Classic from Malaysia
Discussion
Hi! My first post on PH even though I have been an avid reader/lurker for some time.
Please let me introduce myself with a sideways view of a 'classic' I drove recently.
We needed a hire car to get around the island of Langkawi in Malaysia so went on the hunt for the best deal around. This involved going into the first rough looking tour/car hire shop near our hotel and asking for the cheapest car. I arranged a deal for 80 Malaysian Ringgit for a full 24 hours and eagerly awaited the delivery of the car at 9.30 am the next day. I had not seen the car, only that it was a burnt orange colour and relatively new (or so I was told).
I excitedly went to the lobby at 9.30, and there she was! Burnt orange exactly as they had said!
Unfortunately the car hire girl explained that this was not my Proton. Slightly further down the parking lot we found the actual car (she seemed to have preferred to park it away from the entrance, presumably in case anyone she knew was eating breakfast and might see her get out).
Ok, ok, this wasn't the car either, rather a photo of how one might have looked shortly after rolling out of the factory in between 2003 and 2006. Here was ours:
You can see the resemblance but you could also say that about Ronnie Wood and Johnny Depp in one of those Pirates of the Caribbean episodes, i.e. my particular Proton Saga has had a bit of a life.
After signing the documents and watching with an open jaw as the car hire girl went round marking the little car drawing on her sheet with lines where there was damage (I couldn't join her doing this for fear of coming across as unrespectful by scribbling across the whole diagram to save time) I had a chance to closer inspect what automotive catastrophe I had unwittingly subjected us to for the next 24 hours.
The Proton Persona/Saga is Malaysia's best ever selling car and is even upheld as a national symbol. It is based on a 1980's Mitsubishi design that was continually in production in Malaysia for almost 30 years. In that respect this is one of the most enduring car designs, up there with the Austin Ambassador and the Fiat 131. The reasons for such longevity however, I assume cannot be aesthetic.
Our car was one of the last produced and when it came off the line sported facelift additions to the classic shape such as the powerful rear spoiler, required to keep those 83 ponies in check from the also-Mitsubishi-sourced 1.3 litre, 12 valve engine.
The hot-as-molten-lava powerhouse sits so forward of the front axles it is almost Audi-esque and must add excellently to the forward bias of the weight distribution. All the better for sharp turn-in then!
In our particular car the battery strap had been relinquished in favour of a little weight saving up front so the electricity storer was free to bounce up and down against the bonnet over bumps. That is why they fitted the positive terminal shroud of course! Speaking of the bonnet, it was not lightweight - not at all.
The poor old girl must have been in a few front-enders (and rear enders, both sides-enders, some roof enders etc) in her life. The bonnet was almost completely sustained by an inch-think layer of wob. At some point the much frequented bodyshop seem to have given up and wrapped the most prone quarter with a Visit Malaysia sticker instead of finishing a job. I think they probably got a few stickers done so they can just re-apply as and when the next understeery incident takes place.
Probably at the same time the bodyshop got bored of fibreglassing the LMST-spec sporty front bumper and loosely fitted one off another model of car. Which car is anyone's guess. They also gave up ball-pein hammering out the wing and door at about 2.30 on a Friday and went for a beer. However, they should be commended that their choice of leaving the P-40 laden bonnet in a fetching shade of dark grey primer does add a subtle drift-spec flavour.
One nice surprise was that a full 25% of the original-issue LMST hubcaps were intact and still in place.
Another facet of the late updates to the Saga was the interior. The special materials used for the revised dashboard had the property of being able to raise the hairs on your forearms through static electricity alone even before the thrill of driving such a machine raised them again.
The later style dashboard revisions made the confusing array of controls fall easily to hand. Sadly in our example the radio did not work.
A primitive version of air conditioning was fitted, although the blower position lever was very similar to a child's toy telephone in as much as all the buttons made noises, but nothing actually happened.
All Sagas of this era came fitted with a luxury 5-speed manual transmission. The quality of the gearchange feels slightly similar to when you change colour on one of those 6 colour ballpoint pens, engaging with a satisfying plasticky snap.
