Thursday, July 16, 2009

Proton Neo IRC's Rally Russia

Proton Neo Finishes IRC's Rally Russia in fourth


Mellors Elliot Motorsport (MEM) and its Proton-sourced Satria Neo Super 2000 managed to score some valuable points at the team’s second IRC outing in Russia. Driver Guy Wilks and co-driver Phil Pugh managed to score 5 points, after some ups and downs through out the entire round.

Wilks recovered after dropping from third to seventh position on Day 2, and finished the Rally Russia in fourth overall, even after picking up a puncture on SS13. The duo also managed to set the third fastest time on SS9. In the driver’s championship, the Brit is 15th overall (among 34 drivers), while Proton is now in fifth place, behind Abarth which has thus far scored 24 points, and ahead of Honda, which has only scored one single point.

Previously, at MEM-Proton’s first race in Belgium, the team failed to finish the entire rally, following an off-road excursion. The team, along with the entire circus now heads to Rali Vinho Madeira in Portugal. The Proton Satria Neo Super 2000 is built by MEM and is powered by a 2.0 liter, Renault-sourced re-tuned motivator that is good for 278HP at 7,600 revs and 271Nm of torque at 7,000 revs (based on the engine used in the Proton Waja 1.8X).

The engine is mated to a specced down version of the X-trac gearbox found in the Citroen WRC racer. It also has a GEMS computer system that tracks and logs over 50 variables. To learn more about the MEM-built Proton Satria Neo Super 2000 racer and to view an array of detailed images, please click here. Meanwhile, continue reading to view more images of the super quick Neo at the Rally Russia.

New Proton Satria Neo S2000 Racer

Satria Neo S2000 Racer

Did you know that the GEMS computer system in the Proton Satria Neo S2000 tracks and logs over 50 variables and has two settings - stage and road? Stage mode uses the standard race settings but road mode is used when the rally car has to travel on regular roads with traffic between stages.

In road mode, the engine runs on less aggressive tuning so it runs quieter and etc. These are just a few of the interesting bits of info about rally cars like the Proton Satria Neo S2000 that should be quite interesting to the enthusiast. Let’s go into more.

The car runs on two different suspension, brake and tyre packs, known as the gravel pack and the tarmac pack. The gravel pack uses smaller wheels of only 15 inches in size. This is so that larger tyres with thicker sidewalls can be used, for the purpose of enduring the tough gravel road conditions. The suspension travel is also longer, and the suspension arms are heavier and stronger. The gravel pack also uses a sumpguard to protect the gearbox and other components from rocks and etc but in both packs, the entire bottom is flat for aerodynamics purposes, and the rear has a diffuser.

The tarmac pack has larger 18 inch wheels, and thinner tyres. The larger wheels are to fit larger 350mm brakes, compared to 300mm on the gravel setup. The tarmac setting requires larger brakes because a tarmac course generally works the brakes harder.

Satria Neo S2000

Look into the engine bay and somehow you get the image of some kind of mechanical squid lying in there. I blame the recent Transformers and Terminator madness. This odd image is partly because of the thick ceramic coated (resulting in the white appearance) exhaust manifolds sticking out of the engine and heading towards the rear. The ceramic coating is to keep the exhaust heat in the exhaust and not let it spread to the other components of the car. Keeping the exhaust at a higher temperature also helps with exhaust velocity, allowing the exhaust to escape faster.

The engine bay is a mechanic’s dream, with each component placed in a position for easy access and repair or replacement. The ability to craft such a layout comes with experience and that is what the builders MEM have. The gearbox ratios can be changed in 10 minutes, and the entire gearbox in 12 minutes. It has to be fast because of the 20 minute service interval in rallies, so components are designed to be changeable within those periods of time.

The gearbox is a specced down version of the X-trac gearbox in the Citroen WRC car. The engine should be familiar to you guys now, it is a config that is commonly used whenever a Proton race car needs a 2.0 liter engine. The 1.8 liter Renault engine from the Waja 1.8X is used, and has its displacement increased to 2.0 liters. It produces 278 horsepower at 7,600rpm and and a massive 271Nm of torque at 7000rpm, with a usable powerband of between 5,500 to a screaming 8,500rpm.

Get into the interior and at first you might get confused by the seemingly messy array of exposed raw parts and rollcage bars. It looks that way for the purpose of weight reduction. However the upper dash area itself is more “posh” compared to the standard Neo. It has a black felt covering to reduce dashboard glare on the windscreen, to help the driver see on glaring days.

The handbrake lever is quite interesting. It uses hydraulics, but where are the hydraulics stored? The oil is actually stored in the handbrake lever itself, so you actually unscrew the top of the handbrake lever to access the oil. When you pull the handbrake, the gearbox automatically disengages the rear axle from being driven, as the rear brakes aren’t going to do much when the rear wheels are still being driven by the powerful engine.

Next to the handbrake is the gear change lever. Simply push forward to downshift and pull back to upshift. You don’t have to operate the clutch unless you are rolling off from a stand-still as the gearbox automatically cuts itself off from the engine when you shift. This means you can shift while you have your pedal to the metal, no need to lift-off. This means faster shifts.

