smart roadster and coupe BRABUS - In Detail

Press Release

Integrated safety concept:
Tridion safety cell, esp as standard and much more besides
Like all models of the smart brand, the BRABUS versions also feature the electronic stability programme (esp) as standard. esp makes a crucial contribution to active safety and ride comfort. It ensures that the vehicles always follow the direction in which the driver steers, even at the stability limit of driving dynamics. In addition to closing the throttle valve and opening the clutch, esp also offers brake intervention acting on individual wheels. This ensures directional stability and road adhesion when accelerating, braking and coasting. Within the given physical limits, esp ensures that during fast cornering cars neither push outwards with the rear end (oversteering) nor push over the front axle (understeering). In the event of oversteering, esp specifically brakes the front wheel on the outside of the curve - regardless of whether the driver is braking, rolling or accelerating. The braking torque applied against the rolling direction around the vertical axis of the car prevents the rear end from breaking away. esp balances understeering by braking the rear wheel on the inside of the curve; this steers the car to the desired course in the curve. The electronics also cause the throttle valve to close. If the drive wheels lose traction, the drive torque is reduced and the brake system applies force to the wheel with the most traction slip. In this way esp realises the function of a differential lock by means of braking torque intervention which enables traction even on extremely slippery terrain, when there is different coefficient of friction on the right and left drive wheels, and on hills. This greatly improves the car's hill-climbing ability. The hydraulic brake assist function makes a further crucial contribution to driving safety. It automatically initiates controlled emergency braking when the driver steps on the pedal very fast, but not hard enough. The system automatically generates locking pressure in order to induce the integrated abs to regulate. The control variable for this purpose is the speed at which the driver steps on the brake pedal. The ability of esp to act on individual wheel brakes creates the basis for a further safety function of abs: cornering brake control. During extreme cornering, the strain on the wheel which is located on the inside during cornering is reduced and the cornering brake control function ensures that this wheel does not block. If the driver steps on the brake in such a situation esp senses that more braking power can be transferred from the other wheels than from the wheel with a reduced load. In this way, unnecessary activation of the abs control function and the attendant pulsation of the pedal are avoided. To make starting on a hill as comfortable as in cars with automatic transmission and a torque converter, the smart fortwo coupe, fortwo cabrio, smart roadster and roadster-coupe are provided with hill start assist. After releasing the brake pedal when stationary, hill start assist keeps the wheels braked for 0.7 seconds. This leaves the driver enough time to move his or her foot from the brake to the accelerator pedal without the car rolling forwards or backwards on account of the disengaged clutch. If the driver accelerates, the brake pressure is immediately reduced. The fact that the car is prevented from rolling backwards additionally protects the clutch and makes it possible to drive off without the assistance of the hand brake, even on steep slopes. However, if the driver prefers to drive off in the conventional way with the help of the hand brake, the switch on the hand brake deactivates the anti-stall assist. The smart roadster and smart roadster-coupe model range:
smart aiming to top the sales figures for 2003
The presentation and test drive for the smart roadster BRABUS and smart roadster-coupe BRABUS against the breath-taking backdrop of the Maritime Alps marks a new milestone in sports car production at smart. With this model line, smart aims to continue the success story of the two standard variants which have been available since last April: In 2003, the year of their market launch, the smart roadster and roadster-coupe attained sales totalling 20,100 units. smart's CEO Andreas Renschler sees good prospects of "clearly topping last yea's sales in 2004" on the back of the impetus provided by the BRABUS variants. A joint venture was established between smart gmbh and BRABUS GmbH in March 2002. Both parent companies have a 50 per cent stake in smart-BRABUS GmbH, which is headquartered in Bottrop. The object of the joint venture is to develop series-produced BRABUS equipment lines for all smart brand models, limited special models and editions and BRABUS accessories for the standard smart models. Prices in Germany (incl. value-added tax):
smart roadster BRABUS: EUR 24,950
smart roadster-coupe BRABUS: EUR 26,570