Think smart; think small; think cute; think cuddly; think economical. Think SLOW! The smart forfour BRABUS comes with a 177bhp turbocharged 1.5-litre engine and seats four. It's not small, cute, cuddly or economical; welcome to the anti-smart.

First things first: it's smart, not Smart; it's forfour, not Forfour, or even ForFour, and it's most definitely BRABUS not Brabus or brabus. That last bit is important, the BRABUS contribution to the anti-smart is fully deserving of CAPITAL letters. Big, large ones.

Your normal cooking smart forfour comes with a choice of 1.1, 1.3 and 1.5-litre petrol engines developing 75, 95 and 109bhp respectively, or a pair of 1.5-litre diesel engines developing either 68 or 95bhp. Not exactly road-burning options. The smart forfour BRABUS on the other hand raises the power stakes all the way to 177bhp from 1.5-litres, definitely capital letter power. The price is also deserving of capital letter status, the cooking 1.5-litre forfour ranges from £10,995 to £12,130, where as the BRABUS version weighs in at a much heftier £17,195.

To be fair, the engine far from makes up all the difference in price. The kit count on the smart forfour BRABUS is high, with leather seats, extra BRABUS trim and those gorgeous (but very vulnerable) BRABUS monoblock VI alloy wheels also included as standard. All in all, the smart forfour BRABUS passes a very important test - it looks and feels like a £17,000 motor car.

Needless to say, this car is completely dominated by the engine. As turbocharger installations go, it's a very impressive one. In common with most turbocharged engines, the maximum power of 177bhp is achieved at reasonable revs, in this case at 6000rpm. Although maximum torque of 170lb.ft is achieved at 3500rpm, the usability of this engine can be seen by the fact that at least 90% of that figure is available from as low as 2300rpm all the way through to 6100rpm: a remarkable spread of torque. This is borne out on the road as well: accelerating even in fifth gear, positive surge can be felt from around 2300rpm, and by 2500rpm the driver is left in no doubt that the car is pulling hard. This means that fifth gear can be used as an only gear most of the time out of town, still allowing good progress and safe overtaking margins. If you really want to make progress, then stirring the gear lever around a bit can shoot the smart forfour BRABUS from 0-62mph in just 6.9 seconds, right up with the fastest of "hot" hatchbacks, yet from a car physically shorter than a Ford Fiesta ST.

All this power comes at a price; actually, make that two prices, and perhaps they are both easily predicted. The official combined fuel economy figure for the smart forfour BRABUS is 41.5mpg. This is a little more believable than the official urban fuel economy figure of 31.7mpg, a figure that would be nigh on impossible to achieve in real world urban running. Using the standard fit trip computer as a guide, urban fuel consumption seemed to be sub-20mpg without behaving like a hooligan. A quick blast of full throttle saw average figures markedly affected. Even flooring the throttle on the motorway after a long bout of steady cruising has a noticeable effect. The best I managed as an average over a long motorway run was 38mpg, so maybe 40mpg is possible now and again, but budget for a lot less and you won't be far out, more like 20mpg if you live and drive in town.

The second price to pay comes as a result of channelling all that 177bhp through the front wheels. It can be done; maybe it's the smart forfour BRABUS's light weight (only 1090kg) playing against it, but in this area the smart forfour BRABUS really is old school. Torque steer is the name of the game, make that TORQUE STEER, and it's a game the smart forfour BRABUS will play any time the front wheels are not pointing straight ahead and full power is unleashed. It goes without saying that pulling out of junctions in a hurry can get exciting, but basically ANY time the wheels are not pointing straight, the smart forfour BRABUS wants to dive sideways. A regular route for me is a one-way, narrow uphill road that meanders left-right-left-etc for about half a mile. It's a good test attempting to clip each apex, but the smart forfour BRABUS fought me all the up to the top. So the chassis is a little unruly.

That's a shame, because grip levels are high as you would expect. Those gorgeous wheels (7"x17" front and 8"x17" rear) wear 205/40 R17 and 225/35 R17 tyres (massive in size for the weight of the car) and endow the smart forfour BRABUS with prodigious grip. So much so, that I'd been driving around for four or five days before realising I'd not seen the traction control light so much as flicker. I started to wonder if indeed it was fitted, although given the old 54bhp smart fortwo has standard traction control, it would have seemed an unlikely omission. One dumped clutch later, and it was plain the traction control was present, and working fine, it just doesn't seem to be needed as often as on many front wheel drive cars, in the dry in any case. Which is just as well, as it can't be switched off.

The smart forfour BRABUS is a very pleasant drive though, the electric power steering is nicely weighted, the gear shift in the five-speed gearbox snicks nicely from gear to gear with no hint of vagueness, and despite producing nigh on 118bhp/litre, there is no discernible turbo lag anywhere north of 2500rpm. The feel good factor extends to the inside of the car as well. The BRABUS part of the name brings with it a more dressed up interior that makes this forfour look like a £17,000 car despite its size. Bespoke BRABUS pedals, handbrake sleeve and gearknob all convey the prestige but sporty image, the steering wheel with controls for the radio and trip computer display looks and feels just right. There is a full compliment of kit as well: the smart forfour BRABUS comes with leather seats (heated of course) and leather door trims, and a panoramic full length glass roof over and above the usual kit fitted to the lesser (but still well equipped) smart forfour models. There is climate control of course and the trip computer provides an ice alert system when the outside temperature drops below 3 degrees.

Outside, the smart forfour BRABUS is an easy spot because of the body kit; made up of a deep front spoiler and side skirts, those 17-inch alloy wheels and the BRABUS twin exit exhaust. Oh, and the fact it will usually be seen disappearing into the distance!

All in all, the smart forfour BRABUS is an interesting alternative to the mainstream hot hatches. A trip to Lotus Engineering to sort the chassis would make it truly blinding, but it's entertaining enough as it is. The ride is firm but not too firm, and torque steer aside, the smart forfour BRABUS behaves well, with little understeer up to a very high limit along with minimum body roll. In the sub-zero temperatures that made up most of our test period, it always felt secure when others were driving more steadily.

So what didn't we like? Not much really. The headlights come in for the biggest criticism; they are quite simply the very worst set of lights I've ever had the misfortune to sit behind in a new car. That's on dipped beam; main beam was marginally better, but far from satisfactory on a slow car, let alone something with this car's performance. After that, the gripes are quite minor. The "smartification" extends to two small dials sitting atop the dashboard like little bug-eyes, just like on the fortwo model, but here they are smaller, further away, and as they just double up on functionality elsewhere (clock and water temperature), quite honestly they are useless as they are difficult to read. The electric window switches are nigh on impossible to locate without taking your eyes off the road - they are situated down either side of the handbrake, but then some way back too. This is compounded if the reversible armrest/rear cupholder is used as an armrest, as it completely blocks access to the switches. And the boot is miniscule! It looks smaller than that on the smart fortwo, although a lot of space can be gained by folding forwards part or all of the rear seat. In summary, the smart forfour BRABUS has to be viewed a success both as an extension to the smart range, and as a very quick and capable small hatchback in its own right.