Smart Roadster as an occasional track day car: A silly idea?

[bigbadbikercats]

While idly googling for lightweight roadsters in the MX-5/MR2 mould I came across quite few Smart Roadsters at very reasonable prices and several companies who could remap the regular 80-ish BHP to around 100BHP for not a lot of money. I've always rather liked the look of these things as a sort of latter day Spridget and it set me wondering what they'd be like as a track day car. OK, so you probably wouldn't want to take one to Silverstone or Bedford, but they look like they ought to be a lot of fun round narrower, tighter circuits...

Anyone ever tried it or seen it done?

--
JG

[whittaker52]

Yep, i've done a few trackdays with my roadster coupe, and i've always found it good fun. The handling is spot on, although the car does suffer with a bit of brake fade after a few laps, but this can easily be sorted. They aren't the fastest things out there, but I find mine great fun, and would definitely buy another. I've only really done trackdays at Bruntingthorpe, but i'm hoping to do a few other trackdays next year, possibly at Donington.

There are a few roadster owners in the owners club who do trackdays though, one of my friends does Spa, but a few others do trackdays at other venues quite happily.

[NAS]

On the Ring they're good fun. Rented a few 82hp models from Sixt and Europcar a few years ago. No brake fade, even after 5 laps (though the Ring is high speed and not that hard on brakes). Slightly understeery at the limit, and enough pace in the downhill sections to keep me interested. 9.30 BTG is what I managed. VLN racers go 10 seconds quicker.