Abandoned Brabus Rescue - Saved from Scrapyard and now road ready // Part 2
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- Опубликовано: 8 фев 2025
- Abandoned Brabus Rescue - Saved from Scrapyard and now road ready // Part 2. In this project car episode Jonny Smith continues the resurrection of a 2005 Smart Roadster Coupe Brabus that he'd seen in Trents salvage yard (www.trents.co.uk/) during filming a video on modern scrap yard operations. It was on death row for salvage, but in this video it receives a replacement convertible roof mechanism, new Bilstein suspension, vinyl wrap removal, and an MOT.
Thanks for stopping by The Late Brake Show.
This episode is sponsored by Texaco Techron fuel system cleaner. Techron helps remove the harmful carbon deposits in the injectors and carburettor that can damage critical engine parts, helping to restoring lost power, performance and fuel efficiency. Click this link to find out more and see where to purchase: www.texacolubr...
The car was worth saving, and Rob at S2 Smarts ( s2smarts.co.uk/ ) was the man to do it. Thanks to Trents www.trents.co.... for letting Jonny acquire and 'save' the Smart.
Thanks also to www.evilution.co.uk Smart Car forum and info portal
Watch part 1 here: • Abandoned Brabus Rescu...
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Filmed by Jonny Smith and www.ConceptMed...
Edited by: Michael Dougie Douglass
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Jonny Smith
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CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
#abandonedbrabus #cheapestbrabus #salvageyard #thelatebrakeshow #4k
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Happy Christmas, Late Brakers everywhere! Jonny has already unwrapped his Brabus.
Next week Jonny will be buying parts for his Buggy.
From Mothercare.
Rob has such a voice that I thought he's going to start singing like:
"I see garage of Smarts
full of For Two's,
I see them blew
for me and you"
Has to be related to Sean Dyche with a voice like that
And I say to myself; what a wonderful world!
Getting the MOT was the best Christmas present ever for Jonny!
It really was. And I 'unwrapped' it.
So good to see some love for the roadster. I know peole in Germany that have 6 each. I have my own of course, a coupe. They are surprisingly reliable. Most of their problems are purely electrical and linked to the SAM unit. They are pretty easy to fix too. The brabus is less remaped than its 60kw brother but you have a bit more headroom with fueling. The standard roadster with the 60kw engine can give 120bhp reliably. It can give up to 140bhp if you are ready to control the wastegate in open loop without using the MAP sensor which saturates at 1.55 bar (you have to deactivate limp mode for that). You can speed up the shift very easily by manipulating the ECU MEG1.1, and you can also change the programming of the gearbox (aka when it tries to shift on its own). It is surprisingly easy to do and definitely transforms the car. Contrary to popular belief, a well serviced engine is bulletproof. Mine has 190.000 km and doesn't need any oil between oil changes. You can get insane mileage with a proper remap. I tend to keep the original fueling but putting a lot more advance up until around 85% throttle and then give more fuel after that to go along with sustained 1.55 bar of turbo pressure for my daily driving map. Using that, I can go as low as 4.5L/100km when driving normaly, and get very surprising performance when I floor it. I adore this little rocket :)
Well done on preserving the Roadster! The new Smart design is a stark departure from the ingenuity and charm that defined the first two generations of the ForTwo (W450 and W451) and the Roadster (W452).
Having been part of the original Smart design team, it’s disheartening to see the brand drift so far from its original ideals, trading visionary concepts for uninspired, generic designs. Thankfully, dedicated mechanics like S2 Smarts are keeping these fantastic vehicles on the road, ensuring their legacy lives on for true enthusiasts.
Yeah I feel like we will never see cars like these in the future, so it makes me happy to see one rescued!
Shame you designed a car that leaked like a sieve they filled up with water even after modified seals,
As a Roadster owner and old client of Rob/S2 Smarts, I’m loving this. 😊
Been waiting for this episode to land.
Watching episode one resulted in a Brabus roadster now residing in my garage, I love it.
Such an underrated car, as soon as you drive one you find out what they are all about
You bought one? Oh wow!
@@TheLateBrakeShow I imagine there were thousands of us who watched the first video and thought "I need to get one of them for myself", most of us didn't get round to it but I bet you @robertpearson7270 wasn't the only one inspired to actually pick one up.
@ I have always wanted one and was lucky enough to try one out when they were launched but I couldn’t afford one. I’ve been saving for a fun second car for ages and having watched your first video I got the bug again and started to look and ended up buy the third car I went to see.
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world. Merry Christmas!
Lol, I am thinking about the same thing.
Haha! Louis Armstrong fitting Bilstein coilvers haha It's all I could think about
I was Thinking Barry White also...My first, my last, my Everything...My Brabus!
