There’s a simple prescription to transform any motor vehicle into a winter-annihilating weapon: Add treads. Whether it’s an M1A1 Abrams main battle tank, a Frankensteinian Lada, or a Nissan Rogue outfitted with snow-cat claws, treads give vehicles the ability to shrug off ice and snow in ways not even Jeeps in TV commercials can match. And on top of that, they make any vehicle look significantly more badass. Even a Smart car.
According to CTV, Ottawa-area mechanic Tod Anderson, who operates a European auto repair shop just south of the Canadian capital, didn’t have a particularly good reason for replacing the wheels of his 2006 Smart fortwo diesel with skis and treads. “It’s just a thought that came to me and it seemed like the right thing to do,” he tells the TV channel.
But the end result is undeniably cool. The aft tracks are made for an ATV, Anderson says, while he had to design and build the skis himself. He guesstimates the whole endeavor took about a month and a half of work, and cost around $7,000 CAD, roughly $5,300 in actual money.
Anderson says the Smart tops out around 40 miles an hour, which probably feels like Mach 1 when you’re blasting between maples in a snowy forest. And that’s pretty much the only place he can drive it, unfortunately: Canadian laws prohibit him from driving it on the road or snowmobile trails, while Canadian manners prevent him from saying “screw it” and doing it anyway. So Anderson’s Smart car snow machine is a private property plaything, at least for now.
Still, Mr. Anderson, if you happen to be reading this: We have an enormous empty lot and at least half a dozen car2go Smarts behind our offices right this very minute. You bring the conversion kit, we’ll bring the snow.
