In 2008 I had the opportunity to partake in the 25th anniversary Cannonball Run, which now has “One Lap of America” added to its name due to the movie studio’s purchasing the rights to the use of the “Cannonball Run” name.

This post is just to give a basic intro into the event and the video I edited together of various photos and videos from the race. I will be adding more photos from the event and more stories in future posts but this is just a nice intro.

The car that I drove was mine, it was my 2008 “smart car” as seen below in the full Cannonball sticker fashion.

This smart was not only the first 2008 smart sold in North America it had thousands of dollars in modifications that included: stealth radar detection system, custom built GPS system, racing & driving computers, 7 power outlets, CB radio system, upgraded speakers including hidden subs and that was just inside the car. Outside of the car it had a custom carbon fiber hood that matched the carbon fiber interior dash, racing springs and the first batch of racing tires built for the smart that were put on a lighter and wider set of rims. Thanks to smart it also was given a racing break kit that included slotted rotors, S.S. break lines, racing brake pads and a nice red set of calipers. Other modifications where done and will be documented in future posts.

Here is my video compilation from the 2008 Cannonball Run:

Since this post I did in fact buy a smart, actually it turned out to be the first 451 smart fortwo sold in North America, but the fun part is when I decided to smart a blog just about my smart.  I created a blog and started to post about the modifications and fun I have with my smart.  At the same time I was part of various smart forums on the Internet, none of them really worked the way I wanted so I ended up starting my own.

The 451 smart fortwo community http://www.451s.com that I started has since grown into one of the largest smart community websites on the Internet with millions of page views and thousands of active members.  Also part of my smart experience which will be shared in future posts was racing my smart in the 2008 Cannonball Run/One Lap of America. 

So this one decision to buy a smart really has changed my life and hopefully made me a little smarter in the process, but I will let you read the post and will have many follow up stories about me and my smart. Updated comments by me are in italics within (brackets).

Believe it or not I’m trading in the BMW X5 and getting a 2008 Smart Car (later I started to use the phrase 451 smart fortwo). For me I had fallen in love with the Smart Car while I lived in Switzerland (actually the first time I saw a smart dealership was in Vienna, Austria) over 7 years ago and now finally in Canada I will get my Smart Car.

I do love the X5 but it is really not needed for my lifestyle and after a long research phase I believe that the 2008 Smart Car will be able to handle the Canadian winters, my limited highway driving (ah little did I know that the smart would become a highway monster) and still have all the things that the X5 provides.

There isn’t a Smart Car dealership in Guelph, but I found one in Kitchener at Victoria Star Smart Car Dealer http://www.kitchener.thesmart.ca/. So called down and met up with the business manager Sue and after a few phone calls I happily put my down payment on a beautiful 2008 silver on silver passion model Smart Car.

Sadly they don’t have any 2008’s in stock but I’ve ordered mine and it will be coming from Europe shortly to arrive sometime in November (it arrived and I got it right off the boat in Halifax, Nova Scotia). I ordered a silver on silver passion model, with leather and fog lights. All the fancy options available in Europe aren’t making over here to Canada, but that won’t stop me from ordering them in Europe myself and installing them myself (I ended up spending almost more then the price of the car in aftermarket upgrades).

I had seen the current smart car model, the 2008 version is very different and I hadn’t seen one in person yet. I took the chance and put my down payment before seeing it and am very happy to say that today I saw the 2008 demo unit at Victoria Star Smart Car Dealer in Kitchener. It is really an amazing car, far superior to the previous model, the interior is very polished and professional while the exterior still has that unique fun Smart Car look and feel.

For those who know me from the good old days (I used to race and be heavily involved with the neon community), yes the smart car does have a lot in common with the neon and while I don’t think I can get racing with this smart car (oh how little I understood about myself) there are many people in Europe who’ve gone as far as putting motorbike engines into smart cars.

I will be documenting the life of my own smart car on the website Smartster.ca (while I started at smartster.ca it turned into what is now 451s.com) and hope that I can upgrade the exterior and interior a little and maybe tinker with the engine (lucky me in that smart actually helped me a lot with the upgrades).

The factory times for the European 2008 Smart Car puts the 0 – 60 times at 9.9 seconds it can beat a Hummer and is inline with a 95 to 98 Honda Civic. Nothing to boast about but remember the Smart Car has only 3 cylinders and the engine is about the size of most cars glove boxes.