Satria Neo S2000

Of course in the end you realise that most of the components of the car are third party. What’s left of the Neo is just the chassis and body design itself, which is widened (not just aesthetics, the wheel arches are widened even when you look on the inside). You may wonder what exactly is the benefits of using a Satria Neo chassis? I’m not sure if the chassis is the best but there are a few benefits.

For one, the Neo already has a lower roof height compared to other cars, so this helps with lowering the center of gravity. You cannot take a car with a higher roof and change the roofline for rally car spec because it is against the rules. Secondly. you cannot change the placement of the wheels, and the Neo’s wheels are already at the edges of the car with minimal overhangs so this helps with the car’s agility and balance.

So there you have it, some interesting tidbits about the Satria Neo Super 2000 rally car. Look after the jump for new hi-res photo gallery of a white Satria Neo S2000.


Proton Satria Neo S2000 Racer



Did you know that the GEMS computer system in the Proton Satria Neo S2000 tracks and logs over 50 variables and has two settings - stage and road? Stage mode uses the standard race settings but road mode is used when the rally car has to travel on regular roads with traffic between stages.

In road mode, the engine runs on less aggressive tuning so it runs quieter and etc. These are just a few of the interesting bits of info about rally cars like the Proton Satria Neo S2000 that should be quite interesting to the enthusiast. Let’s go into more



The car runs on two different suspension, brake and tyre packs, known as the gravel pack and the tarmac pack. The gravel pack uses smaller wheels of only 15 inches in size. This is so that larger tyres with thicker sidewalls can be used, for the purpose of enduring the tough gravel road conditions. The suspension travel is also longer, and the suspension arms are heavier and stronger. The gravel pack also uses a sumpguard to protect the gearbox and other components from rocks and etc but in both packs, the entire bottom is flat for aerodynamics purposes, and the rear has a diffuser.

The tarmac pack has larger 18 inch wheels, and thinner tyres. The larger wheels are to fit larger 350mm brakes, compared to 300mm on the gravel setup. The tarmac setting requires larger brakes because a tarmac course generally works the brakes harder.

Look into the engine bay and somehow you get the image of some kind of mechanical squid lying in there. I blame the recent Transformers and Terminator madness. This odd image is partly because of the thick ceramic coated (resulting in the white appearance) exhaust manifolds sticking out of the engine and heading towards the rear. The ceramic coating is to keep the exhaust heat in the exhaust and not let it spread to the other components of the car. Keeping the exhaust at a higher temperature also helps with exhaust velocity, allowing the exhaust to escape faster.

The engine bay is a mechanic’s dream, with each component placed in a position for easy access and repair or replacement. The ability to craft such a layout comes with experience and that is what the builders MEM have. The gearbox ratios can be changed in 10 minutes, and the entire gearbox in 12 minutes. It has to be fast because of the 20 minute service interval in rallies, so components are designed to be changeable within those periods of time.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

New proton satria cps


The Campro CPS engine is finally in the Proton Satria Neo, something that many have been eagerly waiting for. The CPS is essentially a Campro engine with a few updates and a variable valve lift system called CPS as well as a variable intake manifold (VIM) system. These additions help push up power to 125 PS at 6,500rpm and 150Nm of torque at 4,500rpm, figures which are up from the standard Campro’s 110hp and 148Nm.

The car’s front and rear track has also been updated. While the Proton Satria Neo had a front and rear track of 1,470mm for both, the Satria Neo CPS H-Line has a narrower front track at 1,467mm and a wider rear track 1,483mm.

We didn’t managed to get hold of a Proton engineer to ask this question but we did manage to ask a member of Proton’s Race Rally Research (R3) team who said the change was made because Proton found the standard Neo suffered from slight oversteer, so this change was made to induce a slight understeer to improve handling. Anyway either way as a result of the large wheel arches, the wheels looks kind of lost inside them at certain angles.


As for aesthetics, as you can see there’s a new bodykit and more prominent flared wheel arches that are inspired from the old Satria GTI’s design. The alloy wheels are of the same 16 inch size as the M-Line but feature a different design that looks like a carbon copy of Advanti Racing’s MEDUSA design but without the two-tone design - perhaps it’s licensed or “inspired”. On the interior, the dashboard is now of a darker shade with red lighting on the various air conditioning controls and auto gear position indicators, has a different door trim design, some new trim around the gear shifter area, and leather seats in a black and red combination similiar to the GEN2 CPS.

The following are the prices for the new Proton Satria Neo CPS, available in only two colours which are unique to the CPS - solid white and tranquility black.

Proton Satria Neo CPS M/T (white) - RM 57,313.00
Proton Satria Neo CPS M/T (black) - RM 57,763.00
Proton Satria Neo CPS A/T (white) - RM 60,313.00
Proton Satria Neo CPS A/T (black) - RM 60,763.00

CPS is only available for the high line model, so the lite and M-line models retain the regular Campro. Unfortunately this is the old original Campro engine, without the new IAFM systems in the Saga, Persona and GEN2. The CPS system has also been tweaked with this version of the Campro engine, so the high lift cam profile activation point has been revised. However I’m not sure what is the purpose of activating it later.

