Bob the Brabus.

[Kees 594]

It's been a while since I wrote a post on here - I actually have two cars to introduce, but I'll start with the Brabus....

 

By now a few of you may be familiar with the fact I am generally drawn towards the whacky, weird and sometimes wonderful European cars…. Or the ones no one else has the balls to buy.

This has included; 3x W8 Passats, 2x 5.2L V10 Audis (S8 & S6), high ks 130i, a high ks 987 manual Boxster, and then of course my very high ks E34 540i.

Anyway, back at the start of the year I was doing my generic trawling through Trademe and Turners when I came across a Smart ForFour Brabus.

Smart as a brand has always intrigued me. I’ve been obsessed with the Smart Roadster since I was about 7, and want one very much. The robotised manual gearbox is just very off putting, and I think they are hard to justify with most sellers wanting 12-15K for them.

My Mum’s daily run around is a Smart ForTwo, so I am familiar with the gearbox, and it is everything the reviews say and more. It’s actually not too bad once you get used to it, but to have in a dedicated roadster… no thanks, especially having had the manual 987 which genuinely is driving pleasure in its finest form for under $20K.

However, I digress. I had seen the Brabus ForFour that now sits in my driveway at Turners sometime at the start of the year. A very neat car I thought - I should bid on that! I then promptly forgot about the auction, and saw it pop up on Trademe at a dealer for around $12,995. 

The car sat for a while (as did basically everything on the market at the start of the year), but eventually sold. It then got returned to the dealer as it had an intermittent issue. The dealer decided to $1 reserve the Brabus which is when a friend of mine sent it to me with the tag line "This screams Kees"...

 

As I flogged my 987 and 130i off under the guise I wanted to have just two fun(ish) cars I was desperately trying to resist the urge to buy it. The listing stated it likely had some form of ECU issue where the car would sometimes run, but other times have huge power loss, misfire, or refuse to start. Smart cars are notorious for funky electrics due to their less than ideal placing of the ECU and SAM unit, particularly on the Roadster and ForTwo models, so it seemed a complex fix.

However, I did come to a figure of what I would be prepared to pay for the Brabus, if I were to buy it. Because I now identify as an old, wise man who sticks to his own word, on the day of the auction I did not bid, even though the car went for less than what I would have hypothetically paid for it. I even had a mild rant to a mate of mine on how I should have pulled the trigger on it. That night I went to sleep a troubled man, and it sounds ridiculous but I had a dream about the car, and how I should have bought it. 

 

When I woke up the next day I was lying in bed pondering my decision when I got a notification on Trademe saying the car was being offered at a fixed price. Clearly the deal had fallen through. 30 seconds later my mate rings me telling me to buy it. 20 minutes of being indecisive followed, before I accepted the fixed price offer, and then went off to collect my Brabus! 

 

I pick the car up, and it makes it all of 10 minutes before it decided to be the most undriveable vehicle I have experienced so far. It would cut in and out, stall, flash random warnings for coolant temp, barely accelerate and then refused to run full stop. At this point I was questioning my decision. I decided to abandon it and pick it up later that day. 

 

I drove it from Penrose back to the North Shore, with 3 breaks where the car decided to be like a stubborn dog and not move, but eventually I made it home. I then started doing research on what the issue could be. One thing that kept coming up was ignition related issues - particularly coils. So the following day I lift the engine cover off - and sure enough one of the coils is clearly different from the rest.

 

I take it out, run the part number, and it was completely incorrect. So a quick trip to Jap spares for a $40 ignition coil, and by a stroke of luck I now have one of the most fun cars I've ever driven. 

 

I should mention at this point, the Brabus ForFour uses the 4G15T from the Mitsubishi Colt Ralliart, and the same 5 speed manual gearbox too. The only difference to the engine aside from the plethora of Brabus and Mercedes branding on the engine cover and boost pipes is the Brabus engine has no blow off valve, as from what I've read too much pressure was lost through the stock Colt Ralliart BOV setup. And of course the boost is turned up a bit to bump power from around 150hp/210nm to 177hp/238nm.... I am unsure how accurate this is - but a friend's OBD reader was indicating my Brabus was making 21psi on full boost which is a fair bit. 

 

To say the car is quick for a stock vehicle from 2006 is an understatement. It's undriveable in the rain - spins in 1st, 2nd and 3rd, sometimes 4th. It also understeers like NOTHING I have ever experienced. It's genuinely scary in the wet. An LSD would do it a great deal of good, and something I would like to get. The thing surprises a lot of cars by how quick it is - even my friend who has a tuned Peugeot 207 GTI with $15K in receipts (its meant to be 220hp), got walked in one of those convenient scenarios where we both accelerated at the same time  

 

So as a brief summary. It's got a Japanese drivetrain, that's been breathed on by the Germans, and then its put into a four door Smart car. 

 

It's of course factory lowered, has awesome deep dish staggered Brabus alloys, a panoramic roof, leather Brabus embossed seats (which are heated!), and it says SMART ARSE on the back. They also only made around 1200 total for the world! Can you see why I have fallen for this thing? It only weighs 1090kg as well so it feels nice and light footed. 

 

The best way I can describe it - is its how I imagine an AMG hatchback would be - great in a straight line, slightly above average going around corners in the dry, and absolutely undriveable in the rain! 

