An article published back in year 2000 by Australian motoring website drive.com.au gives us indications as to what kind of specifications the Proton Ultimate will have.
It’s said that the Proton Ultimate will be based on the Lotus M250 Coupe. Sadly the M250 did not make it to the production lines. Maybe it has a second chance in this project?
The Lotus M250 Concept
Proton has confirmed that the car, which has been codenamed Proton Ultimate, will ride on a modified version of the super-strong but lightweight, all-aluminium Monaco chassis developed by the British car maker.
This chassis will first be used as the basis for the new Lotus flagship M250 coupe, which goes on sale next year. The M250, which will come with V6 power, effectively replaces the almost 30-year-old Esprit.
We’ve seen the M250 coupe’s dashboard and it’s evident that the Gen2’s interior takes several design cues from the M250 dashboard.
The new model is being developed at a $160 million research and development centre at Shah Alam, near Kuala Lumpur.
In order to keep the price down at this early stage, indications are that the car could cost between $40,000 and $50,000 the Ultimate will share components common to other Protons.
$40,000 to $50,000 Australian Dollars? That’s about RM150,000 here in Malaysia. I bet alot of people will not be used to pay this sum of money for a Malaysian make even if it’s a Lotus OEM. Trust is just not there.
Power will come from new four-cylinder and V6 engines. The four-cylinder powerplant will displace 2.0-litres and will be developed with Proton shareholder, Petronas, and will utilise technological knowhow gleaned from the oil companys involvement with Sauber in Formula One. The Sauber team uses a version of the Ferrari V10 powerplant.
The V6 engine, which promises to develop about 150kW, is a revised version of the KV6 Rover engine. It is expected to have a displacement of 2.5-litres. The Ultimate is not the first collaboration between Lotus and Proton, with the British car maker helping to develop the Satria GTi.
Now this is interesting. I’ve read up on the specifications of the Petronas E01 and it’s very very impressive. It was tested in a Proton Waja. Bet the Waja can fly. Comparable to Honda’s K20A. But with Proton’s Campro now we can’t say if Proton will still go for the Petronas powerplant.
Let’s just see what happens to this project. This article was back in year 2000 and plans could have changed. It’s alraedy mid-2005 now and Proton hasn’t even gotten it’s SRM and TRM models out yet.
Edit: This project has supposed be renamed to Sepang?
Source: Proton to take on the open roadsters
Related Posts:
Proton Ultimate – Proton Sports Car Road Test?
An Insight into the Proton Ultimate’s Specifications
Proton Ultimate Updates
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
Well for starters, the Satria GTi did cost about 25k in Australia. It was not popular. Simply because for the same price, you get cars with bigger engine displacement and space too.
To be fair, a Subaru Impreza 2.0 retails around that price too. Which would you choose?
So the conversion is direct. What I do know about imported cars in Oz is that when it's 40-50k, you know you're in for a treat. And any cars 30k and above are almost luxurious or powerful. A BMW 318i 2.0 retails around 40-50k. So when you convert it to Malaysian, it's around 120-150k, and just multiply it by 2, and you get Malaysian pricing. Hopefully that's not going to be the idea for the Ultimate lah!
Cheers.
I wished my parents at Proton gave me those rims instead of those crappy 13"….
nice site here paul. any say about the toyota vios? i saw some sites on how they did conversion to the vios and it looks superb. was hoping to read ur comments in here though. keep it up!
Did you realise that the article was written in 2000 and Proton was meant to release the Ultimate in 2003?
We are in 2005 and Gen2 does not even have CAMPRO yet!
By the way, I think Proton has severed its relationship with Petronas and thus Gen2/CAMPRO is not the legendary 100hp/ltr unit!
Ultimate disaster!
andrew: hehe i know. there's actually ALOT of press releases that Proton released outside of malaysia full of bullshit and deadlines that are never met.
LOL, typical Malaysian mah, promises so hardly fulfilled.
But I like the look judging from the spy shot of the test car. As long it's priced less than 300k, can attract buyer alrdy. Hell, i think my dad would consider one if it's RM150k *LOL*
Doesn't the gen2 have a 1.6 campro engine? *puzzled*
not juz car like subaru impreza…. a gtr would have cost around tat price…. so basically proton satria is off worthless there…
(same Q) doesnt gen2 carries campro? as how SRM soon to have???
Rm150k? i am expecting more than RM300k
karheng: gen2's engine is called campro, but it's without campro. get what i mean? lol. campro is supposed to be proton's variable valve timing system similiar to honda's vtec, daihatsu/perodua's dvvt, nissan's neo-vvl and toyota's vvti.
but it's not in the engine yet. the campro in the gen2 is a normal dohc.
and how u know that??
spent: it's just that way. the current campro engines do not have campro technology. you can check out the gen2's specs on proton edar's homepage.
All surfers, looking at the pics of MYVI & sassy/savvy.. of course MYVI wins all compare to savvy/sassy. Even the names got to be change twice…how sad! Sassy will be another history like it's predecessor tiara. Wht a ugly look? Can't proton ever learned to employed a better designer? Just ugly like its tiara, juara… How can proton compete to its 2nd national car? U know what is technology? Wht is VVTI / DVVT / VTEC? Comm'on we are so far behind… even toyota offering DUAL VVTI in its Altezza model. Wake up!
ya loh. Lotus tech? Pui…I bet they only using the name.
RM 150k ok mah wait .. wait… i'm not finish yet.. everybody can buy this shit.. but when installment?… walau… not that, try major service oh my goddes!!! can you image that. my brother sentra major service in over 1000 that can pay 1 month installment.i think who ever had this (for middle class)their weight can reduce 80% why not must save everyday…. pee at public tiolet think twice…
This question was posted on the yahoo.com.my
“Should the government protect Proton from foreign competition?â€
more than 65% respondence agree to “No protection please. Proton needs to compete globally or sink â€
Having to raise my children, I know we to let them learn by themselves.
Our son Proton is now 30 years old, still studying in the University, and when there was a big bully push him around, father have to make a trip to the school to inform the teacher , and look for the bully.
Poor old father is now 65+ and one will imagine how long will father still need to do this.
Our son Proton graduated and started working is a big firm, at now age 40, married and have child of his own, his manager scolded our son proton and make him do the report again, poor old father, now at age 75+, DO YOU THINK HE NEED TO GO TO THE OFFICE TO SCOLD THE MANAGER.
GROW UP PROTON
Dear Paul Tan, I would like to correct the info about the Nissan neo-VVL, if you don't mind. The Neo-VVL system Nissan used is now called a CVT system. And one more thing- is Honda the first to use the system?
Thanks.
Tuning_Professional: from what i've researched – abit different. CVT has variable valve timing but no variable valve lift, while Neo-VVL has variable valve lift.
Dear Paul….any update on this? i know it has been 5 years…would this really happen?