We have our own little smart history here on AutoblogGreen, a collection of all the posts about the iconic car (recent exaples: stuffing 13 people into a fortwo or the London Met Police testing the all-electric smart ed). But the smart has been around longer that the two and a half years that we've been here and Daimler is celebrating the 10th Birthday of the little city car this month.

Since Job 1 came from the factory in July 1998, Mercedes has sold over 900,000 fortwo vehicles in 37 countries (including the U.S. starting this year, thank you very much; China will get a real chance at the fortwo in about twelve months). Still, for many green car enthusiasts, it's the future that is most exciting about the smart vehicle lineup. 2010, after all, is when the all-electric smart is due.

Quirky at its launch - and today - the fortwo was the right move for Daimler, as chairman Dieter Zetsche said in a statement: "Had we not invented it ten years ago, we would have to do so now." You can read the rest of Daimler's look back at the first decade of the fortwo after the break.

[Source: Daimler]

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In February, Daimler will start producing right-hand drive smart fortwo cdi vehicles for the UK market. Sales will start later in 2009. That's the same year that lithium-ion fortwo prototypes might begin testing (current battery-powered smarts that use sodium-nickel-chloride packs are already being tested in the UK). So, while they wait for the EV smarts, Britons will have to make due with a vehicle that has the lowest CO₂ emission of any current production car in the world (88g/km) and that boasts 71mpg (U.S.) numbers using a three-cylinder common-rail diesel engine from Mercedes-Benz that puts out 45hp. And it's pretty safe, too. Prices will be announced later.

Many words have been spilled here and elsewhere about the Smart ForTwo since well before its recent debut in the U.S. market. One area that has not received much attention (perhaps for a good reason) is the Smart's prowess when being thrashed on a race track. We have just gotten our first reader report on how the ForTwo comports itself when tossed in among the big dogs like Mitsubishi EVOs and Honda S2000s. Turns out it wasn't a total loss. For those that have been following the ongoing saga of Tesla Motors, you might remember David Vespremi, who formerly handled communications from San Carlos.

David and his wife recently took delivery of a new ForTwo Cabrio (check out who came along to the dealership when they took delivery). According to David, the ForTwo has a real go-kart feel to it. While it has under-steer to spare, the rear wheel drive chassis apparently has the right fundamentals to have some fun. The shift logic of the automated manual gearbox leaves much to be desired, although David says the shifts have gotten a lot smoother as the clutch has been broken in over a couple of thousand miles of driving. A new air intake helped with performance and David says they are getting mileage in the upper thirties even with very spirited driving.

[Source: David Vespremi]

When the second-generation Smart ForTwo entered production earlier this year, its EU mileage ratings put it at the top of the heap for internal combustion engined cars by a pretty wide margin. On the EU combined cycle the diesel version was rated at 71.3 mpg (US) with CO₂ emissions of only 88 g/km. The Italian magazine Quattroruote decided to see if that was achievable in the real world. They laid out a 1,000 km route consisting of highways, traffic jams, mountain roads and urban settings in Rome, Balzano and Salzburg. The bottom line is that they consumed 33 L of diesel to cover the distance, matching the official ratings.

[Source: Daimler]