New exhaust - my smart can breathe!

I was telling a friend recently that I've never had a car I enjoyed and cared about so much that I wanted to modify it. I've known car guys who are always tinkering with their cars, and I never really understood it until getting my smart. These cars are so unique and different, they just beg you to put your own personalized touch on them.

And I was completely sold on the new Breathless Performance twin-tip center exhaust performance muffler. Not only does it look great - solid steel and chrome and sexy as hell - but it provides performance improvements. It adds 6 horsepower and will even slightly improve mileage.

But that's not the whole reason I wanted it. As shown in this YouTube video from Breathless (below), it sounds great. It's louder and more aggressive sounding. In essence, it sounds manly and powerful, and that sold me on the exhaust.



This image shows the rear end of the smart before the new exhaust:



And here's a closeup. You can barely see the existing tailpipe, which tilts down and is extremely short.



We put the smart up on the lift, itself a unique experience worth memorializing in photos, as they've never had to adjust the lift for such a short car. Still, it was very stable and worked fine!



Getting the old exhaust/muffler off required taking off the plastic valance along the bottom. This came off pretty easy and showed how the old exhaust fit in and took up so much space.



It wasn't easy getting the old exhaust off. It's a large muffler, and the bolts were not easily accessible. Again, having the car up on the lift really helped reach the bolts, and having a mechanic with the right tools helped even more. Once we got the heavy thing off, I snapped a picture showing the side-by-side comparison:



Fitting the new one on was a piece of cake. It slipped right in and took up far less space, meaning the bolts were far more accessible. We had it on in no time, the whole process taking about 40 minutes. But it did require cutting the plastic valance. Thanks to Smart Billet, I had a bezel to fit around the cut and make it look professional.



So the main question smart owners will want to know is what it sounds like. I'll have to capture some mp3s, but I can tell you that it's definitely louder. Of course, you know that going in. It has a throaty rumble that is more evident while driving in fourth or fifth gear and giving it continuous gas. The idle sound is not too loud at all, whether inside the car or outside, rumbling gently. When giving it gas, it is much louder than the stock. I don't have much to compare it to, but it doesn't sound like a loud motorcycle. It's more of a sports car rumble.

I haven't driven it too far yet, but my first reaction is that the extra horsepower is evident at the low speeds, and the transition from first to second and second to third is much smoother. You may have read complaints about the smart's lag when shifting, especially at low gears, but the new exhaust makes that far smoother. This leads me to think that a new exhaust option may be offered with the future cars. I haven't been able to tell a mpg difference yet, but I'll keep track.

So now the car has attitude and oomph. It sounds as good as it looks, and if you don't notice it, you might hear it and take notice. I'm very impressed with the quality of the product and the sound. It's expensive, but I think it will be worth it!