Smart FORFOUR BRABUS
Smart Have Got Serious About Performance With The Forfour BRABUS. Jonathan Crouch Reports
Heres where it starts getting interesting for smart. Its one thing for Europes youngest manufacturer to conquer the citycar market. Quite another for the brand to sell a premium GTi hot hatch like the forfour BRABUS costing well over £17,000. But they might just pull it off.
Heres why.
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For a start, this car is based on one thats already outstandingly good. We voted the forfour our Supermini of the Year at its introduction and we still rate it very highly. It isnt just that its a very competent family runabout there are plenty of those around already. No, we particularly liked the forfour because it had an element of fun and classless style offered by no other car in the segment.
It was a supermini that made you want to get out of bed in the morning just to look at it on the driveway. A car that you could imagine stepping out of anywhere from Tescos to the Golf Club carpark. Of course, the BRABUS version aims to take this kind of appeal one step further as it darn well should priced at well over £17,000. For that kind of money, there are many more established routes you could take.
But not many faster ones. This flagship forfour is propelled by a 177bhp 1.5-litre turbocharged BRABUS-developed engine capable of reaching sixty from rest in 6.9s on the way to a top speed of some 137mph.
More importantly, it feels just that fast, thanks to a power to weight ratio of 6.2kg per bhp, a figure that would embarrass quite a few more overt sportscars. The engineers have obviously worked hard on making this engine flexible. Over 90% of the maximum power is available in the 2,300 to 5,700rpm rev range where you need it most.
Moreover, a bespoke five-speed gearbox has been developed that can reach over 60mph in second gear, meaning that the sixty from rest sprint can be accomplished with just a single gearchange. Not that this car has been engineered just for tyre-smoking getaways. In top gear, the important 50 to 70mph overtaking increment occupies only eight seconds.
"If you want something just a little bit different in this sector, this forfour could appeal.."
In order to try and offer handling capable of keeping all this in check, the suspension has been lowered by 30mm at the front and 28mm at the rear while the shock absorbers have been given a firmer setting and the brakes (internally ventilated discs) have been boosted.
Smart (no pun intended) 17-inch alloys sit on fat Michelin Pilot Sport tyres. The result is a level of braking stability and a quality of dynamic handling better than you might expect, though the electrically assisted power steering set-up could offer more feel in this respect. Of course, looks are all in the hot hatch marketplace, so smart have made an effort without feeling the need to go over the top.
Theres a larger front spoiler, a chrome-plated double pipe exhaust, a rear diffuser and side skirts. All these parts, incidentally, can be retro-fitted to any other smart forfour model. Exclusive to the BRABUS version however are two diamond mesh inserts in the front grille. Theres also a roof spoiler which claims to reduce the lift on the rear axle at high speeds by 50kg but is also really there for show.
Finally, BRABUS lettering on the bottom right hand side of the tailgate identifies this car as the fastest forfour variant. Inside, equal efforts have been made to create a premium environment. Theres leather trim for a start, with contrasting silver seams. Extra silver trim has also been used on the lower part of the instrument panel, the gearshift gate, the inside door handles and on trim rings around the heating and ventilation controls.
Theres further silver trim around instruments featuring a fresh design with black dials. Other nice touches include velour floormats with BRABUS lettering and aluminium for the gearknob and handbrake handle (which you can be sure will freeze to the touch in winter). As youd expect, theres a chunky leather-covered four-spoke sports steering wheel with integrated buttons for controlling the stereo and optional satellite navigation decorated with, youve guessed it, silver trim. Otherwise, this car is much like any other smart forfour.
Which means that the interior features four seats and plenty of headroom with a sliding rear bench fitted as standard so that you can choose between optimising passenger legroom or luggage space. The bench slides up to 150mm fore and aft and tilts backwards, folds in half or tumbles out of the way. Smart even offer what they dub a lounge concept, an option where the front seats fold and allow you to stretch out in the back. Six airbags, anti lock brakes and electronic stability control are offered and MCC the car has achieved a strong four-star Euro-NCAP crash test showing.
This is the third smart model the BRABUS engineers from Bottrop have worked on, the others being a 75bhp version of the fortwo citycar and 101bhp versions of the roadster/roadster-coupe design. Less well known however, is the fact that the company has also developed a kit for boosting performance of standard 1.5-litre petrol forfour models from 109 to 122bhp. Once this was done, it was much easier to set about the 177bhp turbo conversion for the forfour BRABUS.
One giveaway that this is a performance tuners engine comes with the necessity to use pricey super plus 98RON fuel if you want to wring all the speed from this unit (though normal grade fuel can also be used at a pinch). Fuel consumption itself comes in at a very credible 41.5mpg on the combined cycle. Overall, this is by far the most convincing of the Bottrop companys smart offerings.
It wont supplant too many Golf GTI sales but if you want something just a little bit different in this sector, this forfour could appeal.
FACTS AT A GLANCE
CAR: smart forfour BRABUS
PRICE: £17,195 on the road
INSURANCE GROUP: 13 [est]
CO2 EMISSIONS: 159g/km
PERFORMANCE: 0-60mph 6.9s / Max Speed 137mph
FUEL CONSUMPTION: (urban) 31.7mpg / (extra urban) 50.4mpg / (combined) 41.5mpg
STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: Twin front and side airbags, anti-lock brakes WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE ?: Length/Width/Heightmm 1925/1452/1180mm
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