| Smart Show Car Crosstown
A Totally New Approach, Yet Instantly Recognizable as a SMART
smart has a surprise in store for visitors to this year's Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA): the world premiere of the smart crosstown show car. Though there's no denying its close relationship to the smart fortwo, this show car seems to have been designed with quite different uses in mind. However one thing is clear: the smart crosstown demonstrates just how much is possible on the basis of the smart fortwo, and shows that the fortwo's unique concept still harbours a great deal of potential.
Its close relationship to the ultra-short two-seater can be seen not least in the compact dimensions. With a wheelbase of barely 1.90 metres and short overhangs (40 centimetres at the front and 39 at the back), the smart crosstown has an overall length of just 2.68 metres, with a width and height each of around 1.58 metres. For purposes of comparison, the smart fortwo is 2.50 metres long, with a wheelbase of 1.81 metres. It has a width of 1.51 metres, and is 1.55 metres high.
With features such as a stowaway windscreen, the smart crosstown seems at first to have much in common with an off-roader. However, it is on the streets of the big city (although not exclusively) that it feels most at home. In other words, the smart crosstown has the same area of application as the smart fortwo. But there's a difference: because of the puristic way in which the vehicle concept has been interpreted, this car turns every drive into an urban jungle adventure.
Close relationship to the smart fortwo yet its own, distinctive character
While the smart crosstown show car has a distinctive character all of its own, the defining features typical to a car made by smart are immediately apparent. One such key feature is the tridion safety cell, which is made from high-strength steel and which, in the case of the smart crosstown, has been coated with matt titanium. The contrasting bodypanels (the smart crosstown's are in matt metallic green) follow the smart principle of using two different materials in two different colours. That's just one of the features that make smart cars -including the smart fortwo and the smart forfour - stand out from the mass of other vehicles on the road.
In addition to the smart crosstown's extremely unconventional design, the vehicle's steeply-angled windscreen is a particularly striking feature. The vehicle becomes even more striking when (once the electric convertible roof has been opened) the front windscreen is removed and stowed right away underneath the front lid. smart's intention of making technology visible is backed up by a number of appropriately-positioned functional elements: the side doors for example, like the front lid, have their hinges on the outside.
Totally new interpretation of features reveals great scope for design freedom
The interior of the smart crosstown is not just characterised by features that already appear in the smart fortwo. It also includes a whole series of features that have been completely reinterpreted. On the one hand, this goes to show just how much creative scope this concept represents. And on the other hand, the interior of the smart crosstown gives an initial indication of how an instrument panel might look that meets US standards, while still retaining smart's characteristic sense of spaciousness.
One of the vehicle's key interior design elements is its instrument panel. In contrast to the smart fortwo, the instrument panel here is very linear, and adorned with graffiti, which serves to highlight the individuality of this vehicle. Another new feature of the instrument panel is a large, lockable storage compartment that extends from the passenger door right into the middle of the vehicle, with a switch strip integrated into the lid. In a central position on the instrument panel is the control unit, which includes connection ports for PDA and USB sticks. The interior also offers such offbeat features as used-look leather, skate wheels and pedals styled on mountain bike pedals.
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