One of the sadder parts of being a car enthusiast is having to wait a quarter of a good lifetime before you can buy that European car that was never sold in America. But every once in a while, a car that was never sold in America and isn’t 25 years old leaks through the border. That’s what happened with this Smart Roadster that’s for sale in California. It’s one of the coolest sports cars America never got and you can buy this one for under $7,000, but oh boy there are a lot of caveats with this one.
America has pretty limited chill on the subject of car imports. With some exceptions, if a car was never built to comply with U.S. safety and emissions regulations, you have to wait at least 25 years to bring your favorite car here. Even then, there are a handful of states in this great nation that will still refuse to import your legally imported ride, so it’s just a huge mess overall that needs to be overhauled.
The Smart brand was only briefly successful in North America. Rural Canadians had a thing for the diesels Smart sent up north, but then Smart stopped selling those. Over here in the States, the one and only Smart we got sold well for just a single year in 2008. I like to think about what could have happened if Smart made different choices. Would Smart have been able to ride the diesel wave started by Volkswagen in the late 2000s? Maybe if Smart imported something a bit cooler and faster than the humble Fortwo?
For that, Smart had the Roadster. The low and trendy Roadster hit the market in August 2002, but never made it across our borders. Now, those of you counting probably realized that it’s not 2027 yet, so the oldest Smart Roadster still isn’t legal to be here. So what is one doing at the Smart Madness tuning house in California? We’ll get to that in a moment.
America Was Supposed To Get This
In the early days, Smart believed it had something special. Smart’s engineers began realizing that they had a scalable platform on their hands. See, the entirety of a Smart’s drivetrain is bolted to a cradle positioned under what would normally be the car’s trunk. So long as the body could fit the cradle, the rest of the car could really be anything the engineers dreamed up.
The first taste of this came in 1999 when Smart rolled out a design study for a sports car based on its rear engine concept. This concept was shown in European car shows a year later. Smart’s idea for a sports car was to do a modern take on the classic British roadster. These cars were small and didn’t have a lot of power, but were a ton of fun to drive. The Smart Roadster and Smart Roadster Coupe were meant to emulate that.
It’s sort of amazing what Smart’s designers pulled off. The Roadster looked like nothing else on the road, yet the designers also made it distinctly Smart. The Roadster rocked the trendy plastic panels and the striking safety cell before tying it in with still hotly-desired three-spoke wheels. The Roadster also had some tricks up its sleeve. The base roof was a panel that you were able to remove to make the Roadster an open-air vehicle. If you paid more, that roof became a fabric arrangement that with a touch of a button retracted into a holder behind the seats. Then you just popped off the rails for a full convertible experience.
Inside, the interior was so distinctively Smart featuring bug-eye-like gauges sprouting out of a fabric-covered dashboard. That instrumentation looked ripped right out of a motorcycle and easily matched the fetching interior. But the neat part? This was still more or less a variation on the Fortwo. From my retrospective:
The engine–still out back and under a comically tiny trunk in the regular Roadster–is the 700cc Mercedes-Benz M160 Suprex turbocharged three. In lower-spec Roadsters it makes 61 HP with higher models getting 82 HP. In 2004, Smart released a Roadster modified by tuning house Brabus that makes 101 HP. Acceleration times to 60 mph were about 10.9 seconds, 10.7 seconds and 9.5 seconds, respectively. So, not blisteringly quick no matter which you get.
The Roadsters would also be faster than the Fortwos in which it gets its running gear from. While a Fortwo, with its short wheelbase, tiny tires, and narrow track, topped out at an electronically-limited 84 mph, the Roadsters didn’t have such limiters. Thus, the 61 HP Roadster hit 99 mph with the 82 HP variant hitting 108 mph. The Roadster Coupe, which had a sleeker profile thanks to a bigger glass trunk, hit about 112 mph. Getting a Brabus got you right at that 120 mph mark.
In 2005 Evo magazine revealed that Smart had grand plans for America. In the past, I reported that Smart planned to enter America with the Formore, a Smart-branded SUV that would have been just for America. This is true, but what I’ve learned in somewhat recent times was that Smart wasn’t going to put all of its eggs in the Formore basket. Smart also desperately wanted to give America the Roadster. Apparently, Smart knew that the Fortwo wasn’t going to land well in the land of Hummers.
