Proton brought out the Proton P321A prototype to its Power of 1 event over at Bukit Jalil yesterday (and for the next few days). The car was in typical test car livery - i.e full of swirly stickers camouflaging the looks of the car. But one can basically tell that it is a 4 door saloon in the same mould of its supposed predecessor the Proton Persona. It looks slightly taller and slightly more contemporary.
The car was pitted against the Persona on the demonstration track and was shown to brake better as it has ABS and EBD (electronic brake distribution). It was shown to out-sprint the Persona as it supposedly has Proton's latest small turbocharged 1.6liter engine that we've seen in the Proton Exora Bold MPV. It was shown to handle better through the slalom too. I suppose it would perform better than the earlier car as no company in its right mind would come out with a replacement which did otherwise. But the main factor that makes this new car interesting for me personally is the fact that the chap driving the Proton P321A prototype looked more relaxed performing the slalom compared to the chap in the Persona. This is a sign that the newer car is the better handling car. It's as simple as that. He wasn't trying hard inside the car and looked more at ease than the chap in the Persona.
Proton also displayed a slightly bare chassis of the car (with a covered engine - why bother if we cannot see it?). I cannot comment much on it as it didn't have any suspension bits sticking out of it. It only had the front seats and the dashboard with the airbags deployed (to cover it up). From here I could only tell that the dashboard looked like it MAY be of slightly better quality than the Proton Persona but since I couldn't get a good look at it or have a feel of it I will reserve my comments on it till later. Hopefully Proton would have corrected the slightly low steering position in this new car.
Proton also hinted at the car's styling. They had a blurred out photo of it at the side of the box they displayed the car in (see down below). One cannot see the car in full but Proton allowed peeks of it through various cut-outs placed strategically throughout the box. One can see the lights, door handle, tail-lights etc. It also lets you see ladies bending over if that is your sort of thing.
This new Proton could be current Proton CEO Dato' Seri Syed Zainal's swansong. He can be seen here doing the walkabout for the media that day. Most of you have known that DRB-Hicom has bought over Proton and whenever there is a change in management, a change in a company's management line-up usually happens. For better or worse. I have to mention that this was even stated by DRB-Hicom's Dato Kamil, Executive Director of the group's automobile division on the nightly news that we will see some changes in the next few weeks pertaining to this fact. Whatever the case, Dato' Seri Syed Zainal has done well in my opinion. I hope the chap stays on as head honcho for a while.
More reports will trickle in slowly. I'm going to write about Proton's Motorsport/R3 next. Stay tuned.
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