Mercedes-Benz Built Some Of The Most Absurd Off-Roaders Ever Out Of Tiny Smart Cars

In the not-too-distant past, Mercedes-Benz brought the world a fun, trendy subsidiary — Smart. The brand existed as a sort of yin to Mercedes’ yang — it brought the world funky cars that focused on fun rather than formality like a Mercedes-Benz. In the 2000s, Smart was all about showing the world the different things it could do with its micro car concept. The company stretched its city car into a four-seat hatch, a sports car, and it was even developing an SUV. In 2005 and 2006, Smart started taking a different, weirder tack; it used a legendary Mitsubishi Pajero to turn a Forfour into an off-roading beast, and then it turned a Unimog into a pint-sized monster truck. Behold Smart’s insanity.

For most Americans, Smart’s history starts in 2007 and 2008 with the announcements of the importation of the second-generation Smart Fortwo and the subsequent launch. Penske Automotive Group’s “Smart USA” then successfully differentiated itself from other distributors by building a strong community of loyal car owners. Smart USA and its dealers organized and sponsored owner meetups, where you got to meet top Smart USA brass in comfortable settings. For a long time, many regular Smart owners had a direct line to president Dave Schembri, and later Saturn alum Jill Lajdziak.

Schembri and Lajdziak also listened to owner input, and Smart owners did see improvements over time. This close distributor-to-customer relationship worked, and many felt as if the president of Smart USA was their friend. Sadly, Smart USA’s excellent customer relations never translated to sales. Mercedes-Benz USA eventually took over distribution, and over time, that close link to owners was lost, replaced by the same relationship you, dear reader, might have with Kia or Ford. But for a while, things were much cooler. How many regular car owners have a direct line to Volkswagen Group of America’s Pablo Di Si?

Smart USA didn’t think come up with the owner meetup ideas out of thin air. Over in Europe, Smart was and arguably still is a party. Every year, the automaker hosts a celebration where thousands of Smart fans come to one place for a festival just about Smarts and for Smart owners. This festival, called Smart Times, used to be hosted in Europe, but 2023’s event was hosted in China, where the cars are made today.

Smart has been producing vehicles for around 26 years, and while the brand hasn’t had the best of luck financially or in the press, it has made some stellar concept cars.

Off-Roading City Cars

This story takes us back to 2005. At the time, Smart was in a phase of growing into what would almost be a full-line automaker. It still had the little Fortwo all of you have seen here in America, but there was also Forfour four-seat hatch, which launched in 2004, and the Roadster sports car, which had been around since 2003. Smart was bleeding cash during this time, but it was still trying to be quirky (though sadly not in the U.S. market).

In case you aren’t up to date on your Smart models, here’s the Fortwo that was sold in 2005, which we got in the United States as a gray market car:

Here’s a Smart Roadster sports car. It has the same running gear as a Fortwo, but packaged in a body meant to be a modern interpretation of the classic British roadster:

Here’s the stillborn Formore SUV:

And, just for reference, a stock Forfour:

This era was also a time when Smart produced outlandish concept cars. There was the micro Jeep Smart Crosstown and the Formore SUV, the latter of which went into development. The most famous Smart concept was the Crossblade, which did go into limited production. What you’re about to see are two Smart concepts so obscure that you won’t even find anything about them on Mercedes-Benz’s digital archives.

In 2005, Mercedes-Benz Hellas, the importer of Smarts in Greece, decided to celebrate five years of operations and the sales of 10,000 vehicles. As part of its celebration, it decided to commission a special one-off car. Off-roading is a big thing in Greece, so Mercedes-Benz Hellas wanted this special car to reflect that.

Mercedes-Benz Hellas worked with Grecian rally driver and constructor Stefanos Attart to create what they would call the Smart Forfun. Attart’s website continues:

Somewhere in mid-September, on the occasion of the presentation of the new M-Class at the premises of the Attart Off Road Park multipurpose hall, the CEO of Mercedes-Benz Hellas, Dr Alexander Paufler, was present.
Stefanos Attart’s first meeting with Dr. Paufler, was about that strange vehicle (Big Foot) that was parked in the parking lot of the mall. Stefanos said that this was built to attract the attention of visitors to the mall and highlight the innovation, expertise, and know-how of the people surrounding the mall. It was then that Stefanos mentioned that one of his prototype vehicle dreams was to convert the SMART ForTwo into a BigFoot. The answer was not given by Dr. Paufler to Stefanos, although the order was given to provide a SMART ForFour type vehicle and all the logistical support to Stefanos Attart for the construction of this vehicle. Its name is unknown but the passion and embrace of the idea is lightning fast.

