Alister McRae and Chris Atkinson piloted their Proton Satria Neo S2000 rally cars to a one-two victory at the China Rally Leg 2, one of the best results so far for the MEM developed cars. They were not the only Protons on the course too – they were joined by four rebadged Proton GEN2s under the Youngman Europestar badge.
“This is the result we’ve been waiting for and with all the development that has gone into enhancing the competitiveness of the Satria Neo S2000 and resolving earlier mechanical issues experienced, we now look forward to a better performance next year. There are still refinements to be made in several areas but overall the result in China proves that the Satria Neo S2000 has the capability and reliability to not only match the performance but stay ahead of the more superior turbocharged rally cars,” said team manager Datuk Abdul Razak Dawood.
The China victory has placed Proton in second place ahead of Subaru and behind Mitsubishi in the APRC manufacturer’s title. Only 24 of the original 44 entries which started the two-day rally completed the whole course which ran through the mountains and bamboo forests just outside Longyou City.
Look after the jump for a full gallery of the rally!
[zenphotopress number=999 album=1672]
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Good job!
and Proton beats Subaru in rally… is simply amazing.
there are lots of Evo 9 and Evo 10 (few teams using Mitsu cars, compared to only 1 team using Neo S2000 and Subaru), so Mitsu could gather points much easier than Proton.
congrat proton for the winning, keep up the work.. can proton update neo face lift? make the front lamp bigger and rear lamp more tough and futuristic? present external design looks little bit clumsy.. design little bit bigger and wide body.. maybe 1 or 2 inch wider..
As I have stated in my comments below, no, the top 3 winners were both Higgins (Mitsubishi) and Sandell (Subaru), who were not competing for the APRC title. Not to mention that they were driving GrN production car instead of the S2000 rally cars. Chris and Alister were in 5th and 6th places, respectively.
Official Final Classification: http://images.sport.org.cn/File/2010/11/07/1907067489.pdf
i’m not talking about this particular race. i’m talking about the whole APRC series. don’t mix the wildcards racers, they didn’t race in all locations for the whole series…
and Neo S2000 doesn’t get production version of 2000cc engine either. the engines are basically the same as in Waja 1.8, but modified to get 2000cc as required for the race.
Hi, I don’t think we understand each other here.
Points I have been trying to make:
1) Non-APRC competitors in Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9 and Subaru WRX won the top 3 places in this rally.
2) Chris and Alister came 5th and 6th officially, but 1st and 2nd for APRC-registered drivers. (6 APRC competitors entered this rally, of which 4 of them didn’t finish)
3) S2000 rally cars have been modified so much that they are supposed to be faster than GrN production cars (ie mostly Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX or X).
Look at how Ford Fiesta S2000 and Skoda Fabia S2000 have been constantly beating the other Lancer Evo GrN cars throughout the year.
4) GrN production car costs only a fraction of S2000 rally car.
5) Chris Atkinson was one of the serious contenders for WRC champion a few years back, so the driver’s not the problem here.
only the body shelve is Proton, others like Gearbox, engine, engineer, driver are from others. Still considered that Proton who win this? huh
Halo,
Rally in my opinion is the toughest and most dangerous motorsport where cars are being tested to it limits on the road on the job.
The gruesome torture during such the race Satria Neo body and standard mechanicals from the manufacturer excluding those that you commented (not standard parts and equipments) is very important to proton for its current Research and Development of its current components which are mostly locally manufactured. At the end of the day, all these rallying can safe cost and safe Proton reputation in the long run and can shoot up sales here, there and everywhere overseas too.
