smart times 13 - Switzerland

23 to 25 August 2013 

Buochs, on Lake Lucerne, Switzerland

PROGRAMME:

Camping: This year camping will be available from 16 to 26 August. As camping is free of charge please 

understand that each participant can only book one camping space. Please use the registration form to

register. 

Opening party: We will kick off the first evening as usual with a big opening party. After welcoming the 

nations and welcoming the clubs we will celebrate the 10th birthday of the smart roadster together. 

smart parade: Then on Saturday things will really get going with the heart of the smart times event, the

smart parade. The route will take us through four parishes and two cantons – let’s beat the record number of

cars set in Antwerp! 

Test: Get behind the wheel of the smart fortwo electric drive or hop on the saddle of the smart ebike. 

For more details click here.

Mechanical engineering students building micro car

BANGALORE: Mechanical engineering students of the Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology here have designed what they claim is the world's smallest car and are close to completing a prototype. Their KAPPA-47 is a four-wheeled micro car, with a wheelbase of 47 inches, less than the 50-inch wheelbase of the Peel P50 micro car which is widely acknowledged as the smallest car to be mass produced.

A team headed by Prof. Kiran Aithal S comprises final-year students -- Anjum Naveed, Aymaan Ataaz, Prajwal K L and Sachin Pinto. The students had put 14 hours a day for two months on their project in a Malleswaram garage. "We are building a very economical car and it has features like a reverse gear and a rear-end engine which aren't included in the Peel P-50," said Aymaan.

View source.

How Mercedes Turned Pigeon Poop Into Respect for Its Smart Car

By Bob Lord

What’s a brand to do when it literally becomes the butt of a joke about pigeon poop?
That was the problem faced by Smart USA, which takes a lot of ribbing for its small, eco-friendly vehicles. When one Twitter user joked that a bit of pigeon excrement had totaled a smart car, some number crunching led to the calculation that it would actually take 4.5 million pigeon “craps” to do in the Tridion Safety Cell, which provides the main structure of the car. When an infographic with this research was tweeted, everyone from Buzzfeed to Mashable picked up the story. It even hit the top spot on Reddit twice in a 24-hour span. Almost overnight, this “Humor the Haters” social media campaign turned negative comments about the Smart USA (DAI) brand into respect.

Besides being funny and quick, the “poop tweet” was the kind of real-time response that big companies, with their many layers of approval, haven’t been good at. It was made possible by another skill that enterprises haven’t historically mastered: strong collaboration between tech and marketing. Because Smart’s social media and tech teams sit together, the right messaging was rapidly developed and the right infrastructure was put in place to support all the sudden attention. Thus the traffic resulting from an unpredicted 333 percent spike in searches on “tridion safety” didn’t crash the site.

Read full story here.

Microcar Meet will draw quirky, tiny vehicles to Forest Grove this weekend

Mark Hatten, center, sits in his Messerschmitt microcar at the 2012 Great Pacific Northwest Microcar/Minicar Extravaganza. The Messerschmitt is one of two iconic microcar models.


What: 2013 Great Pacific Northwest Microcar Extravaganza
When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, June 16
Where: McMenamins Grand Lodge, 3505 Pacific Ave, Forest Grove, Oregon

For information including registration to participate in Friday and Saturday pre-show events with your car, visit mphspecialties.com or call Mark Hatten at 503-331-7132.

Read more here.