smart forfour Brabus

Mercedes Benz has had a long and fruitful relationship with the tuning firm AMG, so much so that in the late 1990s it took the firm in-house to become its performance arm along the lines of BMW's M division.

But AMG is not the only company that has been modifying and tuning Benz products. In Europe, the Brabus tag applied to a Mercedes is almost as common but here in Australia, AMG has been the sole provider of performance Mercedes cars.

But now Brabus has been officially let loose in Australia, not with a Benz product but rather the small smart forfour. Of all the major European tuning houses, Brabus is among the most aggressive in terms of what it does to a donor car. A Brabus worked vehicle is definitely no wallflower and the new smart forfour Brabus is no exception.

Based on the small 1.5-litre four-seater five-door hatch -- which itself shares much of its underpinnings with the Mitsubishi Colt -- the baby Brabus is immediately recognisable. Smart cars in general certainly stand out on the road with their bright funky and interchangeable exterior panels, but Brabus has gone one step further adding a full body kit with a deeper front spoiler, side skirts and big 17-inch alloys.

Inside, full leather sports seats, an array of sporty cosmetic highlights and a big glass panoramic roof mark the car as something different to the bread and butter model. There is reasonable space up front and plenty of adjustments for the seat and steering column resulting in a good driving position. In the rear, the 60/40 split two-seat bench offers enough space for adults for short trips around town although the space might be better used for luggage, as the load area in the rear is very small.

Under the bonnet the addition of a turbocharger has boosted power for the 1.5-litre four cylinder engine by a massive 50kW and torque by 85Nm to peak outputs of 130kW and 230Nm.

With a kerb weight of just 1090kg, Smart claims the Brabus forfour is good for a 0-100kmh sprint in just 6.9 seconds and off the line the urge is reasonably strong and smooth. But take a closer look at the figures that denote peak power at 6000rpm and maximum torque at 3500rpm and it is obvious that it is through the upper half of the rev band that the engine really gets to show what it is made of. This is evident in the drive experience too with a little turbo lag at lower revs.

But using the slick and precise five-speed manual gearbox to keep the engine spinning over about 3000rpm, there is a consistent feeling of power with ample grunt for easy and confident overtaking or to really push on hard on a challenging road. It's not a particularly flexible powerplant though and if you drive it to extract its potential performance, it's not especially frugal either. Smart lists an official combined fuel consumption of 6.8l/100km but over a week of mixed urban and country driving, CarPoint managed a fuel consumption of just 9.3l/100km.

On the freeway at 100kmh, the engine is spinning over at a relatively high 2800rpm and for highway cruising, it feels as though it could do with an extra top end gear to really settle down and help fuel economy. The lack of standard cruise control also means that you have to keep a close eye on the speedo.

With big fat tyres, there is also a fair bit of road noise on coarse surfaces and wind noise from around the mirrors was noticeable at highway speeds.

With a lowered sports suspension, the ride quality is very firm but on the smooth highway, it remains reasonably comfortable.

But on anything less than perfect tarmac, the hard ride starts to become irritating with the car crashing and bashing its way over short sharp ruts and road joints, adversely affecting the ride comfort in the process both physically and aurally. This was not helped by the very low profile Michelin rubber -- 225/35 ZR on the rear and 205/45 ZR on the front -- which although offers plenty of grip, does little to assist in ride quality.

The payoff for the hard ride however is solid and predictable handling. The car sits extremely flat on the road -- although it can get a bit jittery over rougher roads -- and the steering is fairly direct and responsive. On dry roads, there is an abundance of grip from the big tyres and when it does intervene, the ESP and traction control are suitably subtle. Big brakes pull the car up in quick and effective fashion and there is good pedal feel.

Given a Brabus makeover, the smart forfour has been lifted into an altogether different realm but there is plenty of hot hatch competition in the market. At $39,900, it is among the most expensive and while the car works well when pushed hard, the compromises for daily driving means there are better all-round options.