Proton Satria R3 Lotus Racing Edition

[YellowFlash]

urmm.. the appeal is lowly fading frm me.
dun get me wrong, the concept is superb!

but..

R&D takes abt 3 weeks, minus that off-the-shelf R3 bumper n stuff.
6oK (?) worth of performance parts fitted (i reckon most of that came frm that front brake setup & them ohlins)
god knows how many man hours used in the process..
145bhp (ini atw ka apa?)

and lastly, RM115K.

fer that price, i'd gladly take something cheaper fer the suspension upgrade, better pads & braided lines fer brake upgrades fer 20bhp more ..

i couldn't agree more, its definitely a commendable attempt by proton but if felt kinda like a rush work. If they are going to put something out that cost almost double the price of a normal satria neo, it should come with a more complete set up.

In my opinion, i think both the 4 Pot AP brakes and the Ohlins are overkill for a street car that has only 145hp.

Firstly they could have gotten a cheaper alternative like maybe a Wilwood 4pot or a GAB/Tanabe/Tein Suspension and spend the extra money on a more complete set up like having at least decent bucket seats.

Secondly, if they have alrdy used high end stuff like AP Racing brakes, Ohlins coilovers, they could have matched with a more branded rim like volks racing/advan etc and also match with recaro/bride seats and give at least decent 180-200hp. Off course the price would be probably much higher though but with only a limited 25 units, it could be justifiable.

Overall, i feel that more time and effort should have been spent..

Just my humble opinion, don't flame me :)

 

[Vox]

Guys, i know some of you might be thinking i was a big fan of PROTON or some hate ass to other brands.

For me, why i think rm115k worth this car? Because by using a common sense. I don't think rm115k can buy a limited edition car tuned by LOTUS, and also bearing lotus name all over the car. Ya, some people might think " WTF IS LOTUS ? IT IS STILL PROTON CAR".
Ya it is proton car, but almost full lotus and r3 tuning. What is LOTUS? Don't joke guys, lotus is one of the "supercar" category.

Let me remind you, rm115k can buy lancer gt 2.0 or civic. But it is limited? and don't tell me the power is very fast or what shit because i dont think so comparing to this 1.6 145hp car. Dont mean to bash some of the brands.

And ya, some of you might think that rm115k can get a very very powerful 2nd hand car. But think again, dont ever compare your 10 years old over metal car with a newly born baby metal quality.

Second hand car will always be second hand car, especially sports car, even worst i can guarantee.
You buy that 10 years old ++ car come back and spend rm50k to fix it and takut everyday anytime anywhere you might have facing technical problems while you are fetching your girlfriend to shopping. " IMAGINE THAT "

Lastly, I can 100% GUARANTEE AND CONFIDENTLY SAYS THAT :
" If the quality of this car never change, still 100% same but just changes on the "LOGO" of the brand to TOYO-TRA or HON-DRA" , you guys might be saying : WAH THIS CAR LIMITED EDITION VERY WORTH WO!!!!!!

Remind you again, i said " quality of this car never change, only the name of the brand changed "

 

[deacon]

The car isn't made by Lotus or use any parts from Lotus. It just bears the name Lotus for marketing purposes i.e. as in special edition to commemorate the Lotus F1 team.

Sure the Lotus R3 Neo is made brand new but i suspect build quality, after all it is a Proton.

But it still is special so long as ONLY 25 get made from now until forever. And the parts on the Neos are quite spectacular. Still not worthy.

 

[Shinjite]

Proton hinted that if sales are good (which definitely will) they might increase the quantity which makes it not exclusive anymore in the future

And of course, this car focuses more on handling than raw power. So for this setup, the handling outweights the engine performance more already. They should have just upgrade the rear disc to 2 pots instead of leaving it stock solid disc with single caliper which doesn't look right in a way.

Oh yeah the 145HP is on engine, so on wheels around 116 WHP. I think definitely can go faster than the brochure's 9.2 second sprint time

 

[deacon]

It is kind of odd that it would only do a claimed 9.2 seconds, when the original 4g93 GTI was posting 7.8 seconds brand new (Before the Siemens ECU). The weight is relatively the same. In fact the horsepower is more in the Lotus R3 Neo... weird.

 

[black_ice]

meaningful....

Guys, i know some of you might be thinking i was a big fan of PROTON or some hate ass to other brands.

For me, why i think rm115k worth this car? Because by using a common sense. I don't think rm115k can buy a limited edition car tuned by LOTUS, and also bearing lotus name all over the car. Ya, some people might think " WTF IS LOTUS ? IT IS STILL PROTON CAR".
Ya it is proton car, but almost full lotus and r3 tuning. What is LOTUS? Don't joke guys, lotus is one of the "supercar" category.

Let me remind you, rm115k can buy lancer gt 2.0 or civic. But it is limited? and don't tell me the power is very fast or what shit because i dont think so comparing to this 1.6 145hp car. Dont mean to bash some of the brands.

