Proton Satria Neo R3 Lotus Racing
A hundred and fifteen thousand Ringgit. That is a hell of a lot of money for a Proton, less so of one that is very closely related to a base model that could be had for just a touch more than a third of that amount.
Nevertheless, this is not a new practice among manufacturers, as Mercedes-Benz has time and again demonstrated that it can sell an uber-model alongside a regular one on which it is clearly based on - the most extreme case yet being the £250,000 SL65 AMG Black Series next to the relatively humble £61,870 SL300. But then again, Proton is not Mercedes, nor can it hope to be on a level playing field with the luxury car giant.
Moving on, a special mention has to be given to the ridiculously long name - Proton Satria Neo R3 Lotus Racing Edition, rivalling the legendary Renault Mégane Renaultsport 230 F1 Team R26. Almost, but not quite.
Incidentally, or perhaps not, both cars are undeniably marketing exercises to cash in on their involvement in Formula One. As blatant as it was though, the R26 did at least manage to live up to its F1 racer namesake; we at Autocar ASEAN crowned it as our 2009 Car of the Year. Now what about the Proton, can the Lotus relations make it an instant classic?
Aesthetically, the R3 Lotus (less just call it that, shall we?) is not much different than the previous Satria Neo R3. Most noticeable is the choice of colour, Lotus Racing Green (or white) instead of the plain black used on other R3 cars, and the rather shouty classic Lotus yellow stripes and highlights. Also new are the lightweight 16-inch wheels, carbonfibre bonnet, and front wing air-extractors complete with, you guessed it, Lotus Racing insignia to further accentuate the F1 connections.
The rest are as per the regular Satria Neo R3 - FRP bumpers and side skirting, plus the customary roof spoiler. The car looks distinctly unique, and won’t be mistaken for an average Joe’s stock Satria Neo, unless of course that particular Joe decides to bastardise his car to look like an R3 Lotus replica.
The significant changes are hidden under the sheet metal (or carbonfibre in this case), where R3 has mildly tweaked the naturally aspirated 1.6-litre CPS engine to produce a maximum of 145bhp and 168Nm, 20bhp and 18Nm more than stock outputs. This is done through precise tweaking of the ECU and internal parts of the motor, flanked by a showy carbonfibre air intake.
This works out to a specific output of more than 90bhp per litre, so any effort of extracting significantly more power from the already highly-strung engine will need to involve some kind of forced inducting contraptions.
As always, more power is nothing without control, thus the guys at R3 and Lotus decided to splash out on well-known and expensive parts supplier, AP Racing and Öhlins for the R3 Lotus’ brakes and suspension. These are big names often related to high-end out-and-out sports and racing cars like well, Lotus, which is precisely the connection R3 had planned for.
The AP Racing slotted discs with 4 pot callipers may sound like overkill for what is still a lukewarm small hatchback, and it is. Equally so are the Öhlins fully adjustable spring and dampers, tuned to R3’s intended specifications. These high-end units, said to cost a whopping RM30,000 per car, incorporate Öhlins’ Dual Flow Valve (DFV) technology for an uncompromised blend of ride and handling.
All these upgrades though, as mouth-watering they may sound to enthusiasts, can hardly justify the massive increment in price, which at a glance is frankly bordering on being downright absurd. However, Malaysia’s top drifter and R3 guru Tengku Djan made it clear that R3 is ‘not making a killing’ out of these cars after being on the receiving end of barrages of comments from the public questioning its price. He insisted that this is more of a brand-building marketing exercise than blind profiteering it might appear to be.
The short time that we had with the car, through a planned course at Proton’s test track did well to showcase the improved performance, brakes, and most importantly ride and handling. The extra 20 horses, while a welcome addition, doesn’t do enough to transform the Neo into a true blue hot hatch, instead barely addresses the regular CPS’ lack of power; reflected by the claimed performance figures of 0-100km/h in 9.2 seconds and 200km/h top whack.
9.2 seconds to a hundred sounds rather tardy, and that’s exactly how it felt. The engine’s traditionally peaky nature is retained, where it begs to be kept boiling for any serious progress. The down side is, even with the new close-ratio gearbox, power will still get bogged down at low revs.
