 15” Sportiva’s (175’s all round)
• Colour coded Hoffle side skirts
• Colour coded Michalak Eyebrows
• Colour coded Michalak Quad Lights
• Colour coded Michalak Grill
• Eibach rear lowering springs (25mm)
• Air scoop

Internal

• Smart club center console discs
• Colour coded pod, fan and speedo trims
• Boost gauge

Engine

• Brabus clone remap by Jonboy
• Dump valve
• Custom exhaust
• K&N Air filter!

 

 

Submitted By:

Richard Caesar [/pay]

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My Smart Car WAG ‑ A Love Story

It was I999 when I first saw a Smart car. I was in a shopping centre in Germany, and at first I couldn’t even comprehend that it was a real car! A good while after that I started to see this tiny car in the UK and it wasn’t long before I was hooked … yes, I’d fallen in love!

Imagine my reaction when on Christmas Eve 200I, while pottering around my kitchen, I saw out of the window, a little black and silver number driving towards the house. My jaw dropped when it stopped outside my house and Nigel, my brother‑in-law, hopped out and handed me the keys. He’d hired it for me for two weeks as a Christmas present. Wicked or what? I was so overwhelmed I have to say I shed a tear or two. Even more tears fell though, when I had to hand it back again![pay]

I now longed to own my very own Smart car much to the disbelief of those around me (and just who’s laughing now guys?). Having spent two whole weeks driving around in the hired Smart, I was head over heels ‑ hook, line and sinker! I spent ages trying to read up about them on the Internet and wherever else I could. My partner Joolz would probably say I breathed, ate, slept and lived for Smarts ‑ sorry Jo0Izie ! I started saving hard for my dream car.

When my brother knew just how I felt he offered to help me. While he was in Belgium, he came across a little diesel version and actually bought it on my behalf. I was so excited. He had arranged to get it brought back to the UK for me ‑ it was now April 2002. But then we hit a snag ‑a BIG one. The lorry, and my Smart car, which was perched on top, was held up at Dover for some or other reason. My heart sank; I was gutted. We battled with the powers that be, and after 4‑months my brother managed to get the release documents.

I was over the moon, and just had to go to Dover with my brother to catch a first glimpse, and to bring him ‘home’ on the trailer. He was beautiful ‑ silver Tridion, true blue panels and Sportiva wheels. As we traveled back to Northampton I had to keep looking out of the back window to check he was still there. I called hirn ‘WAG’ (another long story!!) ‑ and had this put on the special number plate I had bought T6 HUD. This is my brother’s initial and the first 3 letters of my maiden name.

Then I hit another snag ‑ trying to register him in the UK. Dover customs seemed very reluctant to release his registration documents, and of course without these DVLA didn’t want to know. I did some modifications to WAG to bring him in line with Road Rules ‑ eg altering the fog lights and the headlights. He then had to go for an inspection and finally DVLA granted him a logbook. Legal at last!! What a buzz to finally drive him ‑ me and my Wag.

I have recently added a few extras after visiting Smarts‑R‑Us in Nottingham. Joolz would say we were there nearly a whole day (I’m sure it wasn’t THAT long Jooiz), mind you, I did manage to spend quite a bit of dosh. But he’s worth every penny ‑ I love him dearly and I just know we will be together for a long time to come.

 

Submitted By:

Maxine Holmes[/pay]

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T255 JUG & It Looked Like A Little Jug Too!

Tucked away amongst the motorbikes this 1999 Pure was just asking to be mine. The usual trip to the bike store provided even greater interest this Saturday afternoon as I was given the opportunity to test ride it. The dealer did not really know the Smarts full potential, even unsure to its model.  A deal was struck and unusually I with great assistance from husband, Kevin came away with four wheels instead of two.

Once home it was stripped clean, yellow body panels with a black tridion shell made it stand out well.  However it had had a very hard life. 66,000miles on the clock following a quick mathematical conversion made me realise that this little one needed careful handling.  The panels were a little tired and scuffed – but with some cleaning and polishing came up well.  The tridion shell did not far so well after years of servicing Purston Car Centre it bore the imprint of advertising stickers. The back window also bore the signs of the Smarts early history. Prior to being imported into Britain by the owners of Purston Car Centre, the Smart had started life owned and registered by a Mr Wang in Germany who had used the little one as a taxi!  The imprint of his advertising is still evident when the sun shines a certain way after a polish. [pay]

All of this adds to the little cars character a full service history – with the original documentation.