A malay proverb says, belum cuba belum tahu, dah cuba.. hari2 mahu.
ayamxx, its a super2000 rally car. there are rules and regulations set by the FIA governing it.. for a start, only a gearbox from either sadev or xtrac can be used.. nothing else. you need to learn more about international motorsport before you make yourself look silly. end of the day, all race teams get components and parts from the hundreds of specialist motorsports suppliers. what counts is that where the intention, the plans, and confidence to embark on a programme like this comes from, and in this case, its Proton. action speaks louder than words.
and try to fit all the “others like Gearbox, engine, engineer, driver are from others.” of you into a Vios.. wanna bet who’s the winner?
do you think all other teams like subaru, mitsu use the stock car without including additional performance parts??? surely they use parts not from the brand itself…
It is like formula 1.
The old Minardi was using ford cosworth. If they didn’t win, they still look at Minardi. If they won, they will still look at Minardi. They won’t say ‘it is the ford engine!!!!’
What makes the team a winner is the whole coordination if engineers, cars, tyres etc..
Not just by looking at the engine.
Hope this satria will compete in 2012 WRC..then pay abit higher to Kimi Raikonen..or if want the best sebastian loeb..then only all ppl knw p1 capability..haha..who know..
superb win!
well done! now bring back all the rally data to input into the next satria replacement
sweet……
congratz!!
is that tarmar or cement road?
So where the toyota was when Proton claimed his victory? Perodua, any comments?
ahahhah.. all perodua diam diam already ma… cannot accept the truth ma.. later perodua fella ask perodua make one for their PERODUA rally team eh.. use the daihatsu boon or toyota passo.. cannot use myvi eh… ~.~
Proton profit much like Toyota,honda,perodua?? Won the games lost $$$$$…..wat to use?
who cares?
terbaik!
Anyone knows Bung Mokhtar’s email address? I got to send the Proton basher this news.
Bigfoot tu reti pakai internet ke?
he’s busy with his new wife maa..no time to check ur email..
Bunk Muktar used his ‘bottom’ mouth to speaks and used lutut to think — a man from nowhere!
Maybe he want P1 to improve so said something jolting.
New wife? no lah, how many moons already.
Congratulation!!
Paul do you have pictures of the rebadge gen.2 that participate in the rally?or perhaps the result for the rebadge gen.2 will do too!!
After all the dissapointments and retirements, finally a superb result for the R3 Satria neo s2000 team! Bravo!!!
I just wondering since in 2011 world rally car regulations stated that to use 1.6 turbocharged engines, will that be a possible turbocharged campro to be used for 2011 session? Interesting!
Yet again hope to see more success for Proton in motorsports!
well…
WRC do allow 2 type of engine to be used later in WRC…
one is currently used by many S2000 specced car (2.0 normally aspirated 4wd)
another is the latest 1.6 turbo 4wd….
well..maybe we could see both version of neo compete???hopefully it does…
Paul .. is there any pix for europstar? want to see how they modified the car externally ..
http://www.youngmanlotus.com/detail.aspx?id=470
Just google it … senang je tuh.. cuba search europstar rally car.
fantastic! this will make my satria neo 2nd hand value up a bit :D will keep my neo as it would be one hot car like subaru.i hope :)
a 2nd hand value of a 2009 manual satria neo CPS… and it’s black. White? for sure you need to add more $$$..
what do u mean?u have 2009 black neo cps?
No video?
This is the best result for Proton in Rally, congrats.
At last!…
Wow, proton manage to bribe other racer to loose !! Thumbs Up !! Malaysia Boleh !!
ye lah, jentera org lain je yg layak menang- jepun ke, european ke…janji bukan Malaysian- diaorg je patut menang kan??? kalo org putih bleh bwak racing machine based on Malaysian-made under pinning n menang ke atau catat best of anything ke, itu satu penipuan!!! mesti angkara najis…. betul kan? kan? kan?
you sir, either trolling guy or fully retard human
KL, i believe u’re da kind of person who will always bribe 4 success..
Everyone else, before considering replying this troll, obey this internet rule:
Do not feed the troll. DON’T.
KL, use you upper mouth to speaks not your bottom ‘mouth’!
KL, use your upper mouth to speaks not your bottom ‘mouth’!
KL = Kandang Lembu
lol
Wa Lao shocking statement.
