Well, it survived a trackday at Bedford. We were on the GT circuit, which had a slight modification at the east end due to building work.

The Experience

Everyone was friendly and, despite being there on my own, found a mixture of track novices, instructors, and Ariel Atom and Honda drivers to chat to.

I spent the spotting laps following a Sagaris in orange with beautiful titanium exhausts, and thought that'd be the closest I'd get to the back of a TVR all day - turns out I was wrong! It turned out I had several opportunities to be held up by cautious drivers through some corners later in the day.

The tuition was good, mainly pointing out a few shortcuts I could make here and there to my lines, getting me to trail-brake longer and deeper into corners, and to stay wide longer on the late-apex corners. So I could spend the rest of the day focussing on those and making the fast corners a bit faster - best was around 75mph indicated apex speed on the back straight chicane, and 80mph through the corner onto the start/finish straight.

I had wheel balance problems after a wheel weight fell off on a roundabout on the A43 on my way to Bedford the night before - cruising at 75 was a nightmare.
A few fast laps, and some tuition, didn't really show this to be a problem, but the onsite tyre chaps (simplytyres.co.uk - thanks Steve!) rectified this fully - both wheels were 60g off! I might not use Black Circles to get my tyres fitted again...


The Car
Once the wheel balance problem was resolved, I was able to forget it totally!

Braking was good and sharp. There was no brake fade on the standard brakes, except once on a "first" lap. After that, standing on them and making the Toyo T1Rs squeal was the aim. It pulls to the left slightly under severe (almost-lockup) braking, which means I'll need the geometry checked.

The engine takes upto 15 minutes to cool down after being on track (even WITH the engine cover off and the rear and front open) although a slow in-lap helped reduce that considerably.

Steering was fairly light and accurate, and letting the car choose it's own line out of the corner was easy with a light touch on the wheel.

The general handling was fairly understeery, but this gave me confidence to drive the car deep into the corners on the brakes - making 3 wheel cornering an experience:



If I'd given it some thought, I should've increased the rear pressures and reduced the front, to try to add some oversteer. As it was, I was running 34psi (2.35 bar) all round, my usual road-use pressures - slightly above the Smart-recommended 29psi (2 bar). And was having sufficient fun in the car as it was, of course!

Driving it with the roof open was like having The Thing tapping you on the head constantly *BOOM*BOOM*BOOM*BOOM, so I only did it on my last few laps.

I drove around 200 miles on the day. The first 137miles used 29.5 litres, which works out at about 22mpg on track - quite a hit on the usual 43mpg I've been getting.

All in all, a good fun day. Excellent weather, interesting track with various lines, and a very professionally run facility.

 

So it was you motoring round in the Smart car on Saturday! That thing didn't hang around on the 1km straights!

And you were right - there were quite a few people who couldn't wait to get their crash helmets on just when leaving the car park!!

 

Interesting that, despite the ECU remap, it doesn't seem much faster than a standard car (owned by chap at work). Although I didn't have the sports air intake on then...

I hope you aren't referring to my off-track/on-road driving re: wanting crash helmets Or did you mean a lot of them were nervous about going ON-track?

So what were you driving, Daz?

I thought the roadster was a bit lacklustre on the back straight, but I managed to get the chicane there just right, entering at 75mph, exiting at 80. I found that a slightly earlier brake (100m out, 100mph to 80mph) then turn in at 50-0m gave best line, and the apex of the 2nd corner was actually the exit point from the first, if you see what I mean.

The bit I enjoyed most was the temporary home straight, 4th gear right, then the corner onto the start/finish straight. 80mph easy by the end of the day. Oh, and letting a Carrera 4 and 2 Ariel Atoms past at the fastest point, only for us all to bunch up around the next set of corners - nice view!

The tyres still haven't recovered, despite using it for 40 miles each day since - There's rubber swarf still attached to the tread over the outside thirds of each front tyre. It must be the only car that left Bedford with MORE tread on it's tyres than it started with...

 

Well, you looked pretty quick along the back straight when I was watching through my camera lense! And you were definately flying through those final corners! From the pits, not much seemed faster, except maybe those Atoms!

I was in the Green E36 M3, so I was parked next to you in the car park at the start. My off-side front tyre has suffered massively! The shoulders are pretty much gone! A bit more pressure in them next time, me thinks! But it's good to know that used rubber is being put to good use elsewhere!!

 

Cool! Glad to be rapid!

We'll have to say hello properly next time...

My tyres were only about 3 weeks old. As with all T1Rs, some Smart Owners have complained they don't last as long as other tyres: only about 15k miles instead of 20k+

 

Surprised how well this is turning out for you
to thinking out the box
Didn't realise they are RWD, must be one of the smalles lightest RWD road cars around!

 

Get some of the Roadtser Light steel wheels for your next track outing. Nice and thin (175) and perfectly matched to the car to get some rear throttle adjustability and a more neutral stance to the car.

You can pick these up for peanuts as all the Roadster Light drivers change them for alloys - in their bling crazed madness

Mikey, you must have ignored my posts 3 years ago.

 

There is a useful little sports car trying to get out from under there. It's truer than ever on a car like that, that bigger wheels are proportional to the owner's stupidity. Does someone do some tiny, pretty alloys for them? The rear offsets are a tad unusual by modern standards.

I really hoped Project Kimber would make a go of things, insane as it sounded. I'm sure a bit of UK roadster tuning and losing the unfortunate Smart german fashion victim image would allow the car to shine.

 

Agree on both counts. I like the idea of the car, owners all seem to like them and they're one of the few truly lightweight cars still being produced as even superminis come with half a ton of kit nailed to them these days.

Do people put bike engines in them, I can't help thinking that a reasonably torquey bike engine would suit the car down to the ground.

 

Not alloys but very small and very light.



I've driven Smart's with alloys and then got ours with these wheels. It's a different car with the steel wheels on and so much fun