'Nervous' at highway speed?

[vanslam]

Mine is fine. It does a little dance at speed becuase of the roads, I am not worried. Try riding a motorcycle behind a semi, then you will see why. The only time I get worried is when there is a cop following behind me .

[bull8042]

hehehe. Ditto on that one vanslam!
Probably don't have that problem too much when you are up in the plane though do you?!

[2micro4u]

For the 1st 1,000 miles I was nervious and it did feel unstable. But after that I was fine . I know have 3,500 miles on my smart in 4 weeks and I drive mostly on the freeway at about 80-90 miles an hour most of the time and dont have a problem. I can even zip in and out of traffic and still feel safe.

[rawlus®]

how much weight are you carrying in the vehicle including yourself? perhaps the specs for tire pressures are not right for you, your car or the road surfaces you typically drive.

the electronically assisted steering should help some of the loose feeling in the steering at speeds because i would imagine the motor would act as sort of a stabilizer to some degree.

there is definitely a comfort curve or learning curve due to the dynamics of the vehicle itself. there is also the possibility of suspension geometry and wheel alignment being out of spec. comfort should come with seat time, then any gross issues should be more easily quantified.

[kannonvaggon]

You say your tire pressures are set CORRECT, but then say you are using 24 PSI in the front OEM tires? Isn't that a tad on the low side? I was thinkin that 29 PSI was closer to "correct" on the 451s, but I might be mistaken yet again.

I have the EPS and it isn't really in the loop at highway speeds as far as I can tell from the way it stiffens right up at cruise speed. The little bugger IS a bit twitchy in turbulence from any origin, but it doesn't actually get out of shape or anything. Ya just have to drive it like a real light car that is way tall... I imagine larger tires on the front would help the twitchies to a certain extent, but I'm not familiar with the effect on the ESP system or in general handling. I would THINK handling would actually be tighter but with somewhat increased steering effort, but not sure on that since I have no real world data. For sure the physics would say a larger contact patch would reduce the understeer a bit.

Anyway, I'm running 29PSI on the Conti fronts and can't say that the car is all that bad in the steering or twitchiness departments. Of course, I mostly ride a sidecar rig so just about ANYTHING seems stable by comparison!

[Broken Kid]

Originally Posted by 2micro4u

For the 1st 1,000 miles I was nervious and it did feel unstable. But after that I was fine . I know have 3,500 miles on my smart in 4 weeks and I drive mostly on the freeway at about 80-90 miles an hour most of the time and dont have a problem. I can even zip in and out of traffic and still feel safe.

I picked mine up today. Drove it home on a combination of windy roads (40 mph) and straight-aways (65). I have to admit, the first 30 miles or so, when I got over 60 and had the windows down and the wind blowing in from the lake, it felt weird. But I realized quickly that was me, not the car. The rest of the way home (about 50 more miles), I just relaxed, and the car settled right down even as the wind picked up. It always takes getting used to with a new car.

[saskdiesel]

Although I am shopping for a Smart I have seen them on the highways for a few years now.
These cars are for short highway trips. The wind throws them around as do passing trucks. I have followed Smart cars into town and it looks like a handfull in the 50-80km crosswinds we get out here on the praire.
I have no illusuions about what this car is going to handle like as I work with people that own them. They are not a windy weather high speed car.
Wasn't designed for that. All the Canadian tests say the same thing.
And I accept it.

[artificial]

smart

[bottlerocket]

Originally Posted by Broken Kid

I picked mine up today. Drove it home on a combination of windy roads (40 mph) and straight-aways (65). I have to admit, the first 30 miles or so, when I got over 60 and had the windows down and the wind blowing in from the lake, it felt weird. But I realized quickly that was me, not the car. The rest of the way home (about 50 more miles), I just relaxed, and the car settled right down even as the wind picked up. It always takes getting used to with a new car.

Congrats!!

[artificial]

skies.