After driving a miata and S2000, I think you'll be disappointed! Watching some of the videos out there of the fortwo trying to negiotiate a slalom or skidpad, whether you can defeat the esp or not becomes secondary, as the car is just too tall.
But it is good that the fortwo handles well under real world conditions.
I'd imagine someone will come up with something similar for the 451, which may help the autocrossers.
Could be a real hoot to drift these cars.
There has to be a fuse in there somewhere that governs the ESP. That's the poor man's method, provided it isn't used for anything else. Should be easy to find out from a dealer shop tech. Pull it and see what else happens, if anything. The other way is to locate the wire coming from the computer to the ESP controller and splice in a circuit to a switch installed under your dash. I have done that on another car. This is the working man's method at the cost of wire and a cheap switch, say $2. Or you can find somebody selling the same wiring harness for $100.
Speaking of which, I wonder when the shop manuals will be available?
Not being able to disable ESP means not being able to disable traction control, too. This is a serious bummer, as I have a car with traction control that I have proven I can get unstuck from deep snow only if I turn OFF the traction control. Luckily, that car has a switch on the dash to do it. Sometimes you have to spin the tires to get unstuck. If you do get stuck in snow with a traction controlled car, and you try to rock it unstuck, you'll burn the brakes out in no time.
Someone will come up with a solution, even if it is as low tech as pulling a fuse. I can't imagine the car is disabled if the traction control/skid control is not working.
There has to be a fuse in there somewhere that governs the ESP. That's the poor man's method, provided it isn't used for anything else. Should be easy to find out from a dealer shop tech. Pull it and see what else happens, if anything. The other way is to locate the wire coming from the computer to the ESP controller and splice in a circuit to a switch installed under your dash. I have done that on another car. This is the working man's method at the cost of wire and a cheap switch, say $2. Or you can find somebody selling the same wiring harness for $100.
Speaking of which, I wonder when the shop manuals will be available?
This is not definitive, but I just spoke with a gentleman at Smartieparts in Canada, they sell the disabler for the 450, and he said the same simple mod would not work on the new 451 because of a totally different and much more complex computer. His input was that it would definitely not be as simple as pulling a fuse.
This is not definitive, but I just spoke with a gentleman at Smartieparts in Canada, they sell the disabler for the 450, and he said the same simple mod would not work on the new 451 because of a totally different and much more complex computer. His input was that it would definitely not be as simple as pulling a fuse.
Realize the car is being sold here in fear of the lowest common denominator owner. ONE of these things rolls over, and just watch for the media hysteria. The stability and/or traction control are intrusive to the detriment of enjoying ANY performance aspects of the car.
The car being "tall" has nothing to do with whatever cornering power it can generate. Is the cg higher than the above-mentioned S2K or Miata? Of course. To what detriment? I have no idea. Trial and error fooling around on autocross courses and the like will show the limits. And I think would be fun finding out, with some basic suspension prep, decent tires, and chucking the electronic nannies. And a bit more power so you could steer with your right foot.......
My joy ride was basically to test the handling with all the esp/dsc stuff on. Yes it does limit the ability of what you can do with the car. On my drive I've only let off the gas paddle 5 or 6 times while driving at a constant speed of 50-55mph through those turns and there were about 30 turns during that stretch of drive. I'm not taking my smart to autocross or anything like it just basically wanted to see what the smart can do under real world driving condition.
The car being "tall" has nothing to do with whatever cornering power it can generate. Is the cg higher than the above-mentioned S2K or Miata? Of course. To what detriment? I have no idea. ....
has EVERYTHING to do with it's cornering ability or cornering power as you've called it because it DOES HAVE a higher CG than most cars its size. You can't compare it's cornering ability to an S2K either...totally different car and CG and power density and almost everything you can think of.
The detriment, (and you do have an idea) is that the smart in stock form was not designed and built to be autocrossed. It's a nicely designed commuter car...not a race car!
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