Heya!
Just over on Friday, Cafebara, our leading local sponsor for car meets, hosted another car meet at Devine Rd Carpark. This time, the meet was recommended to have a Malaysian twist to it. The way I see it, it all just looks like a compilation of our 1990s and 2000’s motoring heroes. But hey, figuratively, I think that’s just icing on the cake!
The venerable Charade GTti. I think its a presentable lineup; Honda Civic EG9, Proton Satria GTi and the Daihatsu. Its great to see it again after a few months.
It would seem to be that we weren’t able to coax any Perodua Myvi owners into joining, but we did have the best alternative and a relative to the Myvi; the Daihatsu Boon X4. Spun off the same chassis, the X4 is effectively a homologation car, sporting all-wheel drive, roughly 131 horsepower from a turbocharged 1.0L and weighing around a ton, this variant may be the most performance-focused of them all. Its great to see one in the flesh, let alone for a car meet with the focus on cars like the humdrum Myvi, which sadly did not have any turn up.
The closest we saw to a Proton Perdana. I didn’t take any photos and it could show up in past and future posts, but this Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 sports an Evolution 6 spoiler, and that is incredibly nice.
Another one of those cars that could tickle your fancy; the red Mitsubishi Evolution 3 isn’t your typical E3. This is an ex-rally car used by Proton PERT. This generation of Lancer Evolution is largely the most well known rebadge from Proton, being more known than the homologated Evolution 5, 6 and 7 all also bearing Proton badges for rally homologation. This again, is one of the ex-rally cars, brought in late by C&C and has since been registered here. Its a surprise what Malaysian cars we tend to have here. (And yet we couldn’t have a Myvi owner turn up…)
But apart from the old-gen cars, we did have some newer examples too, such as this Suzuki Swift Sport and Proton Satria Neo R3. The Neo in question sports a supercharger, and would be toe-to-toe with the likes of other Honda Civic hatchbacks.
Post-meet, I was around the area and wow! A Celestar-registered Proton Putra. These weren’t a big seller locally then, with the GTi being a far popular choice. Compared to the 54 units of Satria GTi (Which you could read about here), the roadtax registry lists only 15 still around. I am humbled that there is that many, but it still isn’t alot. Speaking with the owner, this 2-owner example was saved from scrappage, being originally driven by an older folk who wasn’t able to drive anymore. Having been laid-up for about 4 years, the Putra underwent restoration and 2 years on, it is now finally back for use on the road.
The owner, who I would refer to as Ben, admits that the car isn’t fully standard as is and doesn’t have the correct front bumper, and the interior has lost its original materials especially the 90’s patterns. Ben mentions that he’ll drive the car as much as he can before COE expiry, and will debate selling it or selling it off to someone else right before then.
Just as we were parting ways, a Singaporean-registered Satria GTi turned up and we had a chat with him too at another nearby Bucky’s. All in all, quite the Malaysian-themed day.
~Emiri
