Peter Bee from England liked the Smart because it was a fun and convenient car. Since he worked for a company that makes tuned exhausts for motorcycles, he knew that even little engines could get a boost from mods. He managed to bump the horsepower from 60hp up to 100hp, but wanted more.

He got his mind set on Suzuki GSXR1000 engine. He talked to the people from Z Cars and they said no problem. Of course, they put Suzuki Hayabusa engines (aka the GSX1300R) in old Minis and new Lotus Elises all day long so they were up for a little change of pace. Peter had another company squeeze some more power out of the GSXR1000 power plant. Short story with light details later and Peter had a fun car. 180hp, 0-60 in 4.2 seconds, 1/4 mile in 12.4 seconds and tops out at 132mph.

Peter then put the car up for sale because he had a new project to work on. Andreas Viktorsson in Sweden was just starting his own Smart conversion using a Kawasaki ZZR1100 engine when he caught wind of the sale. The car was quickly purchased by Andreas and then immediately taken apart. See, it was not good enough for Andreas. He needed to make it better. Now, Andreas took lots of notes and made a website for the project which is good! I was not able to find any specs, which is bad. As of the last website update in 2006, the car was for sale again. I have emailed Andreas, but have yet to receive a reply.

So now your thinking “I want one, but don’t have the time to fabricate all that stuff.” Well you are in luck! Another company bought the rights from Z Cars and sells kits of different levels. You too can scare the kids in the Honda Civic at the stop light.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 3rd, 2008 at 8:14 am and is filed under transportation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.