APRC Champions Showcased Their Cars And Speed In PROTON

PROTON APRC Rally Champion Alister McRae and Bill Hayes took some time off from their schedule to demonstrate their prowess around PROTON plant for a staff engagement activity organised by the motorsports division and Group Branding, Marketing and Motorsports.

Joining in this 'celebration for commitment to win' event was the R3 team of Faidzil Alang and Syafiq Ali. Fresh from a 4th placing position in the just completed Sepang 1000KM Endurance race, the team paraded their Satria Neo and Gen-2 for the benefit of about 1000 over PROTON staffs.

Not forgetting the PROTON-CUSCO 2WD champion - Karamjit Singh also came for this event to further sign autographs and do photography for the PROTON staffs and members of the media.

Director of Group Branding, Marketing and Motorsports John D. Chacko took a spin in one of the cars which showcased their manouevres said, "Its my first taxi-ride in the rally cars and i must say it knocked the wind out of me."

On maintaining the titles John said, "Being committed to winning is what PR0TON and the rally cars do so we will definitely want to continue this pace and defend our titles for next year.'

Datuk Abdul Razak Dawood, Head of Motorsports said, "I am happy to see most of the PROTON staffs being here today to witness first-hand how a rally with our cars run and with our 8 titles this year - its only good to continue this pace into next year to secure and further clinch these titles in 2012."

"I am looking forward to next year's 1st race in New Zealand in April and will announce our drivers and plans for next year soon."

Some of the team who were at this engagement event was Alister Mcrae, Bill Hayes, Karamjit Singh, Faidzil Alan, Syafiq Ali, Shahruddin Hamid (chief engineer for R3 motorsports team) and Team Principal Chris Mellors.

Chris's son Ollie Mellors took to the demo in the 2nd car of Chris Atkinson and showed that he may just be a force to be reckoned with in the junior championships.

The team will head to PROTON Tanjung Malim for their demonstration show for the benefit of the staffs in the northern region on Thursday 8/12.

PROTON Finishes Gruelling Sepang 1000KM Race In 4th

TEAM R3 PROTON finishes 4th overall and 4th in Class 2 in the Sepang 1000km (S1K) with the pair of Syafiq Ali and Syahrizal Jamaludin with a time of 8 hours and 50 minutes. This is the 3rd edition of the S1K with 28 competitors starting the race on a hot afternoon. The S1K is an event specially catered for cars up to 1600cc(Class 2), and up to 1900cc(Class1).

Conditions were extremely hot as the drivers lined up on the grid for the start.There was no relief from the heat as the expected rain stayed away for the duration of the race. Not just a test of machinery, drivers not only had to battle with in-car temperatures hovering around 50 degress celcius but with other competitors as well. Although an endurance race, there were many pitched battles right from the start resembling a sprint race as drivers fought hard for track position.

It was an especially satisfying result for Syafiq and Syahrizal as brake problems early on in the race meant an extra long pitstop to fix the problem and seeing them drop down the order to 7th and 2 laps behind the leader.

For R3's other pair of Faidzil Alang and James Veerapen who started in pole position, luck was not on their side as they were forced into retirement with mechanical problems after 4 hours and 30 minutes of racing on lap 96. Fadizil Alang, the newly crowned Malaysian Super Series Champion was one of the favourites to win this event and was leading the race by 1 lap over its nearest rival before retiring.

The tough conditions during the race eventually saw more than a quarter of the competitors who started, retire during the course of the event.

Commenting on the race, the Head of PROTON Motorsports Datuk Abdul Razak Dawood said,”We are happy with the 4th place result in what was a very challenging race. i would like to congratulate our R3 team for their tenacity and drive in their commitment to win and dedication for this race.”

“We are of course disappointed with the retirement of one of our cars, but racing is an unpredictable sport with many variables that can change the outcome of a race. Overall, we ran a good strong race and will take back with us plenty of new technical data to prepare for the race season in 2012."

"A strong 4th place finish in an endurance race such is still a great result, as just finishing the event is considered a victory for everyone." said John Chacko, Director of PROTON Group Marketing, Branding and Motorsports.

"We were also very encouraged as more than half of the competitors were participating in Proton cars which is testament to not only the sporty nature but durability of our cars."

"We will be back in the national race series next year and will always be committed to winning all our races" he added.

Three-way fight for Proton stake shaping up – DRB-Hicom, Naza and Proton chairman Datuk Mohd Nadzmi involved?

The marketplace is buzzing with news of a three-way tussle for a stake in Proton that’s currently owned by Khazanah Nasional Bhd.

The three parties are said to be DRB-Hicom, which is controlled by tycoon Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar AlBukhary, parties linked to the Naza Group and a management buyout lead by Proton Chairman Datuk Mohd Nadzmi Mohd Salleh. All three parties have been previously linked with the national carmaker.

Currently, Khazanah has a 42.7% stake in Proton, and should a party succeed in buying over the Government’s stake, it will trigger a general offer. Business Times quotes a source involved in the bidding process as saying that the bids were in the range of between RM6 and RM7 per share. The same source added that “whoever is buying Proton is getting the company on the cheap” based on Proton’s March 2011 book value per share of RM9.84.

This development is drawing in the speculators, and Proton’s share price went up by another 89 sen yesterday to close at RM4.50, with over 20 million shares changing hands. DRB-Hicom, thought to be the front runner in the bid, also saw its shares rise. The counter gained 20 sen to end the day at RM2.20, the highest point since August. DRB-Hicom is of course the company that is assembling Volkswagen cars at its Pekan plant.

Proton’s share price might still rise, since OSK Holdings Bhd and RHB Capital Bhd have upgraded the stock to a “buy” with a fair value of RM5 per share. It will be interesting to know more about the plans each of the bidders have for Proton. Nothing is out at the moment, but we will keep tabs on this.

Proton ups power of new Saga

SUBANG JAYA: Proton today introduced a new Saga powered by a 1.6-litre Campro IAFM engine.

The Saga FLX SE is available only with a CVT automatic transmission and is priced from RM49,449.

The car will be available at all Proton showrooms from tomorrow. 

The Saga FLX SE expands the range of the Saga model by providing customers with a vehicle that has a higher engine capacity while reaffirming the Saga as the people’s car given its affordability and better fuel economy, said Proton group managing director Datuk Sri Haji Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir. 

Proton says the engine-CVT transmission combo delivers better torque, 4% better acceleration, and cut fuel consumption by an additional 4% compared to the current 1.6-litre Saga.

Priced RM2,900 above the current selling 1.6-litre automatic Saga FL, the Saga FLX SE features numerous changes. 

The car is fitted with 15” inch alloy wheels, full body kit, fog lamps and smoked finishing rear lights. The cabin is trimmed in leather which comprises the seats, steering wheel, door ornament, parking brake and gearshift lever.

Available in two colour choices - Solid White and Fire Red - the Saga FLX SE comes with a three-year or 100,000km warranty (whichever comes first). 

Customers who have ordered a Saga and are still waiting for their car to be delivered can opt to change their booking to the Saga FLX SE at the respective showroom in which the booking was originally made.

Proton expects to sell 500 units per month of the new variant. It targets to sell some 78,752 units of the Saga in its current 2011/12 financial year.

Since the new-generation Saga was launched in January 2008, a total of 274,469 units of the company's bestseller have been put on the road