The blue interior was also a little shabby, but again with some tender loving care it has come up well. A blue neon light added under the dash originally some aluminium floor plates but these had to be changed to blue as I was being dazzled in the sun!

A trip to Smarts-R-Us and a purchase of some 2nd hand passion wheels (with tyres) gave the little one a new image and gave me a spare (and Kevin, peace of mind) the rear wheel hubs were painted yellow and I have yet to paint the brake callipers to match.  Kevin made me a matching blue and yellow vinyl wheel cover so the spare does not look out of place behind the seat. With a promise to cover the seats with blue leather.

The exterior panels have seen quite a change, in honouring my biking days and young hero Valentino Rossi I decided to cover up some of the panel damage by treating the little one to some Rossi style graphics & renaming him “The Doctor” All thanks to Jamie & Sonia at Motografix Bikes in Doncaster In addition to this is a mini Rossi helmet which sits inside the car and which can be viewed through the windscreen.

Then something from my motorbike was also handed to “The Doctor” and that was my private registration plate R4 CYJ.  This too had been on a Rossi Rep – a Honda 600cc Hornet although on selling it last year and settling for my old KR1S had put my plate on retention.

The Doctor has had a rev counter & clock fitted as these were not present on original Pure model Smarts. These needed connecting, Kevin connected the clock but a trip to Smart of Leeds was required to connect the rev counter. They were wonderful, only charged me 30-minute labour charges even though they checked out my speeding flashing indicators at the same time. I’m considering a remap but to be honest I am very happy with its performance it cruises at 80mph (oops) Allows me to overtake easily on motorways and even confuses the Nova boys at traffic light starts!

The smart community has been a great help, like those from the biking community, they are more than eager to help and to sit and chat about the fun of Smarts. Graham from www.smartcar-owner.co.uk provided me with initial advice with regard to the rev counter and indicators, and provided me with links to Dave & the gang at www.funkysmart.co.uk who have provided me with advice (subscription to Smartimes via this site). and regular local meets in Sheffield. And the www.smartclub.co.uk were I have gained further insight into all that is Smart.

Although Kevin laughs at the Smart he enjoys driving it (when I let him) and has enjoyed the company we have met at meets. Only three months into ownership and I can extol the virtue of the smart to anyone, my neighbour even bought one after a test-drive in mine! [/pay]

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Living With A Roadster

I collected our (mine & Tracy’s My wife) roadster from smart Coventry on the 25/06/2003. The colour was picked after much deliberation as I wanted yellow and Tracy wanted red so as we couldn’t talk the other one round we went for the black.

Upon collection I made a couple of mods, which consisted of the fitment of a JVC single C.D player in conjunction with a facia adaptor, which I purchased off Smarts r us along with a set of carbon fibre style mirror covers and a couple of the roadster key rings.[pay]

I also fitted a set of the wheel centre caps and a pair of black velour carpet mats these were supplied by smart of Coventry (a big thanks must go out to Suzanne and Nigel at this point for all their help) along with a pair of matching black roadster baseball caps.

One thing that struck me upon collection of the car was the very high quality finish of the paintwork something that is sadly lacking these days!

The first night we had the car we managed to clock up over 60 miles showing the car off to family and friends I’m afraid. (Well we were very pleased and excited about our new toy.)

The fist weekend we had the car was the weekend of the smart owners club meeting at Billing Aquadrome, we attended on the Sunday as I was working on the Saturday we very made really welcome and people said a lot of nice things about the car thank you all.

During the night before the car was mistaken for a T.V.R! by a guy working in a McDonalds we went to, needless to say I wasn’t that upset.

The car is a real joy to drive even making the Monday morning drag to work a pleasure and fuel economy is superb.

The handling of the car is excellent, this was something I had been a bit worried about as my last car was a focus, which are renowned for being a drivers car, but the roadster has surpassed this and we are revelling in the drive that the car produces.

When I took delivery of the car I noticed that the rear lamps fitted were incorrect for usage in this country, upon further investigation I discovered that the wiring was correct so when I select reverse I get a red light and the rear fog illuminates white (I’ve painted the bulb as a stop gap and smart Coventry are awaiting the release of two pairs of lamps (their demo has the same fault), they had noticed the fault on the P.D.I and ordered the lenses. They have been informed that the lenses should be here in early august and will be rectified under warranty.

