Smartuki Finished Again and For Sale

September 11th, 2006

THE KNEESLIDER - - Just got a note from Andreas Viktorsson, owner and builder of the new and vastly improved GSXR powered Smartuki, that it’s finished and on the road. He took a little 130 mile trip over the weekend and it performed great. He is going to put it on display at the entrance of Semcon for a few weeks where he’s the Powertrain Manager and then off on a trip to the Nurburgring. He also mentioned that it’s time to put the For Sale sign in the window.

Since the Smartuki first appeared here on The Kneeslider 15 months ago, there have been other motorcycle powered Smart cars popping up. From the looks of things, many of these are, to put it politely, not as well thought out as the one you see here. Stuffing a motorcycle engine into a car not designed for it takes more than a cutting torch and a welder if the finished car is going to be driveable, reliable and relatively safe, it takes a lot of knowledge and skill to pull it off.

Smartuki, in its first iteration, was the product of Z Cars, a company that has been engineering this sort of engine transplant for years with Hayabusa powered Minis and other such interesting cross breed combinations. When Peter, the original owner, sold the car, it was purchased by Andreas who was project manager for new Volvo engines and who is now Powertrain Manager for Semcon. Andreas put his engineering skills to work and totally remade the Smartuki into the beautiful beast you see here fixing and upgrading every area where he found shortcomings in the original.

Andreas says he also has an MC-Xpress turbo kit available. He won’t install it because, as he says, “the car has already scared me a couple of times” but if someone wants to take Smartuki to the next level, the parts are ready.

If you are interested in owning this very high quality project, contact Andreas or drop us a note here and we’ll make sure he gets it. Since he will be at the Nurburgring, if you are located in Germany or anywhere in the center of Europe, delivery could be arranged from there.