I can accept if you mentioned both drivers are not Malaysian…..that part ok lah.
terbaekk!!
We should feel proud of the podium finish. I hope also they will crank the car with turbo charged cps engine and its under-carriage.
I am waiting for so long “GT” car from proton, kinda peug & citroen. Otherwise, I still need to maintain well my 12v ZX.
congratulations to S2000 team …
How much of the current technology will be transfered to our new Satria? Kesian if we just re-badge another Mitsu.. all this $$$ will just go to waste.
i kesian kat you…
it’s not profitable enough to transfer the technology to our mass production satria
because:
– too costly for mass production.
– the car will be too expensive to buy.
– people still said “its still proton”.
– people still said its too expensive for them too buy regardless of performance and tuning the maker have done.
– they prefer to buy “TOYbox” car.
– “the tax is too damn high!” people.
The only solution is to use “true” limited edition sale strategy like what they have done with Satria NEO Lotus R3
There so many Proton supporter here…
then go somewhere else….
sape lg nk support P1 kalo bukan org M’sia? kalo tak supot tak maju plak- jadi la self fulfilling-prophecy…..pelan2 kayoh la mat, Rome was’nt built in a day….. ko tanam pokok durian pun betaun bru ko dpt mrasa hasilnye tau…
aku setuju dgn shooter…..
aku x phm npe org asyik nk bash proton….
c’mon la…
klu korg x support camne proton nk maju??
jgn la bandingkan proton dgn nissan toyota atau honda…
mmg la mcm langit dgn bumi…
toyota 80 tahun+-, nissan 70 tahun+-, honda 50 tahun..
proton baru 25 tahun….
jgn la expect kete kite nk bgus mcm kete diorg…
Mr. G,
now you knew the feeling of being bashed by others right? So do Proton when they get bashed by million of Malaysian, but do Proton sink? NO…
Seriously the title is MISLEADING.
Technically they didn’t win the event, because the winners are Mark Higgins (Mitsubishi), Patrick Sandell (Subaru) and David Higgins (Mitsubishi).
Proton drivers (Chris Atkinson and Alister McRae) ranked 5th and 6th officially, but because the drivers ahead of them aren’t APRC registered competitors and are not competing for the APRC championship, the APRC podium the goes to the Chris and Alister. Understand?
Regardless of what, they finished the rally and managed to bring back the car in one piece without suffering from mechanical problems or accidents. That is a great achievement considered they suffered from alot of mechanical retirements in this year’s APRC.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not denying their so-called “achievement”. I think Proton has the potential, especially under the guidance of MEM. Chris Atkinson was a serious contender for WRC champion a few years back, although Alister McRae is rather mediocre compared to his brother Colin McRae. Yet people like Patrik Sandell never ceases to amaze me in his time in SWRC and PWRC.
I am merely pointing out that the title is misleading when I first read the news, which led me to think that they won the rally. It is true that they did not win the rally and settled for 5th and 6th places, and I think that the non-APRC registered competitors who won the podium here (both Higgins and Sandell) deserve their credit as well.
As long as the rules applies to all, it’s fair. On that basis, Proton IMHO deserves the win.
Those guys finish ahead of proton must’ve known their verdict, so no complaints can be made about proton claiming ‘victory’.
I was merely pointing out about the misleading title, not denying their places in the APRC championship.
When I first read the news, I was misled into thinking that they won the rally event, which turns out not to be true.
the car need to be registered so that we can say they are competing fairly … if they are not registered, we do not know what are the capabilities of that car… for instance the engine displacement and so on…. just my 2cents…
What?? These cars are classified Group N4 which means FIA restriction applies. The registered means competing in the APRC championship event.
believe me..its not bad either..its not easy to for s2000 class to compete with the more powerful mitsu turbo spec ….its different class but the manage to beat most of the turbo spec machines ….unless u no nothing about technical spec of those machines
What are you talking about?