And ya, some of you might think that rm115k can get a very very powerful 2nd hand car. But think again, dont ever compare your 10 years old over metal car with a newly born baby metal quality.

Second hand car will always be second hand car, especially sports car, even worst i can guarantee.
You buy that 10 years old ++ car come back and spend rm50k to fix it and takut everyday anytime anywhere you might have facing technical problems while you are fetching your girlfriend to shopping. " IMAGINE THAT "

Lastly, I can 100% GUARANTEE AND CONFIDENTLY SAYS THAT :
" If the quality of this car never change, still 100% same but just changes on the "LOGO" of the brand to TOYO-TRA or HON-DRA" , you guys might be saying : WAH THIS CAR LIMITED EDITION VERY WORTH WO!!!!!!

Remind you again, i said " quality of this car never change, only the name of the brand changed "

 

[Trinityblood]

Some how a lot ppl thing price is high and very expensive coz it still carry proton brand on it, no lotus goodies on it(means local part) or still Malaysian ppl frm R3 division work out the tuning.If we`ll had rm115k today and walk around the thousand car showroom out there most of us defenitly going for honda,subaru,mitsu or swift,well its our choice since this is or motorsport market.But when proton came out this model "satria neo lotus racing edition" which is made it shah alam or malaysia to be exact they actually offering sumting speacial to the buyer which is this car build only 25 unit according to them for the time being,by means who ever own it will proud. Either the buyer from middle income class or super rich customer will had big smile on their face when drove it across m`sia would i?(if i can afford it la). From what i understand up to this point is,proton actually targeting a small group of ppl to bought it which is in economic class i learn called nitch market. Well some ppl might be tought proton is carzy or out of thier mind to come out proton car with very expensive price and yet some of us dont even thing twice to own it like my fren does..he went to MV Agusta brutal naked bike instead of going for Ducati or honda (which i thing fair match).When i came and ask him why choose that bike he replied me "Setakat nie ada 3 biji je kat malaysia,i org pertama pakai"
My point is simple there is some of us wana feel to had sumting that other ppl dont even they had money.This is the proton had in thier mind when they came produce this so called SATRIA NEO LOTUS RACING EDITION.

Juz my 2 cents.

 

[jinkl]

huhuhhu
it would be scary buy one
i bet this will be the next top stolen car like the gti's

 

[teo1957]

huhuhhu
it would be scary buy one
i bet this will be the next top stolen car like the gti's

It will be realllllly scary.

But I would like to think that those lucky 25 owners can afford valet parking, unlike thousands of GTI owners?

 

[JINEIL2EN]

for the outlook, so styling & so nice.. for the handling tuning & brake tuning, almost perfect(who the hell said must have crazy power to match the brake or suspension..?? sohai...) with the Lotus name on it... limited edition somemore... a great car indeed...

but, rm115k, really a high price for most of ppl here & out there, some says it really worthy to buy & wit billion of reason why this & that, mayb they r die hard satria fans or just simply blind patriot...
for those who still need to pay installment for their ride that below rm115k, of cos its TOO EXPENSIVE & NOT EVEN WORTHY TO THINK TWICE... for this Lotus edition... why, u got ur own answer in mind dy, no need to ask again..

this car good or not, dun just compare with brand, but wit technology or Tuning matters...
but i really disappointing with the power output coz its really "funny" when such nice car with small ball...but nvm, i can just 'tunggang lembu, cari kuda'... not askin for more if now day not year 2010, but year 1990... its way too out of trend la... shit... some of the sohai keep arguing in PT blog there, without any point, just a side who keep wake them up & a side with their patriotism, without knowledge of most of the brand & the car they has been compared with...

i dun mind to hav 1 of this Lotus edition, just if i got extra money to spend...
mayb with swap the engine to Evo's 4G63 to match the status...

Lotus tuned this car..?? dun kidding me la... hahahahahhaaa....

but i dun mind to have 1....

 

[Enslaved]

It is a good effort and mind you, the Neo has a very good chassis even from the factory. And supposedly, the chassis is strong enough to take a 2.0l power plant, what more only a 145hp 1.6l one. From day one, R3/Lotus has been more on chassis/lightweight tuning (just look at all the Lotus cars out there), which means a relatively modest output is more than sufficient to propel the car to super car times. No point having 5.0l engine with a heavy body, waste fuel and bad for the environment. Cheers all. On that note, i think this car is worth owning but i myself cannot afford it, yet.