At the time of writing this the car is three weeks old and has over 880 miles on it (all great fun especially the cat & fiddle run last Sunday) Thanks to all who were there it was a great day out, if you get a chance to do this run do it the roads are fantastic.

The next planed run is the L2B although I am toying with the idea of the Blackpool Run.

SUMMARY 

The car is an absolute pleasure to own and drive, the two-piece roof is easy to use and nice and light, boot space is good up front and not as bad as Jeremy Clarkson said in the rear, the cabin is roomy although the passenger seat could do with a bit of under thigh support as long journeys cause leg ache! And getting in and out is an art form!

All I can really say is if your thinking about a roadster go ahead you won’t be disappointed.  Anyway bye for now see you at L2B.

Submitted By:

Matthew Beaumont[/pay]

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My Affair With A Topless Model

I bought LV51 YOY (Delilah - what else?) last autumn. After the sad demise of the previous love of my life, a yellow Pulse cabrio, it wasn’t long before I began to feel lonely so began to put out feelers for her replacement. I had been quoted ridiculously long delivery times for the spec I was after. What really annoyed me was that items like front fogs and speaker upgrade (both standard on the RHD model) would be extra on the LHD. Also, I wanted proper UK-spec front and rear lights this time so the cost began to mount. Nevertheless, I was all set to order a car when I happened to pass Smart East Anglia, a small (non-official) dealer in rural Framlingham, Suffolk. And there she was sitting demurely on the forecourt. It was love at first sight. Delilah was a near-new Passion and had all the extras I wanted including heated leather seats and electric mirrors. She didn’t have the paddle gearshift, which I rather fancied, but she did have side airbags. The price was extremely tempting so Delilah and I became an item.

Any regrets? Well, Delilah and I get on just fine but no relationship is perfect so if I had to name one, it would have to be, er, the position we adopt when we are close. Yes, I always seem to sit on the right. I am ashamed to say I cannot help compare Delilah with her predecessor. Having owned both LHD and RHD versions, I have to say I prefer LHD though I think some people exaggerate the differences. Yes, the seating position is a little higher but the Smart has so much headroom as standard it can afford to lose an inch or two. Other people (or maybe the same people!) have complained about the wiper pattern but, again, the difference is slight. No, what does annoy me is that the accelerator pedal on RHD Smarts is not floor-hinged. This would not be a problem if it wasn’t for the square electronic box of tricks it hangs from which, depending which shoes I wear, can catch my toe. I also miss the ease of parking LHD offered but apart from that, who cares? They are both smarts. One thing I have noticed is that one is more likely to get flashed/waved at by a LHD Smart driver! In the early pioneering days of LHD-only, pretty well all smarts in the UK were enthusiast-owned but obviously this has changed with the advent of RHD (present company excepted!)[pay]

So, what have I done to improve Delilah’s already attractive appearance? Well, nothing performance-wise (unless you count a smart club scoop and K&N air filter), most mods have been practical or aesthetic.

The first thing I had to do was to add a bit of sparkle to the interior. The grey plastic and seductive black leather may suit Delilah’s sophisticated up-market appearance but some would call her interior drab. Seriously drab. My previous cab also had grey interior plastic but at least it had blue seats. I re-sprayed the speedo, rev-counter and clock pods of that car yellow to match the panels. So, I decided Delilah’s pods needed a similar makeover but in silver. I wanted the pods to look like real metal though, not just silver paint (Delilah would find that just too degrading), so used Alclad lacquer. (I have a hobby of making model aircraft and this paint is used to obtain highly realistic bare-metal finishes of all types: aluminium, stainless steel, chrome, etc.) Sure enough, the result was just what I was after and, combined with a set of Michelak alloy heater and stalk knobs, Delilah seemed to appreciate her sparkly new jewellery.

Next was a set of tints. I had these on my first smart so again went to Autoshades of Sutton. £100 later (cabrios are cheap to tint as they have hardly any windows!) the car was transformed, Delilah now looked much more enigmatic and I loved the way her pods glinted seductively through her new shades. I would almost go as far as to say a Smart looks like something is missing without tints. Unlike some cars, where tints make them look like drug-dealers’ cars, I think darkened windows really suit the Smart as they clean up the styling and emphasize its attractive shape. Incidentally, I went for Autoshades’ ‘light smoke’, which is a 35% tint - any more is illegal and unnecessary in my opinion. With the 35% tint, the view out remains perfectly clear; also it is not glaringly obvious that the screen is un-tinted in comparison.