 

I can also understand why my one might be the only one in NZ - they are the size of a VW Polo, but were Golf GTI money in 2006! I would also love to know who had my car from new as its NZ New, so I'm guessing was some form of special order? 

 

So what now?

Well after doing over 2000km in the car, I realised that it was most likely on its original cambelt.... and since its done a 183,000km, I thought it best I do not drive it until thats sorted. So its been sitting in my driveaway awaiting a bunch of parts as its going to be getting quite the birthday, and then following its birthday it is likely to have another birthday which addresses the paint fade on the bonnet, stone chips on the front lip, and curbed wheels. So with the cr out of action likely for a while, ignoring the fact I have the 540i and W8, I had to buy another car to drive in the interim.... of course! 

More on that another time. 
 

So as another brief summary - it’s an exclusive and interesting European car with some huge quirks, but has Japanese consistency/reliability? in the way it pulls (reminds me a lot of my mate’s old WRX). And then on top of all that, it feels like a factory modified car - that’s the best way to describe it. It creates a hybrid medium between a factory and an aftermarket feeling… if that makes any sense at all. 

 

Edited July 12, 2023 by Kees

[KwS 2425]

Thats cool. I knew they ran the 4G15 but didnt realise they were manual too.

I wonder, how heavy are the garish blingy wheels?

[Kees 594]

8 hours ago, KwS said:

Thats cool. I knew they ran the 4G15 but didnt realise they were manual too.

I wonder, how heavy are the garish blingy wheels?

I'm not sure how heavy they are - I'll weigh one whenever I take them off next. 

I was thinking of getting some lightweight OZ wheels, or Volk GTCs as a "daily wheel". I've never really had a car that I could get away with putting some more "JDM" style wheels on, but I think the Brabus could get away with it. The biggest pitfall with the Brabus wheels is as aptly described on the forums, they are "made of chocolate". One of mine has a bent lip in fact. 

Even worse is the spokes tend to crack from the dish just because inherently the design makes them very fragile (particularly on the rear wheels). So once they are fully restored I'm not sure if I'll have the balls to have them on the car 24/7, especially with these roads.... 

Speaking of which - I found out THIS MORNING that my Audi (yet to be written about) has a cracked wheel which is why I was losing 10psi of pressure per night. Big shout-out to Waka Kotahi! 

 

When I first got the car I thought they were way over the top - but they've really grown on me. The car is so ridiculous looking as is that some factory blingy wheels suit it imo! 

A minor tangent turned Waka Kotahi rant but that's my A7's wheel ^

[Eagle 1662]

Dont mind the look of that compared to all the other Smart cars ive seen. Guess it has a mix of Mercedes and typical Japanese fasteners?

[Kees 594]

3 hours ago, Eagle said:

Dont mind the look of that compared to all the other Smart cars ive seen. Guess it has a mix of Mercedes and typical Japanese fasteners?

Yes it does - the body is all the typical TORX bits, in fact the Brabus plaque inside is fastened by them. But under the bonnet everything is regular hex head stuff - a breath of fresh air compared with the W8 which is TORX, Spline and hex!

[GorGasm 563]

Cool story man, looks like fun.  Good on you.

What's the date on those tyres?  That could be contributing to the lack of grip.

[Kees 594]

2 hours ago, GorGasm said:

Cool story man, looks like fun.  Good on you.

What's the date on those tyres?  That could be contributing to the lack of grip.

Rears are from 2020, fronts are from 2015. 
 

Fronts are Ventus Primes and rears are the wonderful Triangles. Pilot Sport 5s will come eventually once mechanical birthday is finished. 
 

I would say I don’t really choose to drive it in the rain (although this is hard given how awesome the weather has been) but also I won’t be driving it at all for 28 days anyway lol

[GorGasm 563]

Hah! I'd take the 2020 Triangles all day every day over 2015 Hankooks!  Had the Triangles on my 535i when i bought it and as much as I wanted to hate them, they were actually OK for the job.

I reckon it'll grip a lot better on fresh PS5s.

[Allanw 1071]

Our E39 525i manual had Triangles on the rear when we got it. I certainly got my moneys worth out of the traction control system 🤣 RE003's with traction control OFF, certainly resulted in MORE acceleration in the wet, than the Triangles with the traction on! The Triangles didn't last long... about 1/2 worn, and I dumped them 😎

[jon dee 500]

On 7/12/2023 at 10:59 PM, Kees said:

I should mention at this point, the Brabus ForFour uses the 4G15T from the Mitsubishi Colt Ralliart,

Can vouch for he 4G15T  My Colt is bog standard with CVT and it is damn near perfect for a runabout. 

[Kees 594]

Been using the ForFour as my daily the last couple weeks, a task those rubbish old Hankook tyres decided they could not handle on Tuesday when one of them split on the side wall most of the way round. 
 

To be fair, I’m sure the heavy right foot did them no favours. 

Michelin Pilot Sport 5s now on, difference is huge as expected. Will be interesting to see how they behave in the wet as the ForFour was almost undriveable with more than 15% throttle in the rain before. 

 

Edited October 11, 2023 by Kees

[Sammo 2544]

@Kees

Just saw this pop up in my feed: