"Real world" acceleration.

[jetfixer737]

I'm a recent waiting list addition, and both research, and studying the forums here have taught me a lot. Although I've both ridden in, and driven a couple of smarts, one question still remains. I've seen you tube videos of people zooming up freeway on ramps, and merging into traffic with no difficulty. My problem is my work commute is 95% freeway. That part doesn't concern me, but what does is that I live in a city (Denver) that uses flow control lights at the bottom of their freeway on ramps. This means during rush hour you only get the merge lane to go from a standing start to blending into fast, heavy traffic. Salesman are nice, but I'm not the type to push a friends car, or even a dealer demo hard enough to get my answer. You guys really deal with the daily demands of traffic. I'm assuming using the paddles will get the little lady up to speed more quickly, but otherwise, how does she really do out there?

[Neonspinnazz]

There's some of those in Il. but if you use the acceleration lane to your advantage, you should be ok.

The smart does 0-60 in about 12.8 seconds, that should be enough time to safely get on the expy.

[Godfather]

If you provoke it, it'll respond. If you want more, use the paddles. Simple as that. We have notoriously short ramps here in I-75 construction area, and it's not been a problem.

[Neonspinnazz]

Yes, and eventually the car should adapt to you (unlike other cars) and drive without you having to force it to do something (such as reaching 80)

[SuperGeek]

A significant portion of that 12.8 seconds is the first gear which maxes out at 15mph for a smooth shift after about 3 seconds. So, you can get from, say, 20 to 60 in about 9 seconds. Get a 'jogging start' and you've got less disadvantage. I've had no trouble merging into medium traffic down in the South, but I don't live in Denver anymore. We've got plenty of Denver owners on the forum and I have only read positive things from them.

Also in the first 500 miles you won't see the top performance of the car. Best to stay on city roads for as much of that as possible, maybe pick up the car on Friday and use the weekend for a 100 mile road trip or two. I recommend Idaho Springs this time of year, if the roads are clear. The Indian Springs Resort has some hot tubs that are just out of this world... that could explain the 2 month waiting list for a 30 minute soak.

[NCC1701]

Originally Posted by Neonspinnazz

Yes, and eventually the car should adapt to you (unlike other cars)

Sounds like a suggestion for MythBusters.

[jefferios]

This car has not been a problem for getting onto the freeway at all for me. Don't worry about it, it can handle it fine.

[jetfuel]

...believe it or not....during our fall outing, every car that won their respective heat run (4 cars at a time) in our drag race was in auto mode...hummm... go figure

jetfuel

[NCC1701]

Originally Posted by jetfuel

during our fall outing, every car that won their respective heat run (4 cars at a time) in our drag race was in auto mode

I wouldn't have expected that. Did they just hold the peddle to the floor?

[jetfuel]

...yep...I know 'cause I asked...I lost my heat, finished 3rd...
...including one that had a performance exhaust, he lost his heat, Madame Sinner won her heat with two people in her car....the winner of it all was a skinny kid, maybe 130# soaking wet...

jetfuel