Some new shoes were next on the shopping list for Delilah. Yes, she was starting to exhibit expensive tastes but what the heck, she was worth it. My previous car had Sportivas which I still consider one of the nicest wheels for the car but I felt an all-silver smart of Delilah’s pedigree demanded a slightly ‘cleaner’-looking wheel, one where the front wheels did not particularly look narrower than the rears, so I went for Khans. Khan wheels will happily accept 195s all round but I opted to maintain the size difference recommended by Smart so run 175 front, 195 rear. Handling and looks are improved enormously and steering remains beautifully light. I hate brake dust on a nice set of wheels so set of the Smart Club’s Kevlar brake pads ensure Delilah’s shoes stay nice and shiny!

Being a RHD Passion cabrio, I already had the sound upgrade with tweeters and bass boxes as standard. These boxes really do improve things and should be standard on all Smarts (I may be right in thinking early cars had them?) but I still felt the sound was too much at the front of the car. So, I fitted a Kenwood single-CD head unit, and some rather nice Infinity 6×9s on a hard rear shelf (inexplicably discontinued by smart now) powered by a Sony amp under the passenger seat. I am not an ICE nut but for a relatively small outlay Delilah now sings beautifully. As I live very close to Top One in Kingston, I sometimes pop in on my way home from work to see if there is anything I can treat Delilah to, and recently noticed they had some Mk6 rear valences. Now, don’t get me wrong, Delilah’s rear end was perfectly lovely but, for £16, she now looks younger and even more beautiful.

And that’s about it, oh yes, apart from a wind net to keep Delilah’s hair in place. I conducted a test with the top down and side windows up. At 50 mph the difference is staggering; the turbulence around the back of the head and ears is reduced to almost none. At my age I cannot afford to lose any more hair!

What’s next? Well, a set of yellow panels may well be fitted by the time this is printed. Yellow is such a cheerful Smart colour and should never have been discontinued. And Delilah does keep asking me to treat her to some new clothes. Let’s just hope she does not suspect I may subconsciously be trying to make her look a little like her fun-loving predecessor!

Grahame Pearson

Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey[/pay]

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Smart For Pizzas

Adrian and I moved to Torbay from Wilshire two and a half years ago and bought two pizza takeaway businesses, one in Torquay and one in Paignton. Both were up and running as mainly “take away” with a few deliveries being made in the owner’s car or when busy they employed a driver with his own car.

We immediately decided the potential for the growth of the business was to increase the delivery trade and to that end we looked around for some cheap cars that we could use for delivering pizzas. Budget was tight and we ended up buying three white Nissan Micras. They were quite old (all L reg) but they looked good once we had them sign written and customers noticed them and they certainly brought in a lot of new trade.

After running them for over a year and ploughing money into them, (never a week seemed to go by without spending some serious money on new clutch, gear box, tyres, brakes etc. etc.). They seemed like a black hole; that we just had to keep pouring money into it just to keep them on the road. We decided it was time now that we had got the business going to take some time to have a serious look at the cost-effectiveness of having ageing cars – a decision had to be reached. MOT’s were looming for two of the Micras and we knew from experience that it was going to be costly.[pay]

We looked around for something that would be reasonable to insure, cheap to run and would not cost the earth. We looked at mopeds but we could not see us keeping our drivers if we made the change from cars to mopeds. We had made the decision when we had first bought the business that was not the way we wanted to go. Our aim was for quality and dripping wet drivers taking pizzas out of hot bags on the doorstep was not an image we wanted to portray!

I remembered that just before I had left Wiltshire a work colleague and his wife had bought a new Smart Car, she had brought it in to work to show us and it had made a huge impression on me. How could such a small car feel so big when you sat in it? The usual jokes had been made about it being like Dr Who’s Tardis – small on the outside – spacious interior!! It wasn’t cheap and tacky; the interior was classy. She loved it and I must say I remember thinking one day I would like one.

This got me thinking whether it would be a practical car for pizza delivery, so I went on the Internet and found out all about them.

