Brabus ForTwo Is Coming For Your Fiat 500 Abarth
Someone has perturbed our tiny cars. Now there’s hell to pay.
Everyone thinks the Smart ForTwo needs more horsepower, and it looks like Brabus—maker of 888-horsepower V12 Maybachs—will be the ones to do it. The Brabus ForTwo is coming, and it will be the world’s most titillating golf cart. According to TopGear, all performance will come via modification to the car’s existing engine, 0.9 liters of three-cylinder triumph. Or, would that be tri-oomph? (Ooof.—Ed.)
When the new 2016 Smart ForTwo debuted this year, it bore a host of upgrades that moved the little box ever closer to deserving its intelligent name. For the first time, Daimler’s sleek toaster is available to Americans with a five-speed manual transmission in place of the wretched automated job that turned so many off the ForTwo. Twenty more horsepower that the ongoing model, plus a sport package offering 16-inch (!) wheels, mean that this rear-wheel drive, 73-inch-wheelbase turbocharged coupe (!) has potential to be legitimately sporty. Sporty like, say, a Ralph Lauren ballcap, or “splash!” graphics on a Buick Rendezvous.
Specs aren’t yet out on the upcoming Brabus, but our fingers are crossed for triple-digit power. As Fiat has shown, a stylish shoebox on fire is delightful fun. In tandem with the boost in power, Brabus will outfit the Smart ForTwo with special suspension and brakes, as well as typical Brabus aesthetic modifications. (Think side skirts lower than a Mennonite’s and just as black.) Even with one quarter of the cylinders of a typical Brabus project, the company’s ForTwo is bound to be equally as hilarious. Maybe it’ll even stop people from tipping them over.