First, how many times have a Group N production car (mostly Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX or X anyway) been faster than its S2000 counterparts this year? 1 in 10 or 1 in 100 times? If anything, it is the Lancer Evo GrN that “struggles” to keep pace with the S2000 (I am talking about Ford Fiesta S2000 and Skoda Fabia S2000 here, of course), not the other way round! Not to mention that these Group N production car costs only a fraction of the S2000 rally cars.
That’s why I am not so excited about this Proton “achievement”, and they have Chris Atkinson, one of my favourite drivers driving it.
so they break their jinx on the reliability issue…hopefully they can built on this and become the overall champion
lotus magic made it this time
go proton!!!
no lotus in this team. they’re mostly MEM and R3
Well done Satria Neo S2000. Even the nomal Satria Neo drives and handles well.
I do not know much about Rally competition.
This is what I discovered,
1. 6 Car enter the APRC group of China Rally competition
2. After First day, 3 car was left, the other 3 car seems did not finish the race, Proton R3 Team was Second and third.
3. On the Second day, 2 car finish the race —–> Both Proton R3 Team ….
To all rally fan —-> is this a great result ?
****
Proton Win 1st and 2nd Place in a Competition of 6 car (with 4 car did not complete the race …).
****
Here is the competitor list:
http://images.sport.org.cn/File/2010/11/05/1117271748.pdf
Here is the day 1 result:
http://images.sport.org.cn/File/2010/11/07/0855191863.pdf
Here is the link to the result: Final Result http://images.sport.org.cn/File/2010/11/07/1906567683.pdf
That’s what I’ve been trying to say but got a lot of “thumbs down” instead.
Not to mention that they ended up 5th and 6th, slower than the GrN production cars, if you count in non-APRC/Asia Cup competitors. Not really impressed.
Don’t lose faith though, Chris Atkinson said the car has potential, and I am waiting to see them making progress, but don’t expect them to compete in WRC soon (which is technically even more challenging than S2000). They will have to bring it to the level of Fiesta S2000 and Fabia S2000 first, who have constantly beaten most of the GrN 4 production cars throughout the year.
then you must know that race isn’t just about time. the first step is to complete the race. with other cars broken down during race, doesn’t this show that proton R3 engineers are capable to beat those from Mitsu and Subaru? they won 16 of 18 races in Australia earlier but had to retire because of mechanical problems / accidents… does it mean they are bad?
sorry, they won 15 out of 18 stages.
Hi there, first no one is saying they are “bad”, look around my posts, I already said the potential is there. And yes you are right, they performed so much better in Queensland in August and that is EXACTLY why I am not so impressed by this Rally China when they were, in fact, slower than the GrN production cars there.
Second, you do realise that they are driving S2000 cars right? These are highly-tuned machines with far superior suspensions (though with weight penalty), and when helped developed by Chris Mellors of MEM, with the support of a full factory team as opposed to the other privateers, they are SUPPOSED to be faster than the GrN cars, not the other way round. Furthermore they cost over 3 times as much as those GrN Lancer Evos.
Motorsport is not just about going as fast as possible, but it is a combination of reliable machine and driver. The fact that in a few last race in APRC, s2000 neo already shown to us a huge improvement and i believe there is more to come.
the moment a driver cross the finish line, then he can only think about win, that’s the rule..
i pickup this title at arpc website “2010 APRC China Rally – Proton on the Podium and Cusco take the Asia Cup” Does it mean same what was this page was about? if not then what is the best title that u exactly want the owner to put?
unsangkarable..!
Good Job Well Done MEM!!!
Toyota is Funny, when other competitors used compact SUV while participating in 2010 Rally Dakar, Toyota used his Ninja King! no wonder they won nothing in that rally.
this had proved that proton is the best than other cars. well done.
later on inspira will beat mitsubishi car…
I was stupid, dumbass coz selling my Satria Neo. It gave me an authentic feels of driving — controlling the car.