Although the Sepang International Circuit was the venue for the Proton Green Mobility Challenge (PGMC) last weekend, Proton’s R3 motorsport division had fielded something that is far from being green in the first place. Making its first public appearance was the newly-prepped, stripped down Proton Preve race car.
Originally intended to give some thrilling taxi rides around the circuit to the VIPs at the PGMC, the R3 team also used the chance to push the Preve race car in gaining some development mileage before facing its first competition at the punishing Sepang 1000km endurance race later in December this year.
Under this Preve’s hood lies the identical 1.6-liter IAFM race-tuned power plant as the ones in the Satria Neo race cars. But even with stripping out the unnecessary items off the car, the Preve race car is said to have a heavier weight than the Satria Neo. Even so, initial testing done showed that the times recorded by the Preve race car are actually pretty close to the ones done by the Satria Neo.
While still in the topic of the Satria Neo, R3 had also revealed that production for the popular hatchback will soon resume in “the coming months”, bearing some new updates and also a new R3-variant for it coming soon after. And to those that are looking forward for a more powerful Satria Neo powered by Proton’s new turbocharged CFE engine, such plans are put off the table for the time being due to homologation requirements and costs.
Source, Picture Credits : http://www.cbt.com.my/
