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The latest revision to the Waja as scooped earlier this week is the new Proton Waja Campro 1.6 Premium (CPS) as it is officially called, and these are the official details.

Let’s have a look at the equipment level first before we get to the juicy CPS stuff. The Waja Campro 1.6 Premium (CPS) comes with either a 5-speed manual gearbox or a 4-speed auto. It has electrically foldable remote wing mirrors, front seats with three-way adjustable headrests (up, down and tilt), leather seats all around, a gated automatic shifter for the automatic transmission model, new center panel switches, a keyless trunk remote system, ABS brakes, dual SRS airbags, fog lamps, twin tailpipes and projector Xenon headlamps with automatic headlamp levelling.

Perhaps the most interesting update to this Premium CPS Waja is like its namesake, the Campro CPS engine. This engine has been eagerly awaited by many, as the current Campro has often been referred to the “Campro without Campro” – there was no cam profile switching involved. With the new S4PH Campro CPS, there is.

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This is how the new Proton Campro CPS works. The CPS system integrated both cam profile switching (CPS) and a variable intake manifold (VIM). VIM switches between a long intake manifold at low RPMs and a short intake manifold at higher RPMs. According to Proton, a longer intake manifold is used at low RPMs to achieve slower air flow; this promotes better mixing with fuel. The short intake manifold allows more air in faster. This is beneficial at high RPMs. This seems to be slightly different compared to the usual VIM system where intake manifold width is also varied to control air velocity, and velocity tries to be maximised, but the idea behind the CPS VIM seems to be not wanting the air to go in as fast as possible at low revs to promote air-fuel mixture? Whatever it is, it seems to work, as the VIM does not stand alone but works with all the other engine systems together over different RPMs.

The CPS system uses a switching tappet and a trilobe camshaft to switch between two different cam profiles. One cam profile provides low valve lift, while the other cam profile has a high valve lift. The low valve lift cam profile is used at engine speeds of under 3,800rpm to maintain idling smoothness and ensure lower emissions, while the high lift cam profile is used when the engine is spinning more than 3,800rpm to improve peak horsepower and torque.

Using this two performance-improving systems, Campro CPS engine basically runs in three modes at any one time:

The result is 125 horsepower (93kW) at 6,500rpm and 150Nm of torque at 4,500rpm compared to the non-CPS Campro’s 110 horsepower (82kW) at 6,000rpm and 148Nm of torque at 4,000rpm. Engine displacement is 1,597cc, bore and stroke is 76mm x 88mm and the compression ratio is 10.0:1. To handle the higher power and torque output, the Campro CPS engine has an additional oil cooler.

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I drove the car earlier this week but did not really go very far, only got up to 2nd gear on the manual tranmission and did not even rev up to the redline – whatever short impression I had was quite good indeed. I am quite eager to test drive the new CPS-equipped Proton Waja and cannot wait to bring you my findings.

The new Proton Waja Campro 1.6 Premium (CPS) is priced at RM61,888 for the manual transmission version, while the one with the automatic transmission is priced at RM64,888. It comes in six colours: bronze garnet, blue agate, iridescent white, twilight blue, metal gray and burgundy. Standard warranty is 2 years, but it also comes with an Extended Warranty Program, extending total warranty to 5 years.

Let’s hope that after this we will be able to see a new Waja – the Saga was the first Proton and the Waja was the first non-Mitsubishi-based Proton. We don’t want to see a similiar product lifecycle with the Saga do we?

Related Posts:
Proton Waja CPS 1.6 now in showrooms! (more photos here)