Obviously some tweaks made to the smartcar, but not too much I'd say, it was still a lot slower than a Tesla.
There's a Tesla dealership here on Santa Monica Blvd just around the block from my office, might be one of the first since it's been there for a couple years now and before the company went public.
I see those things zipping around my office all the time on test drives, they're really really fast, accelerate like a bullet, and most amazingly quieter than your average electric golf cart. They have an impressive traction control system in them so you can literally punch it as fast as possible off a light without making the tires chirp (I assume it's a toggleable feature/system, but I've never seen them with it deactivated, and honestly for the first time I agree with that limitation in a car, as if you can go from 0-45mph in less than two seconds without "excessive exhibition of speed" anyways, why disable it to rack up tickets when you're already the fastest legally accelerating thing on the road anyways?). And with the lack of slipping rubber and a high-reved combustion engine, they're cars that literally are there one second and gone the next and within the blink of an eye, especially if you're not paying attention.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSFehyN8X7whttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0mU6DIZWlQ
