Proton, which dominated the 2011 FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) with a clean sweep of the eight titles on call, has confirmed its participation in the 2012 APRC championship. The champions will begin the defence of the crown at the International Rally of Whangarei – New Zealand that runs on March 30-April 1.
The news actually came via an International Rally of Queensland-related statement through the Proton Cars Australia route, which announced that the works squad will be returning to contest the IROQ in May as well as an overview of the team’s 2012 APRC plans.
The factory-backed Proton Motorsports team announced Scotsman Alister McRae and Swede Per-Gunnar (P-G) Andersson as its drivers in the APRC. McRae, who is about to tackle the 2012 Dakar endurance rally in South America in a car of his own manufacture, is of course the defending APRC champion as well as 1995 British Rally champion, while Andersson is the 2004 and 2007 Junior World Rally champion.
Proton Motorsports also made a simultaneous announcement that it will expand the six-round Asia Pacific programme into an entry in the 2012 World Rally Championship for S2000-category cars, starting with next month’s Monte Carlo Rally.
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Good job, great news from P1…wonder when is P2 gonna follow.
P2?? jgn mimpi laa… they sibuk on re batching Daihatsu cars only la…
huh… bad news… I think better proton participate in IRC than SWRC..
Many works team leaving irc..
good news and good jobs… i am really looking forward on how Proton going to deliver on WRC S2000…competing with VW, Citroen and other big boys… really hope Proton can silents the critics…hmmm
Great news…However sales volume for Satria Neo do not justify the decision to use this very nice car on the competition, plus it has been quite a while since Neo first launched.Hope they will bring in new Satria soon..or perhaps it will be Tuah ? who knows ? hehehe
hope the p3-22 will be the next neo…hehehehe
no , please keep using this model for research and learning .. once its perfect, then create new model from the knowledge learned ..
good luck 2012
if there is one thing proton is doing right, it’s competing in rally. proton may not win WRC now but getting out of their comfort zone and expanding their horizon is not a bad thing. “A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials” – Seneca.
“The new technical regulations for the future World Rally Car will become effective from 2011.
S2000 cars will become World Rally Cars, they will be powered by a 1600cc turbo engine instead of the current 2000cc N/A unit.
The new technical regulations for the future World Rally Car will become effective from 2011.”
– quoted from Wiki
will it use the Campro CFE rather than outsourced engine?
Proton better use the Campro CFE. otherwise, nobody will trust the CFE reliability if they use outsourced engine… should anything goes wrong is good learning for u guys
no more Chris Atkinson?
where atko??? my personal opinion atko performance better than mcrae!!!
It’s good that Proton involved extensively in motorsports. People want to be associated with performance and challenge, so it is very positive even Proton may not chalk up victories. Better if can have the tested Campro in competition.
I recommend Proton to compete in APRC, IRC and WRC. Karamjit must be given a chance to prove too.
Proton may introduce 2 types of Neo…supercharged and turbocharged…turn 1 to be street track ready while 1 for rallly race endurance…that would be cool…
the Neo owner will be dam proud if this Neo win one seat of one WRC state.
Look forward how there will compete with these big player.
Guys (and gals),
This might not be directly related to the post, but fout this really entertaining clip from Top Gear Uk website:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid775256359001?bckey=AQ~~,AAAAAFwqu7c~,j110uIP_ymoixmMVKmNClLzs02QkyhRF&bctid=946615983001
Good job P1, PoP! (Proud of Proton)