After the heartbreak in Australia, Proton has returned to winning ways in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC), winning the Rally De Nouvelle Caledonie. Chris Atkinson and co-driver Stephane Prevot took the Satria Neo S2000 to victory in the third round of the APRC, finished ahead of Pertamina Cusco Racing’s Rifat Sungkar in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X.
Teammate Alister McRae capped off a successful weekend in New Caledonia with a hard-fought third place, after having conceded his early lead in the rally due to a puncture and broken driveshaft. The result mirrors that of the Malaysian Rally, the opening round of the championship.
“It’s a phenomenal result for Proton – the entire team and for Stephane and I personally. Our rally wasn’t exactly trouble free, especially with a broken driveshaft on day 2, but we were lucky we had built a big enough gap to have it replaced and still hang on to the lead,” said Atkinson.
Atkinson moves into the lead of the APRC Driver’s Championship with 58 points, just two ahead of McRae. In third place is Team MRF’s Gaurav Gill, who retired in New Caledonia. McRae also reclaims the top spot in the Asia Cup Driver’s Championship ahead of Gill.
Victory in New Caledonia saw Proton claiming not only the overall victory, but also top honours amongst the APRC contenders, finishing first in the Pacific Cup and clinching the APRC Team Trophy at the event.
A further bonus for Proton came from Karamjit Singh, who won the Two-Wheel Drive Category in a 1600cc Satria Neo, extending his lead in the Driver’s Championship and Proton’s in the Manufacturer’s Championship. Karamjit finished ninth overall in the rally.
“Two victories in three rounds of the APRC certainly prove the competitiveness of the Satria Neo S2000. We’ve endured our fair share of misfortunes and mechanical issues, but the car has nevertheless proven time and time again that it is able to take on the more powerful turbocharged cars and more importantly, win rallies,” said Proton’s managing director Datuk Seri Syed Zainal Abidin.
“We have channeled a lot of effort towards development in terms of achieving both greater performance and reliability since the last rally in Australia and this has indeed paid dividends here in New Caledonia. This is a big step forward and with all the mechanical issues hopefully behind us, we now look forward to our next immediate event, which is the Ypres Rally in Belgium in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) and New Zealand in the APRC,” he added.
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Satria Neo is the best!!!! thumb up……
wooo..how come got thumb down meh? seriously u must be either singaporean or hard-core proton basher.
indonesian also monitoring this blog oso… they are keen to thumb down any good news about proton.. maybe they want Paul and the gangs should preview their made car in this blog such as mobnas AG Tawon, GEA, komodo, Arina and Esemka…
Like this la… Congrats Proton !!!
keep it up guys!
congratz!!!
tahniah :)
Woo! Congrats Proton!
well done!!!…
U see…when p1 does well in anyting…it boosts up everyone’s mood…!
Jump stone to WRC. Keep it up yellow knight millennium S
Codemasters KL studio staff, if u guys reading this, we want Satria Neo S2000 in the upcoming DiRT 4.. tq..
ahh.. too bad i’m no longer in Codemasters :(. can’t help u dude.
I’m pretty sure you can help by telling your old colleagues that. :)
I’ll buy ori version if they include S2000! (does that tell something?….)
This! This is what Proton should be doing. Pouring money on Rally cars which is as close to commercial vehicle as it get (well, aside from a few other motor racing). Wasting time putting stickers on F1, not a good bad idea.
A bad idea will always ended up bad. No matter good it is….
Kidding bro… :P
F1 got more exposure, every one who’s not a petrol head can name an F1 team. Only people with great interest in cars follow rally nowadays, a far cry from the heyday of the Evo, Impreza, Toyota Celica et al.
thats the way,good job proton! they must use this to advertise their cars,i mean most people dont even know that proton has won all these rally races,proton advertise these results,trust me your sales will increase
Proton have won a few APRC, but why it is so hard to find the Video or replay on the internet? Am I missing something?
for aprc,go to aprc official youtube chanel.
for irc,try random youtube search…
sekarang boleh lah berlagak… tunggu nanti p2 masuk rally with the new myvi, baru p1 tahu langit tinggi rendah
langit mmg tinggi woo. apatah lagi kalau myvi tgk langit tu dari dalam parit lepas terbabas di selekoh pertama.
