Proton Satria Neo Super 2000 ready for IRC
June 19, 2009 by Matt Brogan
Proton have officially unveiled its Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) ready Satria Neo Super 2000 at a two-day rally festival held at historic Chatsworth House in the UK.
The team, with two-times British rally champion Guy Wilks and co-driver Phil Pugh, will be piloting the Neo S2000 which has been designed and built by British team Mellors Elliot Motorsport (MEM).
The Proton Satria Neo Super 2000 will contest all seven remaining rounds of the 2009 IRC, starting with the Belgium Ypres Rally on June 18 to 20.
“Proton is positive about its capabilities to put up a strong challenge and MEM has done a great job with the Proton Satria Neo S2000 and it will continue to improve as the year progresses,” said Managing Director Proton Holdings Berhad, Syed Zainal.
Proton’s participation in the IRC challenge marks the Malaysian car manufacturer’s return to the global rally scene.
The last time Proton took part was in the 2002 Production World Rally Championship where the Proton sponsored Petronas Eon Racing Team took Malaysian driver Karamjit Singh to the championship also driving an MEM developed car.
The IRC 2009 calendar has already seen four events run so far with seven remaining rounds.
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Ah, they’re such a tease.. Where’s the new GTI? The old one sold up a storm and the new Satria is great looking little car! (on the outside at least)
I have a secret. I love the Proton Satria. It’s like a mad scientists hybrid of Mitsubishi and Lotus. Proton (and the secret mad scientist working at Proton) pretty please. Give us the 2.4 Evo engine in a manual AWD, rally Edition maybe?
2.4 Evo engine ??
The only part coming from Proton is the shell and the badge, so what the big deal?
The most important part, the chassis is built by Proton. Try driving a stock Satria Neo and you’ll know the car handling is superb and really has good track potential. There will be Gti version of Satria Neo launch soon.
Jimmy is right, this Satria was developed completely in house.