Racin' smart

[randyzimmer]

Our local SCCA had a solo2 event today and the car I normally mooch didn't show so I scarfed a pair of number stickers and entered the smart in H Stock.
OK, I was cheating.
I have goofed around with the car a bit and although the carbon faux disk brakes and the gas door don't do anything to help performance, I think my prototype brake pedal did.
I made the pedal swing from the top and it makes controlling the pedal sooo much better.
Anyway, I ran the first two times in normal mode.
The next run I removed the "happy fuse" and turned off the ABS, traction and stability control.
Turns out it only gained me .7 over 60 seconds and made it real easy to possibly flip the car. It didn't want to swap ends but the rear wheels came pretty high off the ground.
I put the fuse back in and ran the next two runs trying to keep the big direction changes to a minimum to get the power to stay on more often.

My biggest problem was kicking the shifter into auto on LH turns.
One lap I had a guest rider hold the shifter but the weight up high hurt more than the shifter. Seems the weight of a rider hurt about a second and a half.
I found a piece of cardboard and stuck it in between the seat and the shifter and it really helped keep my leg off it.

With the car in normal mode, I would put it in Manu mode and just floor it. It shifted to second by itself and if I didn't pop it into Auto with my knee, it stayed in 2nd.
My only job was to steer precisely and apply brakes at the end of straights.
As soon as the car was at a prudent speed, I returned to Full Throttle and steered some more.
When the car settled enough, the engine would pull pretty "smartly" but the course was twisty enough that it had the smart dialed back probably 50 of the 60 seconds!
I think it'd race all year at 30MPG with no more wear and tear than some brisk commuting. The car is smart enough to save itself and while my friend's Shelby Mustang used 1/3 of a $1200 set of tires, the smart didn't even know it was racing.
It was absolutely foolproof, doing whatever it took to be safe and quick too.

Did I win?
NO!
But it beat a lot of cars that should have been faster but were driven poorly. I think it was 45th of 80 while in the slowest class.

It also attracted more attention than a Ferrari and the 360 degree staging ritual got a lot of laughs (as did the stupid wimpy horn).

[dancote]

Sounds like you had a ball. I'm looking forward to seeing smarts in local events.

[Dunerunner]

Way cool!!! I have wondered what we would see if NASCAR required all to run smartcars. Just think??? 100+ HP smarties bumpin' and rubbin'....Naaaa. ;)

[bottlerocket]

Cool! Too bad you're not in SoCal so I can go check it out

[burtandnancy]

What do you think of "Smart Car Hayabusa" on You Tube? There are some really wild videos there...

[Dunerunner]

Just plain wild!! 1300cc turbo, 500+HP, daddy has to own a tire shop and transmission shop!!! No passanger seat though.

[randyzimmer]

Originally Posted by dancote

Sounds like you had a ball. I'm looking forward to seeing smarts in local events.

Was it competitive?
Absolutely NOT!
Could it be?
See above.

But it WAS fun to do and very low impact.
No tire pressure checks, worries about alignments and changing wheels and tires.
Prep was throwing the mats in a pile and stuffing everything into the glovebox.
Cheap fun and like I said, the car did all the thinking.

As far as a NASCAR or modified smart?
There are much better platforms to build up.
The smart monster truck and silly HP monster have already been done.
(not to forget the .01 General Lee)
A smart is best used as a smart but that doesn't mean it has to be a commuter car All the time.

[Fredvon4]

randy I assume you have a 450..... if not pls explain your post better.... I have not found info on killing the ESP N TRACTION CRAP on the 451

[smartune]

Fred: It's in on the fuseblock. Check out evilution's site.

But beware, it kills all the safety stuff.

-Dan

[randyzimmer]

Originally Posted by Fredvon4

randy I assume you have a 450..... if not pls explain your post better.... I have not found info on killing the ESP N TRACTION CRAP on the 451

No, its a 451.
You may think it crap but my experience this weekend is that it is a pretty good system.
I have intimate knowledge of BMW's system and all I can say is there's a reason for the buttons they supply to turn it off.

Without a rider, I think I would have bettered my disabled time with the last run. The application is very unobtrusive and smooth, unlike BMW's that just kills all forward motion abruptly.

Without ABS, the front wheels lock easily.
Without stability the teetering is worrisome and without connection to the ground, the wheelspin slows you down anyway.