Last July we went to Bristol and picked up our two brand new Black and Cream Pure Smarts. We loved them and set about getting them sign written. (We had inherited the name of Panda Pizza when we bought the business and although we had often thought of a name change we had built a good reputation and the name was well known locally, so we kept it). We changed our company signage to match the colours. When we started using the Smart cars to deliver Pizzas we got some great reactions from customers – love it or hate it (and most loved it) they always smiled!! My husband delivers and he is 6ft 4 inches – even he had plenty of legroom and a bit of headroom. We have in the past had big cars with less headroom!!

Our two Smart cars have traveled around 12000 miles each since last July and the only money spent on them has been fuel and replacement of two light bulbs. The money we now spend on fuel has almost halved and the saving has been tremendous. We often quip that the money we save on fuel is paying off one of the Smart cars!!

We now have the two Smarts and one Nissan Micra – we are planning on replacing the Micra for our third Smart later on this year and we can’t wait.[/pay]

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The Bluecabby

My wife Sandra first mentioned about the Smart; she liked the look of it, well I have always been into performance cars and just said, “yes” in the right places, you know what I mean? One summer’s day Sandra found a dealer selling Smarts talked me into going and there they all were! Sandra had the first drive and came back all smiles. I had a go, just to show willing, and was impressed with the build and the way the little thing performed.

We started to look for our first Smart. We found it locally in Bristol, a Bay Grey passion LHD with only 8 miles on the clock so we purchased it. During the trip home from picking the car up the engine went BANG! just 40 miles on the clock, a new one had to be fitted and all was OK until we had a problem with the back window. We booked the car in to have the problem fixed. Sandra and myself were sent into the showroom and there it was, BLUECABBY with paddle shift, leather heated seats, CD changer, speaker up-grade, air con, and a silver Tridion (it’s a Pulse).[pay]

A week later we took delivery of BLUECABBY and immediately knew we wanted bigger wheels and a few other mods. I managed to organise the wheels after many phone calls to South West Tyres in Clevedon. AGM copy 17” wheels with a fitting kit, the tyres are Silverstone FTZ sport 205/40/17 all round for £825. This was just the start - the car now has a Stainless Steel scoop brought at the Graydon meet, a remap by Smarts-r-us, K and N air filter, blue dials, meshed grilles and a dump valve.

We love this little car and intend to spend more on mods. I want a twin exit exhaust, one either side, and with so many available with very different qualities I am sitting on the fence until somebody says “this is the best” then I will get one. I am also thinking of tints, and some more alloy for the interior.

Submitted By:

Steve and Sandra of Swindon Wiltshire[/pay]

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I didn’t want a Smart

Unlike most people reading this I didn’t want a Smart. I thought they were weird, funky little cars but didn’t consider them to hold a candle to my motorbike. I mean look at it - you can’t take them seriously can you? Then I drove one. Okay, it wasn’t ‘quick’ but it was nippy, responsive and the engine feels un-burstable. Even in standard trim it’s faster 30-50mph than a BMW 323i - not a lot of people know that. That was two and a half years and 40 odd thousand kilometres ago now. I lived with it in standard trim just as a tool, something to use when it rained and I didn’t want to get the bike dirty. One day on the way home from work I caught site of Graham (I’m sorry I don’t know his surname) in his pre-B.I.G Performance days.

He had a set of sportivas and a loud exhaust on. I went as fast as I could go, Graham easily outstripping me round the twisties near where I lived. We stopped at the local bike meet spot (where else!) and we swapped cars for a spin - wow what a revelation! I went around the roundabout several times just to make sure - it felt amazing. It gripped and felt like a go-kart and transformed the car’s handling. The under steer on the standard 135 front tyres is laughable sometimes (but at the same time very forgiving). Eventually after a long interlude I got myself a set of second hand Sportivas (see below). 195 Uniroyal ‘Rain tyres’ on the back and 175 Continental Eco Contacts on the front (from the rears of the originals).[pay]

However by this point the bike was gone and I needed that little bit more to keep myself entertained. I went to a smart club meet, which I found out about accidentally one Sunday trawling the Internet. I came across the ‘meetings’ section on www.thsmartclub.co.uk. Again there was Graham (who to this day I have only met twice!) this time in B.I.G Performance mode. We had a chat for a good 30 seconds by which time he had flogged me a scoop (at £5 off retail price - cheers!). I was sceptical about the sort of benefit that this metal weave £45 piece of art-work (they look great) would give me. If you think about it you have to consider the amount of drag your hand gets if you stick it out of a car window at any sort of speed.