This Roadster
None of this explains why there’s a Smart Roadster currently sitting dusty in California. This Roadster is currently for sale by Smart Madness in Signal Hill, California. Smart Madness is the premier tuner of Smarts in America. If you want a unique custom Smart, Smart Madness is the place.
Like me, Smart Madness is also pretty nuts about Smarts. Over the years the shop has managed to get its hands on at least three different Roadsters, at least one Crossblade, and other Smart forbidden fruit.
Smart Madness has given this description for its Roadster:
If you are looking for a fun and unique project, then this smart Roadster is the perfect opportunity for you! This project car is 50% complete and is just waiting for someone to put their personal touch on it. Whether you want to finish it up as is or transform it into a custom showstopper, the possibilities are endless.
Features:
- Smart Roadster project car
- 50% complete
- Not in running condition
- Sold on a Bill of Sale only
- Located in our California location
If you have any questions about this unique project car, feel free to contact our Operations Manager Art in California. Get ready to bring this smart Roadster to life and create a one of a kind vehicle that will turn heads wherever you go!
If you need assistance in transporting the vehicle we can also assist. We have shipped vehicles all over US and can provide you with assistance if needed.
Now, let’s be honest, I was trying to buy this car. Of course, I reached out to Art! I wasn’t able to make a phone call thanks to the healing going on in my mouth, but the story Art sent to me tells me all I need to know:
The car was brought to us around 2012 by a customer who, if I recall correctly, imported it from Mexico but couldn’t register it in California. At the time, it didn’t run and had rodent damage to the wiring harness.
This car is the definition of a project. In my opinion, it’s best suited for a drivetrain swap to get it running. When we first received it, the engine and transmission did run after some tinkering, but it’s been sitting outside our shop for so long now that many of the components that worked back then will likely require significant attention to get going again.
For this reason, I describe it as more of a drivetrain swap project than a restoration. To be honest, I can’t say for sure what it would take to get the current drivetrain operational again. As our shop has expanded into additional platforms beyond Smart cars, our time and interest in restoring this roadster just isn’t there.
That explains so much. Sadly, the vehicle’s importation status is unknown and as stated above, it’s being sold on a bill of sale. Now, those two caveats alone would be enough to scare a lot of people away. However, there are some states in this country that won’t have a problem issuing a title so long as the VIN is good and you can provide proof of ownership. But if your goal is to put this thing on the road again, there’s definitely risk here.
I did some digging and found the build thread Smart Madness published about this car. Sadly, the thread is no longer accessible. However, the shop actually got really far into the project. The car arrived on a rollback and they got right to work freshening up the wiring, suspension components, and yanking out that engine. That little triple looked beautiful when it went back in.
Sure enough, work on this vehicle stopped somewhere around 2014 or so. To be fair to the Smart Madness people, the shop expanded in scope so far since then. While they used to primarily customize, restore, and supply parts for Smarts, the greater brand of Madness Autoworks expanded to pretty much most other cars you can buy in America. Madness has parts for everything from Fords to Alfa Romeos.
It looks like Smart Madness actually made some really good progress on this car. But who knows what has happened to the vehicle after sitting for a decade? My eyes spot that the tires on the car are the same ones that were mounted over a decade ago. So you have brand-new brakes and tires that are over a decade old. So, I get how the shop says the car’s about only 50 percent complete. Ideally, you’ll have to retrace their steps to get this ride going again.
Otherwise, I have heard of people using these as track vehicles or display vehicles. That aside, getting the car running might be its own headache.
Thankfully, the pictures we do see show that the vehicle’s body and interior are complete. So, most of your battle will be dealing with rodent damage and anything that degraded from sitting outside for over a decade. In my experience, you might find stuff like a tight engine, a locked-up alternator, and a seized starter. I also spot a cracked windshield, which is sad.
Smart Madness is looking to get $6,500 for this car. Normally, I’d say that’s way too much. But at this time there are only a handful of Roadsters in America and U.S. Smart owners go gaga for these things. I suspect someone will pay the price.
