Dan Trent: If you want a Smart with the real Brabus touch you need to look backwards

Now, Brabus has long-enjoyed a partnership with Smart and I've written previously about my love for the Roadster based on the previous generation ForTwo. It may seem an odd partnership, given Brabus's bread and butter is monstrously tuned Mercedes with 900hp V12s, decadently trimmed interiors and a general catering to those with more money than sense. Business is good too, it seems.

Bringing the cachet of a designer label performance brand like Brabus to a city car like the Smart works well for both parties too – for regular folk it's the closest you'll get to owning a Brabus this side of a Euromillions win while for the moneyed types with a fleet of widebody G-Classes it offers a face-saving way to drive a city runabout without anyone thinking you're a cheapskate.

This new Brabus ForFour is an amusing package for sure. But 109hp/107bhp from a turbocharged 900cc three-cylinder engine isn't really that impressive, no matter how good it looks on Brabus wheels and with the option of a custom leather interior. Especially when you consider the last time there was a Brabus ForFour it was a properly spicy hot hatch, packing 177hp/175bhp and weighing a little over a tonne. OK, so it was more conventional and drove the front wheels rather than the rear. But, let's face it, that's a formula that's worked in the past.

I'm probably among the few people who even remember the car exists. Howmanyleft.co.uk lists just 245 left on British roads, meaning it's a proper rarity. Does it deserve to be forgotten though, given Smart's first attempt to build a four-seater didn't really set the world alight?

Another collaboration – this time with Mitsubishi – the ForFour was based on the Colt of the time. Unlike the current ForFour and Twingo the two cars actually looked sufficiently different you wouldn't think they were separated at birth, the ForFour getting a take on Smart's distinctive two-tone steel/composite bodywork. 177hp/175bhp from a turbocharged 1.5-litre four-cylinder engine and a kerbweight just over a tonne make it much faster than the new one too – 0-62 in 6.9 seconds against a wheezy 10.8 in the 'new and improved' car.

I remember driving one when they were new and thinking it was encouragingly uncouth; stiff, torque-steery, boosty and entertainingly rapid. Not especially polished dynamically then. But excitingly raw and full of character.

The beaky front end styling is a bit weak but, overall, it's a handsome and distinctive looking car as well and sufficiently different from anything else on the market to stand out. Given that rarity they're not easy to find in the classifieds though, there being just one in the PistonHeads listings at the time of writing. I'm not sure I like the black painted Brabus Monoblock wheels but beggars can't be choosers and it's a refurb away from the polished look of the stock items. Unlike the new Brabus ForFour it's a properly fast car and one that lives up to the badge; OK, it's more conventional and less quirky but if I were looking for a hot hatch with a difference and a hint of the exotic no rival could compete with this would be very high on my list indeed.