In which we answer the question of what happens when you cross a Swedish customizer with a Smart car and the 1967 Eleanor Shelby GT500 Mustang from the film Gone in 60 Seconds
Only in Sweden
For those of you out there who thought Sweden was only home to quirky car brands such as Volvo and Saab, have we got news for you: A company by the name of Thalon, whose company tagline is “Thalon - for extraordinary people with extraordinary cars!” and is based just outside Sweden’s capital of Stockholm, has come up with what can best be called a “unique” customization of the smart car for those aficionados of the movie “Gone in 60 seconds” who can’t afford either the gas, the insurance, or the price of admission for a real “Eleanor” recreation.
smartinor
That’s right; all the way down to its lower-case “s” it really is called the smartinor. It seems that back in 2004, the company needed to come up with an infusion of cash to underwrite its other projects (a “Knight Rider” replica Trans Am called the “Night Raider” as well as “Ellinor” replica of the 1967 Eleanor Mustang GT 500 and the “Ellinor 05” car that incorporates the same visual clues on a 2005 Ford Mustang GT.
To help fund these ongoing projects, along with other gems such as “Batwheels” (a replica of the Batmobile from the 1989 Batman and 1992 Batman Returns films), Thalon needed to come up with a project car that would “bring some well-needed money into the organization.”
Since the Eleanor replica had just been completed and, at the time, there were some 3 million smart cars already on the streets and byways of Europe, the powers-that-be at Thalon put two and two together to come up with, voilà, the smartinor.
Here are the specs:
Make and year: smart -02
Engine: factory standard of 60 bHp
Construction year: -04
Construction time: 4 Months
Despite the fact that the concept has been around for at least six years, the Thalon web site gives no details regarding the price of admission for an actual smartinor conversion. A pity, ja?
images courtesy of Thalon
