When the prototype was unveiled at the Geneva Show in 2001, few may have imagined that it would make its way onto the roads in just over a year. In the event, the Smart Crossblade, a little two-seater with no windscreen, doors or roof aroused such enthusiasm that the MCC management was encouraged to take the calculated risk of a numbered, limited edition. The launch of the new Smart model in July offers further evidence of the playful style and flexible thinking adopted by Hartmut Sinkwitz, Smart director of design: “Life is earnest enough already”, he says, “and the Smart brand offers an ideal platform for experiment”.<\/p>\n
Designed by Federico Fachini, the exterior bears all the signs of a free-wheeling approach and everything on the Crossblade promises plenty of fun and excitement for the happy few who can afford to indulge in what is essentially a caprice.<\/p>\n
Once you get behind the wheel, the Crossblade feels very like a motorbike: in front of you a touch of windscreen that’s more like a visor; over-head there is nothing at all so as on a motorbike, if it rains, you just have to run for cover, the wheelarches are carved out of the wings.<\/p>\n
The look of the interior was heavily influenced by the need to make all trim components and materials weather proof, which means waterproofed of dashboard and seat coverings, a floorpan with one-piece plastic cladding and four run-off channels to prevent water accumulating in the event of a sudden shower.<\/p>\n
The article continues in Auto & Design no. 135<\/strong><\/small><\/p>\n<\/div>[images picture_size=”fixed” hover_type=”none” autoplay=”no” columns=”5″ column_spacing=”13″ scroll_items=”” show_nav=”yes” mouse_scroll=”no” border=”yes” lightbox=”yes” class=”” id=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/2108200201_Smart_Crossblade-300×192.jpg” alt=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/2108200202_Smart_Crossblade-300×216.jpg” alt=””][\/images]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [images picture_size=”fixed” hover_type=”none” autoplay=”no” columns=”5″ column_spacing=”13″ scroll_items=”” show_nav=”yes” mouse_scroll=”no” border=”yes” lightbox=”yes” class=”” id=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/2108200201_Smart_Crossblade-300×192.jpg” alt=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/2108200202_Smart_Crossblade-300×216.jpg” alt=””][\/images]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","category-concept-en"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-09 15:39:53","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2469\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}