There is a hell of a lot of pressure when you do that so I thought that it must make some improvement in making the engine breathe more easily. I think its effect is marginal but certainly worth it. It makes it freer revving and seem faster. Not a lot but certainly noticeably quicker. If you hadn’t driven the car every day you might not notice any difference. But take an unbiased opinion - they do make a difference. Next on the agenda was an exhaust - but not before a set of musical horns. I know, I know but when you find a cheap set of musical horns (£30 opposed to £50 normally - thank you Grove Accessories, Ealing, West London) it has to be done! The tune is “Bo***x and the Same to You”. They are now on the driver’s side under the car in the belly pan - thank you to The Swedish Car Centre, Ealing, and West London for fitting them. The exhaust came in the summer of 2002 (once again fitted by the Swedish Car Centre). I was pondering between a Janspeed twin exit exhaust, a B.I.G performance exhaust and the Ragazzon exhaust supplied by thesmartclub.co.uk.

To cut a long story short I plumped for the ragazzon. I’d seen several Janspeeds exhausts - I didn’t want what everybody else had so that was out. I didn’t want to spend a fortune so I went for the ragazzon. The difference wasn’t immediately apparent when it was fitted. It took probably a thousand kilometres before it really settled in and started making a lovely noise (but not very loud thank goodness - I do a lot of motorway miles). It was perfect and just what I was looking for. Fruity but not boomy in the cabin. I’ve certainly had no problems with it and am very happy with the looks and noise.

The standard eco contacts are exactly that - economical with the contact with the road. Unless they were really hot they really weren’t up to much. A 175-section tyre is quite rare - apart from similar economy tyres. As a replacement I had fitted a 185/55/15 Toyo Proxes TR-1S. This is far superior - standard fitment on a BMW M5, 3rd overall in the Evo tyre test Nov. 02 - and was what I wanted. Unfortunately they don’t fit exactly right and I have heard of some tyre fitters not willing to fit them to Sportiva rims. They also catch on the wheel arches occasionally as there is only 3-4mm clearance on full lock (any suspension movement and they catch). Still, I was convinced they fit and the customer is always right! (I’ve done 2,000km now). Whilst on my trip to Smarts-R-Us I was told what they did to solve such a problem. You can actually pull the whole font panel forward by the part near the radiator and mount an extension to keep it in the forward position (just a cut up number plate). I’ve yet to do this, so more to follow.

My final major expense has been the re-map. This is a re-mapping of the fuel injection system to gain more power (I’m not going to go into any more technical details because that is about the limit of my understanding of it!). Car manufacturers build cars with quite high tolerances so that they will last a long time and are less likely to have any mechanical problems. However this over- engineering saps power. Enter Smarts-R-Us and a laptop computer. It is literally plugging in a computer and altering the ECU via that link.

I decided that I wanted more mid-range so that I could over-take a little bit more easily and keep up with faster cars at the ‘traffic light grand prix’. The biggest advantage was on the motorway - 6th gear and 85 mph are easy now. No more changing down into 5th every time there is a hill. For £299 it doesn’t sound like a lot of work but you do get a three-year guarantee and back up if there are any problems. My car being a MK3 is prone to the engine management warning light staying on after a re-map I was informed - and it did stay on. This is very worrying but Smarts-R-Us have told me this is perfectly fine and normal and if it does not go off after 15 hours of driving to give them a call and they will sort it out by coming to me (which I thought was an excellent offer because its quite a trek to them in Nottingham for me).

I have only had this done in the last week (at the time of writing this) and am still getting used to it - it takes a whole new approach to drive. At 3k rpm it’s all change and it’s actually got some oomph. So much so that hitting three thousand whilst exiting a tight roundabout (or turning onto a wet road) has the traction control losing it and the rear wheels spinning out of the bend. Would that be called a tail slide? Nah, can’t be - it’s a Smart . . . .

The standard stereo is fairly poor so I have also had fitted a fairly swanky Pioneer flip front single CD. It was cheaper than the Smart sound upgrade and kept the original speakers but the output is a lot better now. I’m not into ICE systems and that sort of thing but a replacement stereo really does make long journeys shorter. I can’t quite make my ears bleed with the new set-up but its great for what I want it to do.

I’ve also had Phillips +50% brightness bulbs fitted (the standard ones aren’t bad but these are better). They are about £12 each from any car accessories store or motorcycle accessories store - they are just standard H4 fitments. A warning though - they are a complete son of a bitch to fit. Somebody is having a laugh at smart somewhere. Lastly there’s the Sigma category 3 alarm/ immobiliser. The alarm/immobiliser was possibly a mistake because my insurance company informed me that this made absolutely no difference to my premium. I think it adds piece of mind for my benefit though.