The Smart Roadster is one of my all-time dream cars, but this one is too much of a project for me, which is sad. I keep finding myself going back to the listing and flipping through the photos. I then go through periods of thinking I should save the Roadster and asking David to look at it for me. Then I just tell myself to wait two more years. I feel like Gollum trying to resist the One Ring here.
Someone should save this car. Sure, this car has legal headaches and unknown mechanical challenges, but its story shouldn’t end here. Maybe put a motorcycle engine in it and convince a state to give it a new VIN or something. Just do something to keep me away from my precious.
(Images: Smart Madness, unless otherwise noted.)
There was a black one of these that used to live on Kelley’s Island in Ohio probably over 15 years ago. I can only assume some rich guy brought it up from Mexico to use as an island runabout, since nobody cares what you register in Ohio and they care even less what you drive on the islands.
I was always frustrated that they didn’t bring these to the states – seemed like such a natural way into the market.
You can just buy one overseas and put it in storage for 2 years?
I’ve thought about that, but never really followed through with any research.
You can do that so long as that storage unit is in a country where the vehicle is legal. Once a vehicle is illegally imported it will forever be illegal. Sooooo, this Roadster has a ridiculously huge question mark/asterisk since it’s possible the previous owner just drove it across the border as a “tourist” and left it here.
Yea, that’s what I was getting at. Keep it in storage overseas for a couple years.
Bonus point if you time the export/import process to time it so that it arrives as closely to the build date as possible.
I used to see this one parked outside in Tucson 10+ years ago: https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZXyfbS6o2RM8vww8A?g_st=ac
I can’t recall if I ever saw it with a license plate on, but I’m pretty sure it was around for at least a few years. It was right by the university, so it might have been owned by a student from Mexico, and just mmmaybe could be the same car that you wrote about a couple years ago that was for sale in Tijuana.
I really want one of these
I dunno about that headline…do we call a deL Sol a sports car? Or a Si? GTI?
It’s a sporty variant, but not a sports car. It’s too much of a clickbate-y headline for this site.
It’s a lightweight, open-top, rear-wheel drive two-seater. What makes this not a sports car?
I was caught up in the fact that the deL Sol is basically the same but never looked at as a “sports car” but really matches everything you listed sans RWD. FWD is frowned upon but obviously is a serious contender in the price category this falls in.
Every MG, Triumph, or Porsche built up until the ’80s shared its basic mechanical design with a “normal” passenger car. The Fiat X1/9 uses the entirety of a humble 128 sedan’s drivetrain and suspension, simply moved to the back. The Coventry Climax engine in a Lotus 11 started life as a water pump engine for fire crews. This is every inch a sports car.
TIL that this was a stretched platform than the normal Smart.
I know power does not equal ‘sports’, but I too have a hard time with designating this a sports car. The hot one, tuned by Brabus, will tie a ’96 Toyota Paseo from 0-60.
Is the Paseo a sports car since it is a nicer (arguable) looking Tercel? I think not.
In what way is it not a sports car?
This should be an article, like Torch’s rules for wagonhood! I think it’s an interesting question because (I think) it’s about more than driving dynamics or power. I feel like sports cars feature some sort of ‘lack of utility’.
I actually take back my comment as it was said in haste and with comparison to the deL Sol not being considered a sports car on the regular. TIL is that this is a different design than the Smart Car as it has a longer wheelbase (didn’t know) and honestly thought it was just a reskin which led to my not reading and jumping to conclusions. Sending my apologies for this misstep.
You could even put in a transmission that doesn’t suck! This is the perfect opportunity.
I do find it frustrating that the two Smarts that would have had at least a fighting chance of selling in halfway reasonable numbers here – the Roadster and the later rear engine ForFour – were the ones that were never sold here, in favor of an exclusively ForTwo lineup.
In later years, Daimler admitted that their internal research showed that the ForFour would have only sold equally as well as the ForTwo (doubling Smart brand sales), but that that was not enough volume to financially justify federalizing it, but it was enough volume to justify federalizing the ForTwo, so, whatever?
