Did you read Colin Goodwin’s story on sub-100bhp vehicles last week? Talk about being up my street. I don’t think I’ve been as eager to read a car magazine story since our sister title Classic & Sports Car (other car publishers are available, so they tell me) ran a feature on Gordon Murray’s car collection.
The two stories weren’t entirely unrelated. Murray’s daily driver (before he bought an Alpine A110, the sensible lad) was the very Smart Roadster Coupé convertible used in the Goodwin feature.
And if there’s a theme to Murray’s collection, since the creator of the McLaren F1 sold his own McLaren F1, it’s that the cars in it are, predominantly, small and light and not necessarily fast: a Midas, an Austin-Healey Sprite, a Lotus Elan, a Mini, a Fiat 500, a Light Car Company Rocket (he designed that too) and more.
Then that Smart. The only thing the Smart Roadster Coupé convertible has in excessive amounts is nouns. And lag in its automated manual transmission’s gearchanges – the element, along perhaps with uncommunicative steering, that stood between the Smart Roadster and greatness.
What that meant was that Roadsters were criminally undervalued, although looking in the classifieds today, that seems to be wearing off, which is great if it means their merits are being recognised, but a pity if you want to buy one.
I’ve also just looked into manual gearbox conversions, which seems to be a brilliant way to find people telling you that the gearbox isn’t that bad after all (it is) and that you just need to learn to drive better.
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We have had a roadster for
But you forgot the build quality that makes our MGTF feel like it's well made or the design faults that have a similar effect.
Our cappuccino we had before the Smart was superior, as is our TF.
However the smart has a charm of its own
Agreed... + Fiat X1/9
Agree with your article but I think the Fiat X1/9 deserves an honourable mention in the small, low power, mid-engine fun car category. I guess its prices have already taken off.
Is the mk 1 Toyota MR2 a bit wide to be really fun? If not, that also fits in the same bracket.
And I agree with the comments above about the MX-5, Cappuccino and Honda Beat. It's amazing that the mk 4 MX-5 is the same size as the mk 1.
One day I will have one of these...
smart-ish
i never understood why they went through the time and expense of developing their own engine and gearbox (badly) instead of buying in the kei engines. the roadster should have been awesome, but it was a disappointingly tragic near-miss, because it didn't have a honda beat -well, a p07a turbo - engine and gearbox. weird front end styling probably didn't help either, but it's not bad