We've already tested the 2015 Smart Fortwo and discovered it was a city car with a very small turning circle and plenty to offer in terms of style. However, it did let itself down by being slightly heavier than its predecessor with not much help being offered by the small Renault engines. That all changes with the arrival of the more hardcore Fortwo Brabus, a hotter version of the car already on sale.
Our spies stationed near the arctic circle have caught up with this prototype for the baby Brabus. It's not a production-ready model because some changes still need to be made to the rear end to hide the exhaust. Also, the interior is too bone-stock to be passed off as a Brabus one.
Brabus are probably ranked among the top 3 best leather interior fabricators in the world, so whatever they have planned for the Fortwo, we're pretty sure that it will blow us away. Mind you, the Smart already feels like a special place to be, with a retro-styled air conditioning system and the excellent R-Link system from the French.
The more powerful city car is literally just a few months away from being revealed and when that does finally happen, we expect the Germans to show a tuned version of the 0.9 TCe 3-cylinder turbocharged engine. Our best guess is that it will have 105 hp or slightly more, but some reports suggest even 130 hp is possible. In our tests, the Renault engine has never shown that much potential, but then the Fortwo only weighs about 900 kilos, so it doesn't need high output.
As you can see from our photos, the Brabus model will get revised front and rear bumpers, lowered suspension and larger wheels. A sports exhaust system with double tips will also be installed. Thanks to a wider track and available manual gearbox, the car should handle better than the outgoing model, but if you plan on racing a Porsche 911 to see which is the better rear-engined car, you're going to have a bad time.
Brabus are probably ranked among the top 3 best leather interior fabricators in the world, so whatever they have planned for the Fortwo, we're pretty sure that it will blow us away. Mind you, the Smart already feels like a special place to be, with a retro-styled air conditioning system and the excellent R-Link system from the French.
The more powerful city car is literally just a few months away from being revealed and when that does finally happen, we expect the Germans to show a tuned version of the 0.9 TCe 3-cylinder turbocharged engine. Our best guess is that it will have 105 hp or slightly more, but some reports suggest even 130 hp is possible. In our tests, the Renault engine has never shown that much potential, but then the Fortwo only weighs about 900 kilos, so it doesn't need high output.
As you can see from our photos, the Brabus model will get revised front and rear bumpers, lowered suspension and larger wheels. A sports exhaust system with double tips will also be installed. Thanks to a wider track and available manual gearbox, the car should handle better than the outgoing model, but if you plan on racing a Porsche 911 to see which is the better rear-engined car, you're going to have a bad time.