With the official unveiling of the Proton S70 R3 race car that will be entered into the upcoming 2024 Sepang 1000KM race next month, the national carmaker’s latest motorsport entry has been confirmed to use the 1.6 litre, naturally aspirated S4PH Campro engine, instead of the turbocharged 1.5L three-cylinder engine as found in the roadgoing car for general sale.
The choice of engine was due to regulations for the S1K event, specifically for the MTC category that the S70 R3 will be entered into, which stipulates that the cars entered are to have a maximum displacement of 1,600 cc without forced induction.
Proton hasn’t closed the door on racing a derivative of the S70 race car with the production 1.5 litre turbocharged engine, however, and one possible avenue is the Stock Production 2 (SP2) category of the Malaysia Championship Series (MCS), according to Proton R3 chief mechanic Haji Osman Jailani.
As its name suggests, the Stock Production 2 (SP2) category is a class of racing for cars which are of nearly factory standard specification, using the production car’s engine. It is the SP2 category that Proton R3 will be paying particular attention upon, as MCS organiser Sepang International Circuit will be revising the SP2 category, said Haji Osman.
At present, the SP2 category is for production cars using a naturally aspirated engine displacing between 1.5 litres and 1.6 litres, with a balance of performance (BoP) system used to ensure that all competing machines will be of comparable performance. The category revision refered to by Haji Osman could allow the use of the S70’s production engine, which is the 1.5 litre turbocharged unit, albeit with a number of conditions.
As a result, the SP2-category S70 race car, should it be realised, will be markedly different from the S70 race car for the MTC category that was unveiled yesterday, as the SP2 car will be required to use the same engine as its roadgoing version, said Haji Osman.
Meanwhile, the carmaker’s motorsport division also plans to produce a roadgoing R3 version of the Proton S70 with uprated performance, and should the SP2-category S70 race car materialise, that could be visually more representative of what a higher-performance S70 for the road could turn out to be.
GALLERY: 2024 Proton S70 R3 MTC race car
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