Smart is coming along nicely Jonny, I regularly use my Smarts for Long Distance Trips attending my Local Smart Family meets down in the North West of England from Edinburgh, can do 400 to 500 miles in a day and going forward for next year that's prob going to be a monthly occurrence for this little car. No doubt I will be servicing it twice a year. Have a cracking Xmas Jonny and here's a little something for the Smart Fund or a Xmas drink.
You are so kind, thank you v much! Glad you're enjoying the project.
Those coilovers are adorable.
While MANY of us subscribe to a variety of car RUclips channels, I bet a LOT of us enjoy a video about saving a cool quirky car from the crusher far more than, say, someone selling his "dream car" after a year and only 2000ish miles driven. Not that there's anything WRONG with that.
I hope Jonny can keep doing Jonny-things and stay happy and healthy. Merry Christmas to all 🎄
Really good to see a car that basically was in good condition saved from land fill.
Great to see you saving this car. We bought our roadster near new in 2003. It now has 325,000k's (Australian) on the original engine and clutch. And we finished installing new front shocks this morning! Next on the list are the engine mounts. Looking forward to the next ep.
So pleased to see the Brabus back on the road! S2 Smarts... what a remarkable place. Well done to everyone and thanks for the fascinating video. Have a good Christmas everyone!
Jonny you have no idea how excited I was to see this. I also have a one owner plus me roadster. Not a brabus but every available extra from factory (cd multi changer included 🤣). Thanks for saving this car and putting it in your channel. You are right to store her inside, they just don't work with water, part of the reason production stopped so quickly. Bring us more please 😁
Thank you for rescuing this, loving the updates. You're going to have so much fun with it.
Have a lovely break, see you in January for the S&S live hugs 💛
Jonny, I had that roof in my basket. Went back to continue payment and it was gone 😅. Just reconditioned mine in the end, fitting tomorrow!!!
Whoops. Sorry! !
Haha don't apologise just thought it funny, glad to see it coming together 😉!!! Love my Roadster.
I think it looks a thousand times better without the wrap. The only good thing to say about the wrap is that it really protected the paint. I think it looks amazing now in that silver colour. All the best, Jonny. Have a Merry Christmas and New Year. I'm already looking forward to more content from you in 2025, Jonny. 👍🙂
Thanks for watching. And the bodywork should be spruced nicely in the new year.
I know silver is boring and all, but when you showed the front half unwrapped I thought it looked great. The lines of the car are so nice and the silver really shows them off.
Hello Mr. Baker, no time no see. Good to see you're still playing around with smarts after all these years. Thanks Jonny et al for the progress update.
Happy Brabmus Jonny. The little car lives to see another Christmas!
Great video Jonny, I have always admired these little roadsters. Great to see the paint survived the wrap stripping. Lucky find on the roof mechanism 👍 looking forward to the evolution of this project 😎
It's great to see it saved, such a good looking car. 👍
For every oddball car saved, an angel gets its wings!
Great video, nice to see it has been saved from death. I worked for Smart for several years around this age of car and they had their flaws but were great little cars.
What a wonderful World ......... We live in to have cars like this !!!
Watching this, I thought to myself "I thought they had rear side windows?" and after peeling of the wrap, there they were!!!
I still like the FourTwo - a brilliant design for a city car. I was looking at the Roadster as a fun weekend car but ended up getting the MX-5 RF.
Off to watch Part 1 👍
Front end video ready yet good work so far well done that man
Great episode. Great to see this saved. Have a real soft spot for these little cars. Very underrated cars imho.
Hi Jonny, lovely to see the Roadster in its original colour with the wrap now removed.
Watching Rob remove and fit a new roof was just awesome, this fella has the patience of a Saint and some skill, I would not have tried to undertake this job myself, too complicated.
Merry Christmas to the Late Brake Show community
Really like the liberal use of copper grease on the suspension 🙂
Such a simple thing but a sign of a great mechanic.
Have to say I also liked the wrap, that colour really suite the car.
Ahh.. Good to see Rob back on the show.. The man is such a legend...🙏🏽
So great to see this video, and amazing work getting all this progress done! You're right, it clearly was a very well loved car.
I have managed to get one of my Roadster's, with a soft top, "water tight". It only leaks a few drops by the mirrors in sideways rain, but the roof is all fine. The Evilution guides and Mercedes leak repair guides helped a lot, as did the random bits of electrical tape that I used to extend the roof drains. It can be done, at least!
Love your videos Jonny! Being an expat now living in Western Australia, so many of your videos remind me of of my youth! Also, got to love that old rego number “Va Jay Jay” 😂😂
Thanks for the update, nice to see it coming along. I look at the car and think that would be great in orange and black😊
I bought a Brabus Exclusive Roadster with 1500 miles on it from my local Mercedes dealer. It was the personal car of the MD's wife, but she found it too low to get in and out. I loved it, especially as I got a big discount as they wanted to clear it from the showroom. The first set of tyres lasted 3,000 miles as I enjoyed driving it hard!