Cool little ride, but I’m holding out for an Opel Speedster.
My brother in law had one of them about ten years ago. Driving along country roads in Aberdeenshire with the top rolled back reminded me of a drive home with a university friend in his MG Midget 40 odd years ago, but with a triple thrum and what seemed like infinite grip. Hold on and wait – it will be worth it!
Hmmm, this has me wondering. Could you import one sans drivetrain as a kit? Then you just have to pop in the engine from one of your current Smart fleet and call it finished in America. There is/was a guy in Colorado who was doing something similar to bring Holden Maloo Utes here legally(?).
Doesn’t work that way and doing that is just as risky as importing it fully intact and titling it in a state that doesn’t care too much. People were doing that with Skylines in the 2000s after Motorex shut down and the government came down hard on them too.
So reading the Ute importer’s website (LeftHandUtes), they do a lot more than engine swaps, and they claim their <25 yr old imports are 50 state legal. A lot of their work, however, is converting from RHD to LHD. It sounds like the biggest impediment is that all non-DOT and EPA parts must be removed before importing. Pulling the drivetrain and replacing with a US version should handle any EPA issues. So the rest would entail figuring out what isn’t DOT approved (lighting would probably be the biggest question mark) and finding DOT approved replacements.
Since the Skylines did not have a platform equivalent in the US, this was probably the biggest impediment to legally importing them in a similar manner. Since the drivetrain is what really made them special, replacing with an EPA/DOT approved drivetrain isn’t easy or desired.
If the Roadster shares enough parts with the Fortwo, then it may not be as big a challenge. DOT approved headlights might be an issue though.
It should be noted that LeftHandUtes has never been able to answer the question of the exact mechanisms that makes their conversions legal. To my knowledge, no LHU cars have been crushed, but it does appear that the feds don’t catch nearly as many weird imports as they’d like you to think.
I would hazard a guess that their main path to “legality” is a VIN swap, which is why the utes that share a platform with federally approved version are easier to register that something like the Skylines that did not have US approved brothers or sisters. Ergo, if the Smart Roadster shares enough DNA with a Fortwo, then it just might work!
Merdedes, did you ever see the Cameron Diaz movie, Knight and Day? There’s a great chase scene with Smart Roadsters. I don’t think I’ve seen them in any other film.
Duncan Imports VA location had (maybe still has) one of these tucked in the back. Haven’t asked the story yet, but I am curious.
I’ve asked Duncan how he got it and he wouldn’t tell me. So it’s anyone’s guess.
That being said, the Lane also has a sweet Roadster Brabus. I asked how that happened and one of the curators told me that importing non-compliant cars is much easier if you’re a museum. Makes sense.
I used to see a Brabus Roadster here in town from time to time, with Mexican plates on it.
I recommend waiting two more years, then finding an early example here legally (or importing one legally yourself at that time). The fundamental problems with doing otherwise are twofold: First, if it was brought here under, ah, let’s say questionable circumstances, then it doesn’t become magically legal once it’s old enough. The Feds can still seize it for having been imported improperly in the first place, no matter how old it becomes. Unlikely, but still a concern. Second, there’s the matter of insurance. If it’s ever involved in a collision or anything else that brings about a claim, the insurance company may very well decide to retroactively deny all coverage on the basis that the car’s legal status (and therefore roadworthy status) was misrepresented to them when the policy was issued, which they are very much within their rights to do. Not good.
Seems like it would fun to try a body swap – put it on a shortened, VIN’d chassis and drivetrain and be able to drive it legally
These are intriguing little cars, that’s for sure.
Just a heads up Mercedes- it looks like the link to the listing you’ve posted a couple times in the article actually directs to a picture of a neat blue international pickup with a flatbed on it- Also a cool car, but I’m sure it was just a copy paste error.
I also saw that exact photo for an unrelated link in one of DT’s articles. Maybe that’s their default error message or something?
Huh, that’s been happening a lot lately. I’ll see if I can set the link back.
Amusingly, the picture of that truck comes from my Power Stroke history article. Why it keeps showing up everywhere is an amusing and annoying mystery.