VIM switches between a long intake manifold at low RPMs and a short intake manifold at higher RPMs. According to Proton, a longer intake manifold is used at low RPMs to achieve slower air flow; this promotes better mixing with fuel. The short intake manifold allows more air in faster. This is beneficial at high RPMs. The CPS system uses a switching tappet and a trilobe camshaft to switch between two different cam profiles, one with low valve lift and another with high valve lift.

Proton Satria Neo CPS - Interior Photos

proton satria neo cps



The Campro CPS engine is finally in the Proton Satria Neo, something that many have been eagerly waiting for. The CPS is essentially a Campro engine with a few updates and a variable valve lift system called CPS as well as a variable intake manifold (VIM) system. These additions help push up power to 125 PS at 6,500rpm and 150Nm of torque at 4,500rpm, figures which are up from the standard Campro’s 110hp and 148Nm.

The car’s front and rear track has also been updated. While the Proton Satria Neo had a front and rear track of 1,470mm for both, the Satria Neo CPS H-Line has a narrower front track at 1,467mm and a wider rear track 1,483mm.

We didn’t managed to get hold of a Proton engineer to ask this question but we did manage to ask a member of Proton’s Race Rally Research (R3) team who said the change was made because Proton found the standard Neo suffered from slight oversteer, so this change was made to induce a slight understeer to improve handling. Anyway either way as a result of the large wheel arches, the wheels looks kind of lost inside them at certain angles.

As for aesthetics, as you can see there’s a new bodykit and more prominent flared wheel arches that are inspired from the old Satria GTI’s design. The alloy wheels are of the same 16 inch size as the M-Line but feature a different design that looks like a carbon copy of Advanti Racing’s MEDUSA design but without the two-tone design - perhaps it’s licensed or “inspired”. On the interior, the dashboard is now of a darker shade with red lighting on the various air conditioning controls and auto gear position indicators, has a different door trim design, some new trim around the gear shifter area, and leather seats in a black and red combination similiar to the GEN2 CPS.

The following are the prices for the new Proton Satria Neo CPS, available in only two colours which are unique to the CPS - solid white and tranquility black.

New proton satria cps

The Campro CPS engine is finally in the Proton Satria Neo, something that many have been eagerly waiting for. The CPS is essentially a Campro engine with a few updates and a variable valve lift system called CPS as well as a variable intake manifold (VIM) system. These additions help push up power to 125 PS at 6,500rpm and 150Nm of torque at 4,500rpm, figures which are up from the standard Campro’s 110hp and 148Nm.

The car’s front and rear track has also been updated. While the Proton Satria Neo had a front and rear track of 1,470mm for both, the Satria Neo CPS H-Line has a narrower front track at 1,467mm and a wider rear track 1,483mm.

We didn’t managed to get hold of a Proton engineer to ask this question but we did manage to ask a member of Proton’s Race Rally Research (R3) team who said the change was made because Proton found the standard Neo suffered from slight oversteer, so this change was made to induce a slight understeer to improve handling. Anyway either way as a result of the large w

As for aesthetics, as you can see there’s a new bodykit and more prominent flared wheel arches that are inspired from the old Satria GTI’s design. The alloy wheels are of the same 16 inch size as the M-Line but feature a different design that looks like a carbon copy of Advanti Racing’s MEDUSA design but without the two-tone design - perhaps it’s licensed or “inspired”. On the interior, the dashboard is now of a darker shade with red lighting on the various air conditioning controls and auto gear position indicators, has a different door trim design, some new trim around the gear shifter area, and leather seats in a black and red combination similiar to the GEN2 CPS.

The following are the prices for the new Proton Satria Neo CPS, available in only two colours which are unique to the CPS - solid white and tranquility black.

Proton Satria Neo CPS M/T (white) - RM 57,313.00
Proton Satria Neo CPS M/T (black) - RM 57,763.00
Proton Satria Neo CPS A/T (white) - RM 60,313.00
Proton Satria Neo CPS A/T (black) - RM 60,763.00



CPS is only available for the high line model, so the lite and M-line models retain the regular Campro. Unfortunately this is the old original Campro engine, without the new IAFM systems in the Saga, Persona and GEN2. The CPS system has also been tweaked with this version of the Campro engine, so the high lift cam profile activation point has been revised. However I’m not sure what is the purpose of activating it later.

VIM switches between a long intake manifold at low RPMs and a short intake manifold at higher RPMs. According to Proton, a longer intake manifold is used at low RPMs to achieve slower air flow; this promotes better mixing with fuel. The short intake manifold allows more air in faster. This is beneficial at high RPMs. The CPS system uses a switching tappet and a trilobe camshaft to switch between two different cam profiles, one with low valve lift and another with high valve lift.

Campro CPS engine in the GEN2 CPS and Waja CPS