smart roadster BRABUS Review
Published: 1st March 2005
smart roadster BRABUS
How It Looks - Exterior
The smart family resemblance is clearly visible with a characteristic TRIDION safety cell, integrated headlight units and rear light cluster - in our opinion the roadster is not dissimilar to Porsche's 914/16 sports car of the 1970's. The short body overhangs, pronounced wheel arches, wide wheels and low height accentuate the roadster BRABUS's stunning looks.
The body panels are made of high-quality plastic this means that they are flexible, resist minor knocks, don't rust, are recyclable and should look good for a long time. However, if a panel does need to be replaced the modular bolt-on/bolt-off design means that it can easily be replaced with the minimum of fuss. This body panel system is an innovation exclusive to smart.
BRABUS features include 17" alloy wheels with low profile tyres (205/40 ZR17 front) and (225/35 ZR17m rear), radiator grille, side skirts, front & rear colour coordinated spoilers and dual sports exhaust, front fog lights, fuel filler cap with BRABUS logo and if this wasn't enough to recognise a BRABUS model the word BRABUS is emblazoned on the rear of the car.
The roadster is equipped with a standard electrically operated soft top. For a more open top feel when the roof has been fully retracted simply remove the side roof bars and store them in the front luggage compartment. We would have liked to have seen Xenon headlamps on this top of the range model.
How It Looks - Interior
The roadster BRABUS's design-led interior stays faithful to smarts philosophy of minimalist fun and offers a combination of aluminium and leather. The gear lever, handbrake, instrument dials, mats and scuff plates are BRABUS branded
The switchgear is chunky and tactile and the air vents look like Darleks and both the turbocharger boost pressure and engine temperature gauges appear like periscopes popping up from the dashboard.
In Car Entertainment and Satellite Navigation
The smart roadster BRABUS is equipped as standard with an RDS radio/single slot CD player with 2 bass reflex speakers, 2 tweeters and frequency switcher.
The sound was clear and the system was easy to use but it couldn't compete with the engine noise at speed.