The suspension set up is much more impressive, not least in comparison to the largely underwhelming engine. Driven flat-out on a high-speed bowl and later on a short slalom section, the car stayed flat throughout, showing tremendous balance and grip. Even through a particularly crudely patched up section of the banking, the R3 Lotus kept in line with no complaints; a testament to the costly trick suspension. Its fine secondary ride was also demonstrated through an artificial bump and dip halfway through the test.
If anything, the brakes were even more eye-openingly good. Right after a standing start section the brakes were stomped on hard, stopping the car straight and true. This exercise was done repeatedly by a bunch of motoring journalists and even then never did it show any sign of fatigue. This exemplary mix of ride and handling and braking prowess is, without a hint of exaggeration, worthy of the Lotus name.
All in all, this car is a charmer. While no one will ever be bold enough to say that it’s worth the asking price, the extra bits do work together well enough to conclusively create a quality product.
What comes as a disappointment is the half-hearted nature of the effort put in into the R3 Lotus. Lotus founder Colin Chapman’s philosophy of “simplify, then add lightness” is completely lost in this car’s development, as clearly seen by the questionable decision of using heavy standard seats and no apparent weight saving measures apart from the carbonfibre hood (which was probably done purely for aesthetic reasons anyway), lightweight wheels, and uprated brakes and suspension.
The Proton Satria Neo R3 Lotus Racing Edition is a very good car, but it falls short of greatness that it could, and should be. So a near-miss then; lets hope the 25 lucky owners will take it upon themselves to strip out the non-necessities and turn them into proper track-ripping tools they deserve to be.
Hafriz Shah
Is it really worth that much?
So what exactly is Proton trying to achieve with this car? Impressively long name aside, there is a sense of dread as you see it for the first time. Ah the price. What a price it is. Impressively full of numbers and seemingly poised to make this, one of the most ill conceived ideas of all time. But then you remove the bias filters from your own internal value system and all of a sudden, it starts looking impressive.
Let’s not beat around the bush. This car looks like a thug because it wants to be a thug. The bodykit is very aggressive and were it not for the limited production Satria Neo R3 last year, would attract even more oohs and ahs. It doesn’t really need a carbon fibre bonnet but it has it because it saves weight. Drop anything on it, and you’ll need to buy a whole new bonnet.
Then there are the stripes. Painted on flawlessly and just the right thickness, they look fantastic against the rest of the car. Yes, the colour is somehow too bright to be traditional British Racing Green, but we can forgive Proton and their band of merry R3 men. This car is largely hand assembled so we’ll call it character instead.
Get behind the wheel and you’ll love the carbon cloth wrapped steering wheel but curse the unchanged driving position. Why couldn’t R3 use a pair of fixed-back thin cushioned Recaro seats? They already spent so much on the components so what was the point of using re-stuffed and re-trimmed standard seats? At least the cabin looks nice though there is the nagging feeling that it doesn’t feel worthy of an RM50,000 Korean car let alone a hot RM115,000 Proton.
But all that pales into insignificance when you go for a drive. The engine sounds aggressive and even mean while the meaty manual gear change is satisfying to clack through the gates. There is enough power to impress here but not enough to scare. Forget the official R3 numbers. The car feels much faster during hard acceleration and it corners flatly too. Ohlins adjustable suspension allows you to run whatever setting you want but I prefer a slightly softer and more comfortable set-up.
The brakes, oh my god, the brakes! Full of feel and tirelessly strong. They take no prisoners and will admonish you with loud squeals if you are hesitant with your pedal pressure. On the limit, well, let’s just say that I couldn’t find the limit.
To be perfectly honest though, as good as this car is, it still comes off as a personal project by someone who got a Demon Tweaks catalogue for CNY. It was developed in about six weeks and all the best parts, are off-the-shelf items from component manufacturers. Having said that, as a whole, this is probably the best car Proton has ever made, and by quite some margin. Only 25 will ever be built and at the time of writing, they only had about ten units left. So if you like what you see and you can afford what you like, then give R3 a call and take one for a long test drive.
Faisal Shah