Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 12 November 2008. A1 Team Malaysia warmly welcomes the announcement that the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport will be racing at Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast, Australia next season. A temporary street circuit in the centre of the city will host the A1GP series, a track which has been used for motor racing events for the past 18 years. This long history of racing in Surfers Paradise has resulted in the venue being recognised as the jewel in the crown of Australian motorsport.

The event, which will be held from 22-25 October 2009 is a particularly important addition to the A1GP calendar for the Malaysian team. Australia is one of the key commercial markets for the two main commercial partners of A1 Team Malaysia namely Proton and Tourism Malaysia. Proton has a significant presence in the country with buoyant sales of the company’s vehicle range, while Australia is one of Malaysia’s most important tourism markets, with over 320,000 visitors arriving from the continent each year.

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Lamborghini recently donated a ‘coped-out’ version of its Gallardo 560-4 to the Lazio Highway Police Department. It’s all very kind of them really and the 30 coppers lucky enough to get in the cockpit nevermind drive this thing surely wouldn’t be looking for Fiat 500’s and Panda’s to pull over, they’ll be looking for the bigger fish. Maybe the Scuderia’s from Maranello, or the Zonda’s, or even it’s own Sant’Agata siblings, but whatever the case is, it’ll suck to have its lights flashing in your rear view mirror. It’s one thing looking at pictures of it, but another thing actually hearing it. Now is a good time to thank god that our local Police only use lousy Protons, well most of them anyway, we dread the day we see them in one of this.

Source: CarScoop

This photo was captured by Ben Terret, a London based graphic designer. He saw this Fiat Doblo and while at first glance it just looks like a van with ads on it, it is in fact a van covered in angst. The sides and rear spell out a laundry list of complaints the owner has with it: “This FIAT is very unreliable, 2 new clutches, 2 new flywheels, 2 new master cylinders, 2 new servos, Since new, Nothing but aggro.”

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BRUNEI, 10 October 2008 – PROTON launched its latest model, the SAGA, in Brunei today, as part of its overall product portfolio renewal initiative for the region.

The SAGA was launched by YM Pengiran Hajah Mariana binti Pengiran Dipa Negara Laila Diraja Pengiran Hj. Abdul Momin, Deputy Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources.

The award-winning SAGA, PROTON’s sixth fully built model was first launched in Malaysia in January 2008. To-date a total of 81,825 bookings has been received, of which 43,023 have been delivered.

The SAGA has been one of PROTON’s key sales drivers in Malaysia next to the Persona. In Brunei, it too follows the successful launch of the Persona in April and is expected to perform well, further strengthening PROTON’s market share in the country. Read more

Malaysian automaker, PROTON Holdings Berhad today launched the Persona CNG in Thailand, its fourth Proton model in the country, and its first commercial vehicle fitted with compressed natural gas.

The brand new Persona CNG was unveiled before guests comprising PROTON Thailand dealers and members of the media. Also present was the Deputy Chief of Mission of the Malaysian Embassy in Thailand, Tuan Syed Mohamad Bakri Syed Abdul Rahman as well as Phra Nakorn Automobile Group president and owner Mr. Bantherng Jungsanguanpornsuk. Phra Nakorn is PROTON’s sole distributor in Thailand.

Speaking at the launching ceremony, PROTON’s Managing Director Dato’ Haji Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir said: “PROTON is encouraged by Thailand’s auto market growth and potential. We made our debut here last year and the reception was better than expected and we hope that this is a sign of better things to come. Phra Nakorn has proven itself to be an invaluable partner for us and we believe this relationship will grow from strength to strength.” Read more

KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 4 2008): After 10 intense rounds, veteran driver Faidzil Alang and his protégé Syafiq Ali have two races to decide the inaugural winner of the Asian Touring Car 1500 Max Series.

The showdown between the two Team Proton Axle drivers will take place at Chengdu Goldenport Circuit, China, this weekend with just eight points separating them at the top of the standings. Faidzil leads with 115 points after an exciting match-up in Thailand last month gave him the edge. Read more

This is interesting, the 100 ugliest cars ever, a vote conducted by UKs Daily Telegraph landed some pretty shocking results. Seriously, I was suprised at what I found in the list, Porsche, BMW, VW, Rolls Royce, Aston Martin, Lamborghini, Perodua, even the Evo X found a spot in the list. The list is too large to feature here but the link below will take you right there. One of our “national pride and joy” made it to the list, I guess Proton should take that as a compliment but I know one car that should be on the list: the Proton Juara. What else should be on the list? How about the first generation Saga? Read more

So it continues, the Type R amazed some us here at Zerotohundred.com but it left the rest all wound up over whether or not it’s worth all that hype and money. Throughout the entire week we had it, there were numerous arguments and convincing sessions but none got settled. Something had to be done, such a hot topic could not be left undone, a neutral figure would have to be brought in. Read more

This got us baffled, a report at MySinChew indicated that a fleet management company, Spanco, has signed a deal in June of this year to supply the government with 2,500 Proton Waja’s and 10 Mitsubishi Evolution’s. Why would they ever need such cars is beyond us, maybe they finally decided to sponsor Karamjit Singh, which we highly doubt so, or maybe the bad guys are getting away much easier these days, hence the raise in crime rates. Read more

We’ve been doing quite a bit of running around Asia this year, from Japan for the Tokyo Auto Salon to Thailand for the Bangkok Motor Show, Singapore for the Formula Drift, and just last week, Jakarta for the Indonesia International Motorshow (IIMS). Read more