Visually, the Smart Forfun looks like a Forfour with a lift kit and chunky tires, but there’s a lot more going on under the skin. Mercedes-Benz Hellas told Stefanos Attart to do what it took to make an impressive vehicle. Attart chose to underpin his one-off with an off-roading legend, the Mitsubishi Pajero. Attart began measuring up the Smart and learned that to get the proportions right, he’d have to use a long wheelbase Pajero, which he was able to acquire from Mitsubishi.

That part wasn’t so surprising, as both Mercedes-Benz and Attart had a relationship with Mitsubishi at the time. The Smart Forfour was essentially a re-bodied Mitsubishi Colt and featured a Mitsubishi engine. So, turning a Forfour into a Pajero was a logical fit. Attart says it took him just 10 days to make the off-roader.

Power came from a 3.0-liter V6, good for 177 HP and 185 lb-ft of torque. These numbers were close to the Forfour’s best engine, which was a 1.5-liter turbo four tuned by Brabus to make 174 HP and 170 lb-ft of torque. Most importantly, going with the Pajero chassis and drivetrain meant the Forfour got four-wheel-drive, and Attart added a locking rear differential of his own design. Sadly, Mercedes-Benz Hellas didn’t do much with this car other than take it to Attart’s off-road park, where the pictures suggest it was proficient at getting dirty.

What Mercedes-Benz Hellas achieved was catching DaimlerChrysler’s attention over in Europe, and the original Smart Forfun garnered such a positive reaction that company brass demanded a second off-road build.  This one, also built by Attart, would be called the Smart Forfun2, with the 2 meaning “smart forfun to the second.”

As German magazine Spiegel writes, Smart was facing some turmoil in 2006. The Roadster was canceled, the Formore SUV’s development stalled out at the finish line, and the brand was gearing up to launch in America with just the Fortwo in tow. Later that year, Smart would get liquidated, but it didn’t go out before having some fun first.

To build the Forfun2, Attart started with a Mercedes-Benz Unimog 406 series. Attart then got to work designing how his final off-road vehicle would work and how he was going to perch a Fortwo’s body on top of the Unimog. According to DaimlerChrysler’s press release, the attachment points would be where the Smart’s axles originally were, as well as other chassis points.

The Unimog was then cut up to support the Smart’s body. Also making it over was the Unimog’s OM352 5.7-liter straight-six diesel engine and transmission. A regular Smart Fortwo diesel sent 40 HP to the rear wheels from an 800cc triple. This engine doubled power to 84 HP and churned out 191 lb-ft of torque to all four wheels. That sounds like not a ton of power from that big of an engine, but remember, this engine came from the 1970s, and the Unimog back then was more or less a farm and military implement, not a highway truck.

Attart’s work didn’t stop at swapping over bodies. The resulting off-road rig stood 12.1 feet tall, 11.5 feet long, and 8.2 feet wide. Our little Forfun2 became a micro monster truck with 26-inch wheels, a tire diameter of 4.6 feet, and 2.1 feet of ground clearance. In other words, this is a truck that isn’t getting stuck on Florida’s beaches. And since this truck is stacked so high, Smart added a rollcage into the interior for additional protection. Smart also notes special shock absorbers and an air suspension developed by Attart.

Since the Forfun2 was a DaimlerChrysler promotion, more work went into the concept, including filming videos of it zipping around, doing stuff no normal Smart has a chance at doing. Can your Smart drive in the ocean?

Even Fifth Gear got to take a spin, noting that the beastly off-road rig had a top speed of 30 mph.

The donor Unimog likely wasn’t much faster. But what Unimogs are good at is getting through anything without stopping.

Once again, Smart used the Forfun2 as a promotional tool and played around with it in an off-road park. Sadly, that was pretty much it and the mega Smart didn’t get to play around anywhere else. Mercedes-Benz is pretty good with keeping concept Smarts around. Presumably, this means somewhere in Germany the one-off Forfun2 is probably sitting in a warehouse. Mercedes, are you reading this? Sell me the Forfun2, let’s work out a deal.

A part of me wonders what would have happened had Smart’s plans to build the Formore SUV came true. Would I own a few of those and not a Volkswagen Touareg?

If anything, the Forfun2 is a great example of how automaker concept cars should be. Forget about non-functional display pieces with blacked out windows, give us crazy stuff that actually works! Smart probably didn’t sell a lot of cars because of the two Forfun off-roaders, but I bet they lived up to their names.

(Images: Smart, unless otherwise noted.)