Love to watch these series because I bought the same Smart Roadster Brabus (even the same color) as a hobby car for my wife +- the same time as you published the first episode :) Look forward to see the whole restoration progress
👍🏽 Great to hear
I loved my brabus, i exported mine to Cyprus paphos some years ago when we lived there. At the time it was 1 of 2 in the island. I think I might have to get another!!
I think the colour of the rap was really nice also raps protect your paint an them springs were really bad I'd say it feels loved again👍Mary Christmas to all🥂🍻🥳🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪
Agreed. Nice colour.
Great episode, love this project. I really liked the wrap but can see the merit in keeping it original. As always, great to see you select and showcase some real talent, Rob seems like a standup guy and love how much of the actual engineering he understands behind these. I don't intend to ever own a Smart but it'd be going there if I did!
Loving the Roadster restoration.
As a longtime Smart owner myself, I wouldn’t trust my car within else, but S2 Smart!!
I love you videos, Felix from Zürich-Switzerland 🇨🇭
Many thanks ✊🏽🍺
Looks great Jonny. I was working for Mercedes when these were out, awesome little cars 👍
Hi Jonny . I'm convinced Rob would be a great Tommy Cooper imprestionist ..... not like that but like that 😂😂 Got to say you must have been chuffed with the progress ! There was a beautiful example parked in air b&b in Teignmouth a few weeks ago . Not too many would have appreciated how rare and desirable these pocket rockets are . Thankyou Jonny . Have a quiet and peaceful Christmas
The brabus looks soooo much better with the wrap taken off, Happy Christmas to you and all the family jonny
Rob's great. I get proper 'semi professional darts champion' energy.
As nice as that wrap looked it instantly looked better once removed. I love this car, very jealous. It'll look epic once the wheels are sorted.
I always loved the Smart Roadster, good to see this one saved. It is in the same vein as the Frog Eye Sprite, small lightweight and great fun.
Loving this new film on a Sunday winters evening. Thanks LBS team!
A god send of a video for a frantic Sunday! Well done Rob and the team excellent video and for helping me regain my sanity after being dragged round every shop in town Christmas shopping!
All the best 😎👏👍🏴
Got to say johnie I think that wrap has saved this car for sure and will only need a good detailing to be like new
Merry Christmas and hopefully it’s not to cold and wet for you 👍👍🇦🇺
Fair play to you Sir! Some would say that was a punt trying what you are doing, however i think a lot of people - especially the young uns watch this as a lesson in 'Bangernomics' You don't need to get chucky'd up to the eyeballs to have a cool, functional, reliable, fun ride!! Can't wait to see what else you do with it.
A friend bought a new one of these in 2004 and I was always greatly impressed by how well it went…far quicker than it had any right to. I recall a drum to the Goodwood Festival in 2005 and a fast epic dice with a Ferrari 308….that was faster on a straight but in bends, the Smart was away and gone! These cars need to be saved… a true collectors item very soon I hope!😃😃😃😃Happy New Year Jonny!!!
Merry Christmas Jonny! Such a service to mankind saving this great little car, wishing you miles of happy motoring in this sportster.
That's very impressive, Jonny. Great to see that replacement roof in and working. Colour's a personal preference and I thought that the Brabus had more presence with that wrap than with its original silver paint, but that's just me! Looking forward to Pt.3! Best wishes for 2025 to you and the team.
I love it man 🥰 Thanks for all the great videos this year Johnny, your the first channel I check when I open YT and I’m on the Patreon for S&S too. Hope next year is a belter for you 😊👍🏼
Many thanks for all your support Kev
Nice rescue Johny.
Great vid! Looking forward to seeing it in pukka condition with a big grin after a thrash down the backroads 😉
Love this - this is the kind of silly little car I'd love to have here in the US. Only two more years until they're legal!
Good point. It'll be ace to see some appearing in the US soon. Maybe I'll send mine to Tavarish
Very nifty, and im pleased you saved it jonny
I had a blue wave roadster with the engine upgrade kit... I absolutely loved it.... I sold it because of electrical gremlins...
I used to call it my 'halfa porsche'.......
Pint size Porsche!
@TheLateBrakeShow excellent... I still remember the day after I collected it my face hurt..... turns out it was from grinning the whole way home....
Have a great Christmas .. love the channel!
Une Brabus pour les barbus (a Brabus for the beardies)!
Oh. I liked that iridescent green metal colour. But having the original paint back is good too. Nice car for your collection.
love the project car videos. wonderful this has been saved. 🙌👍
I'm a smat car trained technician from back in the day and those roofs were so complicated. I always used to joke that if a smart car parked next to a puddle the puddle would end up inside the car as they were so prone to water ingress.
