Hayabusa powered Smart Car (SmartBusa)

[race911]

All I can stress yet again is that there's definitely a difference in starting, not to mention acceleration, from when I'm in the car solo (at 1300-1350 lbs, depending on fuel load), and carrying a passenger up to 200 lbs in weight. Factor in another 400 lbs? May work as a toy. Are sand rails over 2000 lbs?

[GiantKiller]

Originally Posted by race911

All I can stress yet again is that there's definitely a difference in starting, not to mention acceleration, from when I'm in the car solo (at 1300-1350 lbs, depending on fuel load), and carrying a passenger up to 200 lbs in weight. Factor in another 400 lbs? May work as a toy. Are sand rails over 2000 lbs?

Sand rails may not weigh 2000lbs but there is a lot of drag from start due to having your tires half buried in the sand. I know my Rapter 660 feels like a 250 does in the dirt

[Boeschbuilt]

[cubefx]

Cool,
Matt, how difficult it was to drop the stock engine?


CUBE

[Boeschbuilt]

The stock engine actually ended up being pretty easy to remove. Everything in the Smart is so well thought out and so crammed in the back of the little car that I think you will have to partially remove the engine to do alot of repairs. They put about a foot of slack on all of the cables and hoses so you can drop the engine quite a bit to get to stuff.

Here is a quick run down on how to remove the engine in your Smart
1. Disconnect battery
2. Remove Driver's seat and un-plug the wire harness from the computer.
3. Remove, carpet, engine cover, and rear interior side panels.
4. Disconnect wire harness from computer in right rear side panel
5. Raise car, put on jack stands, keeping in mind that you are going to remove the entire rear cradle and the jack stands need to be out of the way.
6. Disconnect brake lines and wheel speed sensors at connection point on the left hand side of the body.
7. Remove inner fenderwells and rear valence, we also removed the tailgate so we could get the cherry picker in far enough.
8. Remove factory air box, and shifter cable/linkage.
9. Wrap chain around the subframe rails going sort of around the shocks so the chain doesn't shift. Set up the cherry picker and put a little tension on the chain.
10. From underneath the car, remove the four bolts that hold the subframe in.
11. Let the engine down a foot or so, disconnect coolant hoses, A/C lines, starter and battery cables, and fuel lines.
12. Pull the engine out from under the car!

[jetfuel]

...thanks a lot man...keep the good info coming..most appreciated


jetfuel

[GiantKiller]

Thanks alot great info. How about some pictures of inside the car(now that subframe is out) of the places where the shift cable, brakelines, ect come out of the bulkhead. Once again thanks for giving us all this chance to see all your work.

[jose3030]

As soon as I saw those pics of the engine being taken off, I muttered to myself "and we're off!" lol

[Boeschbuilt]

Worked a little on the Smart Car today.

I removed the engine and transmission from the subframe. It came out pretty easily, next time I will be a bit more patient and drain the transmission fluid first, what a mess!

I am really trying to think outside of the box on this project. I could just follow in Smartuki's steps and start building a new frame section, suspension pieces, etc. But, maybe a better way would be to utilize all of the stock frame, suspension and brakes, then, just come up with a mounting system for the motor and differential (this would also make the kit a lot cheaper!)

I am thinking if I run the motor to the differential using a jackshaft or even a series of jackshafts, Then I will be able to place the motor wherever it fits best and not so high up in the car.

I will start fitting all this stuff in the car in a day or two.
Stay tuned

[cubefx]

Thank`s for the update....!!!!!!! :-)