History of the smart roadster – part 3

Options

The Smart Roadster’s TRIDION safety cell is available in black, or in silver for an extra charge. The body panels are available in the colours jack black, shine yellow and spice red. The colours champagne remix, star blue and glance grey are available for an extra charge. The interior of the Smart Roadster is available in the colours scribble black or scribble red, or in black leather for an extra charge.

The Smart Roadster is available with a soft top or alternatively with a hardtop with a matt surface at no extra charge.

The Smart Roadster’s standard equipment also includes SOFTOUCH automatic transmission, sports seats, leather steering wheel and leather gear knob and a flexible service interval display which calculates and displays the change intervals depending on the oil used.

The sports package option offers customers a three-spoke leather sports steering wheel with rocker switch steering wheel gearshift and 205/45 R 16 Spikeline light-alloy rims. The safety package consists of fog lamps, electrically adjustable and heated door mirrors and side airbags for an extra charge.

A comfort package available as an option consists of cruise control, electric power steering and a trip computer. Useful information can be called up on its LCD display, for example a fuel gauge indicating the remaining level of fuel in 0.5 litre steps and the distance that the car can travel with the remaining amount of fuel. Times traveled and intermediate times can also be recorded, saved and correlated with the sections driven. The trip computer also has an electric logbook.

It visualises a number of warnings: it gives a signal when the doors are not closed properly or when the soft top is open. It also informs the driver if the engine temperature is too high, the oil pressure too low and about the brake fluid level. Moreover, it warns the driver when there is a danger of icy roads (from +3 degrees centigrade). The driver can also call up the distance or the time until the next service interval.

roof-diagram
Top down and roof bars removed for open top driving

When the soft top is fully open these bars can be removed and stowed in the front luggage compartment. For safe, scratch-proof and space-saving stowage, the bars fit into a system consisting of moulded parts and recesses in the plastic lining of the luggage compartment. When the roof bars are stowed here the front luggage compartment offers a capacity of 59 litres. Otherwise it is easy to stow a standard size crate of water or beer here.
The roof variants

Electric folding soft top as an alternative to the hardtop

With a roof system consisting of a soft top and a hardtop which can be used together or alternatively, the Smart Roadster and Smart Roadster Coupés offer their owners maximum open-air driving pleasure. As well as a two-piece, removable plastic hardtop that can be transported in the rear luggage compartment, an electrically operated folding soft top is available as an option for both the Smart Roadster and the Smart Roadster Coupés.

The Smart Roadster comes with the soft top as standard. However the customer may also choose a hardtop with a matt surface as a basic appointment at no extra charge. This is also available as an accessory. The Smart Roadster Coupés roll off the production line with a high-gloss hardtop. Here, the soft top is available as an option. With a system weight of just 14 kilogram’s the folding soft top also makes an important contribution to the overall low weight of the cars.

The hardtop is divided lengthways in the middle. It covers an area 750 millimetres long and 1000 millimetres wide. The roof segments can be removed with a few deft movements, packed into special moulded plastic parts and stowed in the rear luggage compartment. The components weigh a total of just ten kilogram’s and are made of fibreglass-reinforced polyurethane foam.

The soft top can be opened to any desired position with a rocker switch on the centre console, even whilst driving, and closed again by pressing the button. It only takes approximately ten seconds to fully open the soft top which slides back under the roll bar to the luggage compartment. When the soft top is down the driver retains full vision through the rear window.

To reliably rule out operating errors and thus damage to the roof system and cargo there is a folding, spring-loaded strip on the rear luggage compartment floor. When the soft top is open, its vertical position prevents the cargo from touching the soft top. The Smart Roadster Coupés then have a luggage compartment capacity of 104 litres. When the luggage compartment is fully loaded the strip is folded down horizontally by the luggage on it. In this case the luggage compartment has a volume of 189 litres and the folding top cannot be opened.

Read more about Roadster specification next month.