Next on the list of things to do is: Fit clear indicator lenses, sort out wheel arches to make them fit the tyres, fit sports springs on the rear and fit a dump valve.

On the back burner: Fit MS Design Body-kit, drive to Sahara and back.

Submitted By:

Dan Lynch, Norwich[/pay]

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A Team of Highly Trained Creative Mercenaries

jgr22 are a team of highly trained creative mercenaries operating in the North West of England.

jgr22 approaches all its design briefs with the same youthful, fresh and fun loving enthusiasm. So it was decided that if we were going to purchase a company car to extend our corporate ideology out onto the streets, there was only one choice, the smart car.

Having a smart car in our corporate colours wasn’t going to make a loud enough statement we would be happy with. So we decided to treat the whole smart car as a canvas and get to work on designing a complete jgr22 vehicle livery.[pay]

So we could play about on screen with different design layouts, we needed to draw an outline version of the smart car on the computer. To do this, we scanned a side profile photograph of the car into Adobe Photoshop and then traced over the scan in Adobe Illustrator. This gave us a vector EPS file we could scale and colour to our heart’s content.

Now came the fun part. We now had a computer generated smart car we could play around with. The initial hour or so was spent colouring the smart in wacky psychedelic colours, trying out contrasting colour schemes and basically having a laugh. Cow/leopard/zebra skin patterns, bright acid pinks and yellows, airbrushed spectrums and chromes. You name it, we tried it.

After the novelty of designing the most garish and outlandish colour scheme possible, we finally set about designing a smart car that was within our corporate colour guidelines. The smart car that was being shipped up to smart Manchester was originally a True Blue Pulse with Silver Tridium®. As red is our corporate colour, we had smart replace the panels with Phat Red coloured ones. This is actually a hue of red that is very close to our own corporate red so we were very pleased with this. Normally as a rule, our logo only ever appears in white with a dark red drop shadow, but as our smart car had the Silver Tridium®, we made an exception to our own corporate identity guidelines and changed our logo to reflective silver and dark red for this instance.

When we initially ordered the smart car, we asked for smart’s recommendation for a local vinyl sign printers. They directed us to Signs Express on Trafford Park. We visited Signs Express to discuss the various types of printing techniques they used and which would be most suitable for the type of design we had in mind. Because we knew our design was only going to use a maximum of two colours, we opted for reflective vinyl graphics for maximum effect. This worked particularly well with the silver part of our logo. The type of vinyl they used for this part of the logo looks silver in daylight, but then becomes highly reflective when dark.

While we were at Signs Express, we discussed how they went about laying out designs and getting the vinyl printed at the right size in relationship to the various vehicles they are required to work with. They in fact use exact templates of vehicles supplied by the car manufactories so they can take into account problems such as door handles, hinges, wing mirrors, aerodynamic ridges etc.

Because we scanned an actual photo of a smart car into the computer and created our own accurate vehicle template to work on. Signs Express used our own files to work from and print from. This worked out ideal for us in keeping the overall cost down as we had done the majority of the work ourselves. Signs Express informed us that they often get customers approaching them for signs with absolutely no reference material at all, let alone actual computer files to work from. So for us to supply actual design files that they could use on their system worked out ideal for both parties. The software they use to layout their designs and print from is very similar to Adobe Illustrator, which we used to create our visuals so all that was required to get the job done was to email our files to Signs Express and sign off a print out from their system.

Everything was pretty much out of our hands now. Once the smart car was delivered from the factory to smart Manchester, they took the car to Signs Express for them to apply the graphics. Once Signs Express had done their stuff, they returned the car to smart Manchester and all we had to do was collect the car. So, this was the first time we were going to see our smart car since ordering it 6 weeks ago and we were looking forward with both excitement and anticipation to seeing it fully complete with the graphics applied and we were not disappointed.

Both smart Manchester and Signs Express did a wonderful job and we are delighted with newest member to jgr22. In fact since purchasing our smart car, we bought a 1:18 scale replica from smart Manchester and asked Signs Express to recreate the graphics they did for us on the replica. We now have a complete replica of jgr22’s company car taking pride of place in our studio.

[/pay]

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