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Note twin tailpipes and rear wiper
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My friend, Jim Dunne - the spy photographer of Detroit - used to tell me what fun it was spotting a prototype all wrapped up and chasing after it to get pictures. Well, recently, I had that 'pleasure' when I spotted this car in KL. It was a chance sighting and of course, being in the 'business', seeing a car wrapped up like that certainly got my attention right away. The driver couldn't get far since traffic was heavy and either he spotted my sidekick clicking away (lucky I had my camera that day) or he was just not going far but he turned around and headed back the way he came, and I followed.
Observations from behind were a rear wiper, suggesting a sort of liftback rear end, and twin tailpipes... a high-performance engine? Side views show the nose to be quite sharp and the size is roughly that of a Civic. A zoom-in on the tyres showed them to be Michelins and there's tape over the centre caps which seem to have an oval emblem. A check of possible models being launched in Malaysia did not seem to find a match to the side door lines or door mirrors.
UPDATE: Since this article was published, there's been a lot of discussion and it is almost certain this is a prototype of the Renault Laguna 3, probably undergoing hot weather testing in Malaysia. It is rare for Renault to test here and even rarer that they have a righthand drive prototype running. However, given the alliance between Renault and Nissan, it could be that this next Laguna generation shares a platform with a Nissan model and might be secretly being tested by Nissan too.
If you can identify the car, post the answer in the MTM Forum!
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