This Is The Last Affordable Sports Car - Project democRACY #1

Video Description

Episode 2: https://youtu.be/WfN1RyokiEI?si=ffm23nEOeBqA_KoJ Learn the entire history of a car you want to buy with carVertical. https://www.carvertical.com/en/landing/v3?a=D4Aespanol&b=e75e2cc6&voucher=d4a Get 20% off your next report with the code D4A For the past 2 years I have been without a project car. I thought that I don't need a project car in my life. I didn't want the hassle and the frustration and the rust flakes in my eyes…but it turns out that I don't know myself as well as I thought I did. I need a project car/s in my life to keep my mind busy. It turns out project cars are good and bad for my mental health at the same time. In case you're wondering about the MR2 mk1, project underdog, I still own it but I have moved from one end of Europe to another (From Bosnia to Portugal). For the past 2 years I have been living 3300 km away from the MR2 and it turns out that bringing over a heavily modified car is much easier said than done. But I haven't given up. However, in the meantime, I need something in order to remain civilized to those around me (jk jk jk.....not) and I decided that something should be fun but also clever, hence Smart Roadster! So how would I define the Smart roadster…..it’s basically the result of a bunch of Mercedes engineers getting drunk and making a Kei car. Because this is genuinely a Kei car. It is absolutely miniature….but unlike Japanese kei cars…..I actually fit comfortably inside this one. It is extremely low so you need to practice your squats if you want to be able to get in and out with any elegance ….. This is a mid-engined rear wheel drive two-seater/roadster that weighs…..wait for it…………790kg. In the back…..stuck under carpeting and a metal cover……..is the engine…..it’s a 700cc turbocharger inline three cylinder…..I told you….Kei car…..that makes 82 horsepower. As you can see here it says engineered by Mercedes Benz……now that actually meant something like 40 years ago……today…it just means that it’s a bunch of Renault parts…and when the Smart Roadster was introduced back in 2002 it was right around the time when Mercedes was becoming complacent and relying on past glory to start introducing….let’s say….questionable….products. ….and this car has a fair share of that but ….let’s stick to the good news.. The engine is a two valve per cylinder….twin spark plug….120 degrees inline three. Now the inline three thing is good because as we know engines with an odd number of cylinders usually have a very interesting soundtrack.. The turbocharger on this thing is a Garrter gt12….so an absolutely miniature little turbo that back at the time of the introduction of this engine was the worlds fastest spinning turbo, I believe it spins to around 300.000 rpm. But what really makes this engine special is that from the factory it has something that you would expect from a group-B rally car….I think it’s best to let you hear it….. Ok…. Why does this cost half as much as NB MX5? We have nearly the same power to weight ratio……we have the same massive driving joy………..it’s a convertible just like the mx5…..So what’s the catch? Well….the main reason why this car doesn’t hold its value like the mx5 is because journalists decided to defecate on this car…..and you know what car people are like…..we will spend hours in the comments section defending richard hammonds opinion of something we never experienced ourselves. And what journalists hated the most about this car is this…….the transmission………and indeed it is the stupidest kind of transmission known to man……it’s called an automated manual…..even the combination of words in it’s name is idiotic……you take a manual….and you automate it…..why would you do that? Perhaps the best testament to how fun to drive this car is is the fact that the god of car guys Gordon Murray himself….owned this thing. Voluntarily as his daily driver for 13 years. I mean if it’s good enough for him…..than it’s most certainly good enough for the rest of us. That being said…..there are some more bad news….because I think that the Smart Roadster is not a completely finished product. Fortunately it’s unfinished in the aspects which are not relevant to driving fun. For example….the retractable roof on most of this cars ends up leaking and not functioning. Of the 6 cars I test drove only 2 had a functioning roof. These removable things can also leak….and water can find its way into the electronics….and then the car goes crazy….and it can be a nightmare to repair….and yes there was a recall…. The engine is usually good if taken care of properly….but compared to japanese stuff it is a bit fragile and doesn’t tolerate lazy ownership….this line leading to the AC compressor often breaks….the clutch doesn’t last long….the center engine mount fails pretty early…turbos don’t last long…you get it A special thank you to my patrons: Daniel Zwoa Meda Beda valqk Toma Marini Cole Philips Allan Mackay RePeteAndMe Sam Lutfi Cakeskull #d4a #projectdemocRACY