Smart car beats supercars

A mid-engined turbocharged two-seater has won this year's Cannonball Run.

That might not come as a surprise, until you hear that instead of it being a sports or supercar the winner was in fact a Smart Fortwo Brabus.

The diminutive city car beat a long list of six-figure rivals by completing the 3,000 mile drive through Europe at exactly 61mph - the stipulated average speed for the event.

Liveried with a Union Jack design, the Fortwo was driven by David Ward and Adrian Hull from Essex.

The duo completed the route without the use of satellite navigation, preferring instead to use the traditional method of a European road map.

With just 74bhp the Smart was seriously outgunned by all its competition, but the Smart's fuel consumption helped it win the event.

"The downfall of the bigger cars was that they were forced to stop so often, so while they kept overtaking us, we eventually went past them at the next petrol station when they needed to fill up again," said David.

Automatically gaining entry into next year's Cannonball Run the Smart will be getting into other adventures in the next year, including a Lands End to John o'Groats 12 hour run, and the Los Angeles to Miami Gumball Rally.

Kyle Fortune