Click on the image for a high-res gallery of the stunt

The smart fortwo can legally seat only two people. But you would be amazed at the amount of nonsense people you can fit inside. Up to thirteen people! The stunt was made to celebrate the smart's 10th anniversary. Owners and visitors to the annual smart Destination Brooklands event held at Mercedes-Benz World at Weybridge, Great Britain, were invited to take up the smart-packing challenge. Among the 1,200 candidates, a group of body-bending specialists were chosen for their gymnastic features and ability to get 13 people crammed inside.

If case you wondered (I did), a little research revealed similar records for stuffing people in a smart (find them after the jump). Eighteen people managed to squeeze inside a smart in Germany back in 2002. 18? Ouch.

[Source: Smart UK & Record holders]

We're not going to comment regarding the capabilities of Best Buy's Geek Squad, the team of technology-savvy guys and gals working at the big box retailer which makes house calls to fix computers and the like. We will say, though, that their choice for the geeky-team-vehicle of a black and white Volkswagen Beetle (the new one, not its elder) seems fitting. Here's a topic or conversation, though: Could they find a geekier vehicle? Well, some people seem to think of the smart fortwo is a chick car, though that theory seems to have been mostly debunked. Would the smart be a better fit for the Nerd-Herd Geek Squad? If you think so, perhaps you'll be happy to find that the diminutive smart is actually in use as the nerd-mobile of choice in the UK. I don't know about you, but if I were a geek (watch it, buddy!), I'd rather be seen in a smart. Just saying...

[Sources: Best Buy U.K. and The Scooter Scoop]

Smart has been field testing a fleet of battery-powered ForTwo ED models in Britain for several months. Now Auto Motor und Sport out of Germany is reporting that an updated version could begin testing in the U.S. as early as 2009. The current model uses high temperature sodium-nickel-chloride Zebra batteries. The new generation will switch to a lithium ion pack and could be tested in the Los Angeles area. There are no specs available at the moment, but Smart's Anders Jensen has said that if the testing provides positive results the car could move to production quickly. Given the relatively disappointing fuel economy of the gasoline-powered version of the ForTwo, an electric drive model could prove quite popular. The layout of the Smart makes it amenable to alternative drivetrains, with a battery pack able to slide under the double floor and an electric motor easily replacing the internal combustion engine.

[Source: Auto Motor und Sport]

The new Green Party mayor of Tübingen Germany is fully in support of the city's "10% less CO₂ by 2010" policy and he's got a new ride to demonstrate it. Boris Palmer has selected the Smart ForTwo MHD as his official ride when on city business. The MHD version of the Smart features micro-hybrid drive, which essentially an automatic start-stop system. The Smart MHD is the most fuel-efficient gasoline-powered Smart averaging 54.7mpg (U.S.) on the New European Driving Cycle. That's an improvement from the 50mpg achieved by the conventional gas unit. Carbon dioxide emissions of the Smart MHD are only 103g/km. The micro-hybrid turns off the engine whenever the car comes to a stop and automatically re-starts whenever the brake pedal is released. Although the U.S. market won't be getting the diesel-powered Smart anytime soon, we probably will get the micro-hybrid in a year or so.

[Source: Daimler]

We've seen two reviews now of the smart ed, one favorable, the other... not so much. Regardless, we hope that smart is able to offer an electric version of their little runabout sooner rather than later. Whether using the Zebra batteries of the ed or newer lithium ion packs, an electric smart car is just what the market needs in the U.S. We'd like a diesel and the micro-hybrid too, of course.


Halfway there: Number 10.

For Chinese car buyers interested in a Smart ForTwo, the real deal will finally be available. Daimler AG's head of sales and marketing, Klaus Maier, said yesterday that the city car will be available in China starting in the middle of 2009. For a while now, domestic manufacturers have been selling vehicles that look suspiciously similar to the ForTwo (some with a battery-powered drivetrain, see here and here). Daimler has apparently realized there's a market for the city car and Maier told journalists yesterday that, "I am happy to announce that Smart, the original micro compact car, is coming to China next year. If you've spent any time on the streets of Beijing, you know that it is the perfect place for creative solutions to urban mobility." Or uncreative ones, if you're not too concerned about intellectual property.

[Source: Reuters]

A lot of Americans who were anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Smart ForTwo on our shores have been disappointed by the mileage figures that reach only into the upper thirties. Over in Europe, Smart offers the ForTwo with automatic start-stop systems and in a diesel configuration that is the most efficient internal combustion car currently available. The Smart ForTwo CDi is rated at 71mpg (U.S.) but American drivers won't be getting a crack at it anytime soon. Unfortunately, that diesel isn't Tier 2 Bin 5 compliant meaning Smart wouldn't be able to offer it in some of their biggest potential markets like California and New York. According to SmartUSA president Dave Schembri, the diesel Smart also wouldn't provide the performance Americans would expect. I haven't yet driven the new second-generation Smart diesel. However, the first-generation model that passed through the ABG garage last summer certainly had leisurely acceleration. Nonetheless for a car that is primarily an urban runabout, it's probably perfectly adequate. Perhaps if diesel popularity picks up in the next couple of years and Smart's popularity is sustainable the company will reconsider.

