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It’s been quite some time since we’ve heard from Proton’s Race Rally Research division. The last that they had put their tuning touch on was Proton Waja MME and theProton GEN2 MME back in 2006. Because their first product was theProton Satria R3 based on the Satria GTI, many have been anxiouslywaiting for the R3-tuned version of the Satria Neo to debut. The waitis over, and the Proton Satria Neo R3 is here.
Read my test drive report after the jump.
Firstly it’s important to note that this is not the same ProtonSatria Neo R3 as the model buyers are going to receive. The car I drovewas the development unit and some specifications differ. For one, theNeo R3 will come with slotted front brake discs and Mintex M1144performance brake pads, but the car you see here had the stock brakediscs and brake pads fitted.
The wheels are also not the same - the test unit came with 17 inchEnkei alloys, but the production Satria Neo R3 will come with 17×7 inch wheels. The tyres are the right ones though - Bridgestone Potenza RE001 Adrenalin in 205/40R17 size, but even these were not in the best condition when Ipicked the car up. Nevertheless, the Adenalins are fantastic tyres andI am using them on my Proton Perdana.
The 1.6 liter Campro engine under the hood is the original Campro -no IAFM, no CPS, no VIM, no nothing. The only thing it has is R3’stouch - new 8mm spark plug cables, an R3 tuned exhaust system and an R3ECU with remapped settings. All of this boosts power up to 135horsepower at 6,100rpm and torque up to 164Nm at 4,200rpm, whichexceeds the usual normally aspirated 100Nm per liter of displacementratio, so that’s quite impressive. Or at least it all looks so on paper.
The torque dip of the original Campro it is based on is as prominentas ever, rearing its ugly head at you as you wait patiently for therevs to build up past 4,000rpm. Then the engine comes alive and verymuch in your face as with the power build up, the loud noise andvibration increases. Somewhere past the 5,500rpm range the engine notesuddenly changes without any warning - it’s really quite unacceptablyloud and there’s too much vibration while not delivering the kind ofpower you’d expect from such a racket. This plays down the 135 horsesabit - it’s there but your sense of sound overwhelms your body’sinternal “torque-o-meter”.
The Recaro SR4s perform well hug you and the front passenger, butbecause I am rather large my thighs did not feel very comfortable - Ithink the seats were too tight! A thinner person would feel very athome in these seats. The Momo Tuner steering wheel with the wheelspacer was fantastic - the spacer brought the steering wheel closer tome and I was able to sit in a better position for aggressive driving.Without the wheel spacer, the bottom of my wrist would not be able totouch the top of a stock Satria Neo steering wheel mounted on a stocksteering column. I was taught this driving position by the experiencedinstructors from the BMW Driver Training program and I find that itdoes really help you control the car better. The downside to this isthe indicator and wiper stalks are now way too far for practical usageand your fingers will not be able to reach them while your hands arestill on the steering wheel.
The shift knob is another matter. A study by a company which Icannot recall at this time showed that the best shape for a shift knobis one that has a pure ball-shaped top. Anyway I don’t need a studycommissioned to tell me that a ball-shaped knob would feel the best inone’s palm. The shift knob that R3 put in the Neo is a ball, but it hasa flat top. The flat top doesn’t feel too good when your palm isresting on it. The reason for the flat top is so that R3 could stick asticker on it… you get either an R3 logo or a 5-speed slot logo, it’sup to you. Anyway, the photo shown here is the gear knob that wasinstalled in the test unit, but this is a gear knob from the Waja MME and I think the actual gear knob is actually silver and slightly bigger in diameter.
The suspension is alot firmer than a stock Satria Neo’s but the ridewas still acceptable over the bad roads in Cheras. Even though the carhad lowered ride height, the undercarriage never scraped speed bumps.There’s no need to awkwardly cross speed bumps at a diagonal angleslowly and allow everyone queueing up behind you with this car. Thereis minimal body roll until you push the car with autocross-likemaneuvers and that is when the car begins to lean abit. As expectedfrom an FF car, it understeers under pressure, no surprises there. Butit was really sticky around corners, quite impressive for tyres thatare not in pristine conditions. Steering feel and feedback was decent,but the same cannot be said about throttle input which has a rathertypical Campro lag to it.
Pushing the car up to speeds of 140km/h to 160km/h was easy. Thecar’s rather minimal sound proofing combined with the loud engine andfirm suspension that feels rather unstable on our trademarkSamy-fied(tm) highways makes pushing this car to high speeds beyond the140 to 160km/h mark rather tiring. Acceleration went down, but noisewent up. Lots of fatigue. Hard to tell what was contributing to thenoise, but you can be sure the stiff Adrenalin tyres contributed to it.
Aesthetic dressing up includes the trademark Incognito Black paint,an R3 bodykit that consists of a a new front and rear bumper, sideskirts, and an R3 rear spoiler. The trademark red and white R3 stripesare also on the car, something which many Proton owners are copyingnow. In the engine bay, the R3-tuned Campro engine gets a red aluminiumcam valley cover, an aluminium oil cap, and an R3 brake master cylindercap. The 8mm spark plug cables mention before are also red in colour.On the inside, other than the Recaro SR4s done up in red and black, therear seats and door trim also gets red and black themed upholstery.Even the seat belts are red, and the floor mats are black with the R3logo on them. The 3 foot pedals were the standard Neo foot pedals, which came across as rather surprising to me.
Pedals remain standard - disappointing!
The Proton Satria Neo R3 definitely has the looks and a suspensionsetup that promises oodles of weekend fun, but the engine really leavessomething to be desired. R3 should definitely look at doing a secondrun of the Neo R3 if/when the Neo gets the Campro CPS engine. Withstock power levels of 125 horsepower, it should be possible to push theCPS engine to nearly 160 horsepower, with plenty of kick across thewhole rev range. Also, the car’s full “track-throughbredness” potentialcould not be sampled through this test unit because the brakes werestandard.
10 units of the RM71,000 hatchback have already been delivered toowners and the next batch of 10 have already been booked. That makes 20out of the 50 car limited run spoken for at the time of launch, andprobably more have been snapped up now. It is built from the mid-lineNeo, which means no airbags or ABS. The owner of the first ProtonSatria Neo R3 in Malaysia is Hidekazu Misawa, a Japanese expatriate inMalaysia. He says he was drawn to the car’s blend of performance andstyle and he will be bringing it back to Japan.
What the Satria Neo R3 is: a cheaper, more hardcore version of theSuzuki Swift Sport oozing Malaysia boleh-ness. 135 horsepower out of a1.6 liter with just ECU and exhaust adjustments while still remainingJPJ compliant is impressive. Unlike the old Satria R3, this time aroundthe Satria Neo R3 wasn’t marketed with data like Sepang lap times, sothis may have downplayed the excitement abit. It’s still a decent fundrive, but it’s very single-purposed. It’s the sort of car wherethere’s only one way to drive it - all the way up to the redline andnot anywhere else in the rev range, and around the bends rather thanstraights. The Neo R3 does well in what it’s supposed to do, but whileI can imagine the Swift Sport as a daily driver, not this.
For more enquiries or to place an order, call R3 at 012-2131691. |