 

[Trinityblood]

Again,proton not targeting ppl who had low income like me to get the car pay installment leh,its limited and fitted with some fantastic goodies.For some buyer of this car they already had Bmeer,merc,or audi la wei but no harm for new bie to hav it as long as they can efford it.Its juz becoz PROTON badge on it that is why ppl feel so sick of it..Its clearly mention this car tune by R3 division,means lacal la no lotus ppl involve beb,only the handling and the chasis part their give idea.Like the thousand gti out there its far better then some similar level of import car.Well honda does this a year ago when the offer mugen rr version which is RM300K++,where by the FD2R only RM198K..so RM100k extra if you`ll had and start modded it would be more then 250whp or war far more power and goodies. Yet there is a ppl love it but less condem it,since it imported car.I dun like all proton car model but when they do sumting good i compliment them aswell.

 

[JINEIL2EN]

yup, lotsa ppl not really know the back of the rm115k... when some1 in this forum trying to compare some Jap made rm5k abs with the Ohlins 1... wat the fuck & another guy dun even know wat is AP Racing, as for him, AP Racing just a "Not Well Known" brand out there...

if base on the rm115k, the bare NEO CPS is rm60k as the statement has been made by 1 of the forumer as below, 60k for the car, the Ohlins DFV r quoted atleast rm16k for McPherson strut type, AP Racing 4 pot with floating rotor atleast cost bout rm8k coz its just a street use model, not the real racing or formula series, that i would more prefer Pro5000++ series, other than that, i'm not sure bout the Titanium header, so just put a side, how bout add another full exterior kits, without Fiber fender & carbon hood, most of u oredy know that the genuine R3 kits can cost u how much, so the fender will cost atleast rm1k & the wet carbon hood can cost bout rm1.2k(if u dunno how mush is the cost of material, just shut the mouth up) plus the rm300 per pair of the carbon pillar garnish, full stainless steel ekzos system, simply rm1.4k while the uderdrive pulley, atleast rm600. here we come to the cam, if just regrind cam, rm1k shld b ok, but if the special made cam by R3, atleast cost ur rm2.2k & with R3 ECU with tuning, rm3k(minimum)... the cam pulley oso cost bout rm800 per pair from R3 as well... just simply a few things, just add it up & see how much u shld pay if buy a CPS & try to follow the spec of the Lotus 1...
the Advanti wheel shld cost at rm2.3k i guess, so with RE001 rubber, estimated rm3.3k...
Interior wise, Nappa leather, most of ppl know the leather only for S-Class & above in Merc right.. hahhaa, how much will it cost if re-wrapped the seat?? bout rm4k for front & rear seat...
almost forgot the Hard Bush kits, mostly will quoted at rm1.2k for whole car... so, just add it up & get the almost rm115k for this Lotus Neo...
so, with the price tag of 115k, & own a limited & road legal race car alike(the outlook) is worthy for me... atleast i dun scared JPJ will kacau me when look at my Carbon Hoods...

just hope they will have Stage-2 or 3 engine tuned up plan for this car la... just hope so...

AIYAAA...TOO MUCH EXPENSIVE FOR A LOCAL CAR.... RM115K..? ONLY WITH THOSE PARTS THAT NOT WELL KNOWN...?? LIKE THE AP Racing brake caliper....AND ENGINE FINE TUNE TO 145HP ONLY MAA...COME ON PROTON....

AP racing brakes, Ohlin coilovers, advanti rims, 145PS and 115k RM doesn't rhythm..

i believe they could have spent more time on R&D and slap on a turbo to make it 220hp on a AWD system that they used for their rally and then include all the bombastic brands for their parts.
Seems like they are trying to keep price down but want to add super expensive parts.

Anyway from my point of view, a brand new neo cps only cost 60k, we can spend 20k to do a custom turbo set up and bring its output up to 220hp(with reliability). spend another 5k on average branded BBK, 5k on avg japanese coilovers, 5k on japanese rims, 5k on exterior bodykit, cf bonnet etc and probably another 8k on bucket seats.

total cost = 60+20+5+5+5+5+8= 108k
this is just a estimated figure and i believe proton has the expertise and better economy of scale than a ordinary car enthusiast and this figure could be further much reduced. So probably they are trying to earn a huge chunk out of their current limited edition.

just my 2 cents...don't flame me :)

 

[HKS-GT2835R]

Congrats R3.

Now what I wish R3 could have done, is to make one stooopidly outrageous Neo. Just one, just for fun. Like the Golf GTI made by VW with the W12 Bentley engine. Fearsome one that.
.

vw can pick from quite a longe range of hi-performance engines.
the most powerful proton engine, to date, is the perdana's.. you dun wan that in a neo.

 

[teo1957]

vw can pick from quite a longe range of hi-performance engines.
the most powerful proton engine, to date, is the perdana's.. you dun wan that in a neo.

Well... the Lotus Evora can have an unker-Camry engine init. A tuned one at that. Good for 280ps NA. Not too shabby at all.

And that's not just for one funky showcar. That's for e-v-e-r-y Evoras out there.

Why can't R3 just shove a tuned 6A12 at the back of the seats, just for kicks? Or maybe a S2000-spec Campro?