The Brabus is looking great Jonny, I’m really enjoying this project 👍
Liking what Jonny is doing here. So many great little fun cars of this type of age that with some TLC will become great fun again and become little workhorses or weekend toys.
I'm doing the same with an 07 Cooper. Runs a treat just a bit tatty, but nothing a few weekends in the spring and summer wont sort.
Excellent Jon Jonny 👍 I had a Roadster Coupé from new back in 2005 and absolutely loved it. Sadly age (and a bad back) resulted in me swapping it in 2012 for a Mini Cooper ❤️
Aww, the wrap was the best bit...
We can do another
What could be better, early morning cuppa and a new vid from TLBS. Love it
Good work with the little smart, always thought these looked good.
Love this little bradus Smart, nice to seeing it come back to life. I use the Techron products on my bikes i ride and restore, have to say, its good stuff
Really enjoyed that, and that's a really interesting little car
Glad you enjoyed it. I'm convinced these roadsters will continue to rise in value, because there aren't many rwd 65mpg sports cars that can be driven flat out on back roads.
Hey Jonny, awesome find/rescue for a worthwhile little fun car. All the best in ‘25 and Happy Christmas!
I always loved the Smart car, but the Brabus version was on my wishlist!
Ahh it looked wicked in that wrap colour
It was cool, but the wrap was tired.
Loving this revival!
Smart Roadster is my absolute dreamcar … I did some time ago own and daily drive a yellow&black Smart for Two “The Bumblebee” (not without some tech issues though 😏)- looking much forward to see your brabus roadster on the road again 👍🇩🇰
Great to see you working with Rob and the S2 team again, the car is coming along really well. I couldn't dry store mine so I had a half cover on when parked, that covered the roof and the front vents. A big storm when I was driving still killed the SAM unit though.
Good idea on the half cover. Sorry to hear the Sam got killed. Does anyone waterproof them?
"I will be storing tbis car indoors" .... "i have an empty shoebox in the airing cupboard" 😂 14:47
I love that green
Take it off, Jonny take it ALL OFF 👀😜🥹😛! Merry Christmas 🎉🎄👍✌️!
I miss my black 452 coupe. Most fun car to drive! So tight in the corners it's unreal. Nippy in low gears too
Back in the day I was in charge of the UK Smart prep centre in Bedfordshire. Water ingress was the main issue as the battery box under the floor would completely fill up! Lots of stories as you can imagine!
Have been considering getting a Brabus but not sure I could get out as I used to have to kneel on the floor twenty years ago when exiting!!
I had a drive in one. A true rocket powered roller skate. My wife asked "why does it Bra Bus on it?"😆
He should sing What a wonderful world!!
Well done for saving it. 👏 It's so refreshing to see people celebrating and saving thease " high milage heroes " rather watching thease overpriced trailer queens
These look amazing in black. Merry Christmas LBS and all.
Oh, how I hate to remove vinyl wraps! Hope you got away with the skin on your knuckles intact... Loving that you bring this (and the 2CV!) back - you are saving precious bits of automotive culture!
Thank you. There's a special feeling when you bring a car back from the brink.
looks great without the wrap, lovely car, worth saving.
Nice work should clean up good, looking forward to next episode 🤗
Always loved this Smart. The envy is strong over here
Everything 4 dugga-duggas tight. Love it. ❤️
Really wish I could get one in the states, but enjoying your journey with this one from Texas. Cheers!
They'll be appearing from 2028 !!
I’ve owned mine for the last 15 years. Everything has always been relatively easy to fix. The biggest problem was getting a new gear selector motor calibrated. Eventually, I found a local mapping company who kindly calibrated it. Just keep an eye out for water leaks and service regularly and you’ll be absolutely fine.
Another great episode Jonny, well done. What a great little project car. :)
I've been waiting for this one
Brilliant Jonny ! Always thought they were Great looking car , reminds me of a lotus europa.
Merry Christmas from Australia
My kids are in Oz for Christmas 🙏🏽🙃
@@TheLateBrakeShowI hope they’re not coming to Adelaide Jonny. It’s going to be 38 degrees on Christmas Day so they may melt.
The Brabus looks much better in its original silver colour and well done on the MOT. Merry Christmas to you and yours.
@@TheLateBrakeShow it might not be a white Christmas but I’m sure they’ll have a wonderful time! Anywhere really but Especially on the east coast there’s so many things to do. And our beaches are amazing.
Also, yourself and Mr Porter the SSG’s that you are, should write off a trip here through work expenses for a live gig. I bet some of us would beat the distance record travelled 😂
What a bonny little thing that is, hiding under the wrap; great stuff. Jonny- and everyone involved with the channel- Merry Christmas!
Looks so much better in silver! Especially with the "unwrapped" rear windows even if they are milky. They do polish up quite nicely - takes some effort though.