Quote:
Originally Posted by stevey_frac
To my knowledge, no one has ever managed to get a new version smart diesel engine to work out of a smart car without a LOT of help from Mercedes. And Mercedes help is Expensive. Everything is electronically integrated to the car. Incidentally, no one has ever stolen a 450 or 451 without the key either. I will say though, that engine is a beast. Pulls like snot starting from about 1600 RPM. (My previous car was a diesel 450).
If you put an efficient engine in an insight, your highway mileage will be similar, your city mileage will suffer.
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I agree that the smart fourtwo would be a great replacement. . .but. . .I don't know that its actually possible.
Changing powerplants almost always requires extensive fabrication(unless its from a similar make and model) and integration with expensive aftermarket ECUs, unless you want to run them in a hampered mode.
Stick with the Insight's systems and just drop the hybrid components and get her as light as possible adding as much aero for as little weight as is possible.
Without any extra components, maybe some solar to replace the alt along with suspension regenerators you should be able to lay down some serious FE.