A custom smart fortwo is competing in the 2008 One Lap of America (formerly named the Cannonball Run). Stephen Noton and his employer GenieKnows.com are partnering to raise money for Make-A-Wish Atlantic Provinces through the One Lap of America to fund a 5 year old’s wish to meet Tony Stewart of NASCAR fame.

Britney is a spunky 5-year old from Bannon, New Brunswick. While recuperating from her heart transplant last year, Britney started watching the NASCAR races and cheered on Tony Stewart. Her room at home, decorated in orange, is a tribute to her favourite driver.

Stephen is driving a modified smart fortwo with after-market equipment ranging from BRABUS suspension to Parts & Prints Carbon Fiber body parts. More info on the event and Stephen’s fortwo can be found on the 451 smart fortwo website.

smart USA has sent an email to reservation holders as well as putting out a Press Release saying the first shipment of cars are here and ready to be delivered to smart dealers. The dealership network which will consist of 74 smart dealerships. By the end of January, 68 of the 74 dealers will be open and operational, subject to licensing and other required approvals. The remaining six smart dealers should be open by June 1st. A list of dealers can be found on the smart USA website.

Dealerships will be branded as “smart center” with the city name (for example – the dealership in Beverly Hills, California will be called - smart center Beverly Hills). Each smart center will have a distinctive smart look, various display and demonstration cars, and a tridion safety cell. For the true smart enthusiasts, vehicle accessories and personal merchandise will also be available for purchase.

There is a new video on YouTube showing Jay Leno’s reaction to the smart fortwo. Jay is very car savvy and has quite a collection of classic cars. His thoughts on the fortwo - “its an impressive little vehicle and its a lot of fun… and hey, it makes people smile.”

Dave Schembri, President of smart USA “introduced” the fortwo at a press conference in Washington, DC on December 5th. I’m not sure how this is an “introduction” but, hey, its marketing speak. Mr. Schembri described the benefits of the smart fortwo, including its great mileage, tridion safety cell, replaceable body panels and “wow factor”. Check out the YouTube video

smart USA knows they have a winner in the fortwo! The confident company recently invited many automotive press folks to Silicon Valley, California for a test drive. The reviews garnered by this PR event have been universally good to great. We live about 5 miles from Stanford University where the road-test was held. Wish we had known; this would have been a great opportunity for photos. I guess our blog does not qualify us as “press”

Winding Road Magazine has a YouTube video of their test drive around the San Francisco Bay area.

One annoyance with the fortwo was frequently mentioned: the automatic-manual transmission. One reviewer stated that it “takes practice to achieve anything approaching smooth shifts”. In automatic mode, you have to slightly relax the accelerator to get smooth shifts. If you don’t, there’s a pronounced lag, or delay, as you go from gear to gear. Several people noted that, once you get used to shifting with paddles on the steering wheel, the shifting experience improves dramatically.