[Source: MLive]

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]

click to enlarge (again - ba-da-bing!)

Ever have that dream where can of Red Bull is doing something illegal with a smart fortwo? We finally found someone who's taken that image from pure fantasy into glorified advertising reality: the conversion house Carbonyte UK (also responsible for the world's first Ferrari 'limousine').

Carbonyte unveiled the world's only stretch Smart car today - called the Carbonyte Smaaart, of course. The Smaaart, and ex-fortwo, is now 17 feet long but still has the same engine and can go 80 mph (but why?). Want your own? Carbonyte will make one for you for around £25,000 and plaster any logo you wish on the side. If you're just curious to see how it drives - or have some drinks to sell - Carbonye will also rent the Smaaart to you for a day. I seriously hope this line from the press release (available in full after the jump) is a joke: "Carbonyte is also looking to take the Smaaart into the funeral industry by using the latest electric technology to produce an individual yet environmentally-friendly hearse." Um, no thanks.

After just over two months of sales in the U.S., the Smart ForTwo is moving out of dealerships at a good clip. So far sixty-seven of the planned one hundred Smart USA dealers are in operation and the company sold 1,734 cars in February. Since the first cars were delivered in mid-January, a total of 3,437 ForTwos have be turned over to US owners. While that is a pretty good pace, the real test will be what happens over the coming months. As decidedly mixed reviews come in from media sources, owner word of mouth may prove to be the deciding factor in the success of the car in this country. For such a small car mileage numbers in the mid-30s may prove to be insufficient for American buyers. On the other hand the compact footprint may prove to be a boon to urban drivers. Only time will tell.

[Source: SmartUSA]

Even though the Smart ForTwo is a great looking and popular car, there's just not a lot of places for crash impact energy to go in a vehicle this small. This is part of the reason that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, when it announced crash test results for the ForTwo on Thursday, issued some lackluster ratings and a "safety concern" footnote to report a door coming unlatched during a side crash. Overall, the 2008 ForTwo scored four stars for the driver in a front impact, three for a passenger in the same situation, five and three for resisting rolling over. These results are neither great nor amazingly bad, writes Harry Stoffer in Automotive News, and it bears repeating that the front impact scores only compare similar-sized vehicles hitting each other. Not sure how the ForTwo would handle a Escalade at 100mph.


[Source: Harry Stoffer / Automotive News]

We can think of a few electric cars which have gotten less-than-stellar reviews, probably deservedly so. The first reviewer that we know of to tackle the smart ED, though, was rather in favor of the diminutive electric machine, enjoying the 60 mile-per-hour top speed and 72-mile range. Top Gear, though, was less than impressed, citing a distinct lack of range and suggesting that "the Smart looks less appealing than a bike." Granted, smart thinks that the review unit provided to Top Gear must have had some ailments, but perhaps the system still has some growing-pains to overcome before it's truly ready for the mainstream market. It's likely that the Zebra battery would be replaced with lithium ion's in any real production version, in any case. Still, we remain wanting to get a crack at the smart ED ourselves. Thanks for the tip, Forrest!

[Source: Top Gear]

click to enlarge

Thanks to a long and popular run in Europe and solid sales in the U.S., the Smart ForTwo is an international hit (soon, we'll be thanking Miley Cyrus for years for breaking out the young girl Smart market). Daimler is especially proud of the second-generation ForTwo, which has been on sale for about a year and is available in 37 countries. Daimler recently sold the 100,000 second-gen Smart ForTwo. A 36-year-old woman bought the car in Munich yesterday. So, Daimler, you've proven you can sell these small cars - even in a country where they might not be seen as manly enough - now make with the electric versions already.

What do you get for the young woman who - presumably - has everything? Why not a smart fortwo convertible with her name emblazoned on the side? Ecorazzi has a photo of siad smart that belongs, we think, to Miley Cyrus (aka Hannah Montana) and says "Miley - girls night out" on the side. Of course, Miley is only 15 (she'll turn 16 in November) so for the next while we expect her to be sitting shotgun or driving around a pale-looking Billy Ray. Whoever took the photo (obviously from the seat of a passing car), we applaud the framing with the high gas prices in the background. Cruising around in a 40 mpg smart is, well, pretty smart.

[Source: Ecorazzi]

If you belong to the segment of the population that thinks that the newly-offered-in-America smart fortwo is not manly enough, adding a wind-up key accessory to the hind-end of your new city car isn't likely to help. For those of you who couldn't care less what other people think of you (and think that the idea of adding a wind-up key to your cute car makes it über-cute), may we suggest going to distance and choosing the version which is actually powered, so it "un-winds" as you drive. You know, if you're going to do something, you may as well just do it right.

Take a look at the gallery below for more vehicular-examples of the Windup Key, a 22-by-10 inch faux windup piece made from 6061 aluminum in your choice of powdercoated finish or even chromed.


[Source: smart car of America forum]