Terbaiklah MoFaz !!!!
Kepada Radzuan, tak kisahlah P1 ke P2 tu, janji nama Malaysia ditonjolkan..
i think you first who the one should see either langit tu tinggi ke rendah before posting any comment…
myvi???…rally???…muahahahahahaahahha…hahahahahaah….adehhhhh…sakit perut
pernah masuk…
tapi snap tayar blakang…
hadoyyaaiii
ini mcm punya komen pun ada…
grow up la mate… grow up..!
This car is so dirty!pls wash the car and tell me what car is this?
your father’s car…satria neo.
What proton should have done when they 1st launched the Neo. Sad seeing the car victorious in its final year of production…
like you , donno
There’s no reason why Proton should stop the legacy of the Satria Neo. Even though the Satria Neo are only sold in small numbers, the demand is always there, and there are still fans out there. And the proven victories in rallies are the strong selling points for the Satria Neo. As long as there is demand, the Satria Neo will definitely sell. Plus, Karamjit Singh’s victory for a 2WD category when he’s not driving for the factory team is another bonus.
so what if its in the final year of production, a great car will always remain a great car. Karamjit Singh won races with the old Satria GTi even after the production stopped. You are right on the point that Proton should have done this earlier, but as long as they keep winning, the glory can be inherited to the next Satria replacement model.
hopefully, the supercharged neo will be produced..or at least… the cfe turbo!
hehe…btw, i dun fancy the twincharger.
congratz! btw, the 3rd picture looks awesome!
tahniah. because finished ahead of Pertamina Cusco Racing’s Rifat Sungkar in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X.
xcellent……
satria is an iconoc proton
The more reason why Proton should retain the name “satria”. It’s an icon already. Well done!!!!!!!
Proton rulz….i would like to see Perodua wins a Rally (or anything) with a Myvi….muahahaha!
why bring up pro2 in pro1 entry without relevance…?
why bring up pro1 in pro2 entry without relevance…?
satria= 1 – evo x = 0
nope..
neo=2
evo x=1
What type of P2 car that you mean Radzuan…Is it pinky minky Myvi????
bullet of proton heheh like this car seem it lunch even can effort to buy it
myvi baru taknak join? haha
Must look at different point of view. Is the car great or the man behind the wheel great or the combination of both brings to the success. Does this rally car even used the same engine with the one on our road. Last time I check they use Evo engines.
Nonetheless, I am proud that PROTON made this move, spents and without any argument, wins this tournament. It is a proud moments to Malaysian.
A lot of work and effort need to be reflected to our home grown vehicle from now on.
Keep up the good work and congratulation to all.
not evo engine…renault 1.8 (modified to 2.0) engine… used in waja 1.8 production car…..
Better double check the place you “checked” that told you it’s running evo engine, or, just do some reality check in you life without distorted by rumors.
a very sentimental statement
Myvi lagi best …lagi best…lagi best…….aaaa…Neo lagi best… Myvi get lost!!!
Proved again that Proton Satria Neo has good chassis. But the question now is how to translate it into a road car with Renault 1.8 engine?
Perhaps JV with Renault to improve and co-produce Renault 1.8 engine for the masses?
the engine was taken from the 1.8x waja model loooong time (renault F4P 1.8), which it’s already been mass produce before, hence have proven it’s reliability (even-though MEM actually enlarged it’s bore from 1800cc to 2000cc) and practically apart from the rival MRF (which is turbocharged 4B11T), this one engine is NA type.
to sum it up, you actually can get the engine, but i don’t know if renault still selling it here.
My guess is that the 1.8l engine from Renault is expensive or limited else Proton would have used it in Persona.
I hope Proton would also consider the new 1.6L Energy dCi 130 diesel engine from Renault – 130 hp and 320 Nm of torque at 1,750 rpm to power the future. The future may not be hybrid but diesel.
Big question: how to make the engine cheap to be adopted by Proton?
dude, thats means the car chassis can withstand the 1.8-2.0 engine output even it been heavily mods. the car simply amazing, the chassis is superb.
for just a normal road car…nice job!
suck it p2.