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K, Then: One Turbocharged Honda K-Series Powered Smart Car, Coming Up!


K, Then: One Turbocharged Honda K-Series Powered Smart Car, Coming Up!

Owning a Smart car is…well, not smart. Unless you live in a European city that has the parking situation of a jigsaw puzzle…you know, one of those 2,000-plus piece deals that were made explicitly to keep Grandma busy for days on end…there is no real reason to own one. They’re not bad, just God-awful. Less than 100 horsepower unless you sprung for a Brabus model (ooh, 101 horsepower! Big spender!), an automated manual transmission, and all the sex appeal of a slug on a salt bed. Yeah, I’m biased. Had the company brought the Roadster into the United States market, I wouldn’t be so harsh, but they weren’t. Instead we got the original, upright, Easter Egg of a car.

The bright side of a Smart is that they are tiny. Small means light, and we’ve seen what swapping a streetbike engine into the bay will do to one of these things…wheelstanders, Ferrari killers, smoke machines, a good kick in the ass indeed. But how about a bit more out back…okay, a LOT more. Like a turbocharged Honda K-motor that would turn an Acura Integra into a force to be reckoned with? If it worked for the Ariel Atom go-kart on ‘roids, surely stuffing one up the backside of a Smart will be a riot.

It is. It’s been done. And here’s the footage to show just how much of a good idea it really is. Tire smoke? Easy. Donuts? More than a cop starting an 8am shift. 3rd gear front wheel lift? Um…that’s unconfirmed but seemingly likely!


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