Out on the open highway the sensation of driving was exhilarating, possibly because it was the first car I had driven in 10 months. The purported 83bhp was delivered in surging chunks of acceleration as the single carburettor coughed and choked its way through chunks of crap that must have been in the very bottom of the tank as it was supplied with fumes only. After a long drink of 10L of finest 95 octane we started on our 100km long island adventure.
During one particularly long 3rd gear right hander the surging reappeared worse than usual. Soon after this the engine came to a halt whilst valiantly charging up a slight incline. After several failed attempts to restart we had to reverse coast to a place of safety at the side of the road. There was no fan running and not one of the two dash lights had illuminated so we assumed the fuel surge from the over-0.15g-corner had caused the sparse fuel to end up on the opposite side of the cruddy fuel tank to the low-pressure carby pump and the poor engine had run dry. 5 minutes of quiet contemplation at horizontal was all the plucky Proton needed before it reluctantly took its next few sips of aereated petroleum and we accelerated off into the hills once more, in search of the next squealing apex and another fuel station.
Please let me introduce myself with a sideways view of a 'classic' I drove recently.
We needed a hire car to get around the island of Langkawi in Malaysia so went on the hunt for the best deal around. This involved going into the first rough looking tour/car hire shop near our hotel and asking for the cheapest car. I arranged a deal for 80 Malaysian Ringgit for a full 24 hours and eagerly awaited the delivery of the car at 9.30 am the next day. I had not seen the car, only that it was a burnt orange colour and relatively new (or so I was told).
I excitedly went to the lobby at 9.30, and there she was! Burnt orange exactly as they had said!
Unfortunately the car hire girl explained that this was not my Proton. Slightly further down the parking lot we found the actual car (she seemed to have preferred to park it away from the entrance, presumably in case anyone she knew was eating breakfast and might see her get out).
Ok, ok, this wasn't the car either, rather a photo of how one might have looked shortly after rolling out of the factory in between 2003 and 2006. Here was ours:
You can see the resemblance but you could also say that about Ronnie Wood and Johnny Depp in one of those Pirates of the Caribbean episodes, i.e. my particular Proton Saga has had a bit of a life.
After signing the documents and watching with an open jaw as the car hire girl went round marking the little car drawing on her sheet with lines where there was damage (I couldn't join her doing this for fear of coming across as unrespectful by scribbling across the whole diagram to save time) I had a chance to closer inspect what automotive catastrophe I had unwittingly subjected us to for the next 24 hours.
The Proton Persona/Saga is Malaysia's best ever selling car and is even upheld as a national symbol. It is based on a 1980's Mitsubishi design that was continually in production in Malaysia for almost 30 years. In that respect this is one of the most enduring car designs, up there with the Austin Ambassador and the Fiat 131. The reasons for such longevity however, I assume cannot be aesthetic.
Our car was one of the last produced and when it came off the line sported facelift additions to the classic shape such as the powerful rear spoiler, required to keep those 83 ponies in check from the also-Mitsubishi-sourced 1.3 litre, 12 valve engine.
The hot-as-molten-lava powerhouse sits so forward of the front axles it is almost Audi-esque and must add excellently to the forward bias of the weight distribution. All the better for sharp turn-in then!
In our particular car the battery strap had been relinquished in favour of a little weight saving up front so the electricity storer was free to bounce up and down against the bonnet over bumps. That is why they fitted the positive terminal shroud of course! Speaking of the bonnet, it was not lightweight - not at all.
The poor old girl must have been in a few front-enders (and rear enders, both sides-enders, some roof enders etc) in her life. The bonnet was almost completely sustained by an inch-think layer of wob. At some point the much frequented bodyshop seem to have given up and wrapped the most prone quarter with a Visit Malaysia sticker instead of finishing a job. I think they probably got a few stickers done so they can just re-apply as and when the next understeery incident takes place.
Probably at the same time the bodyshop got bored of fibreglassing the LMST-spec sporty front bumper and loosely fitted one off another model of car. Which car is anyone's guess. They also gave up ball-pein hammering out the wing and door at about 2.30 on a Friday and went for a beer. However, they should be commended that their choice of leaving the P-40 laden bonnet in a fetching shade of dark grey primer does add a subtle drift-spec flavour.
One nice surprise was that a full 25% of the original-issue LMST hubcaps were intact and still in place.
Another facet of the late updates to the Saga was the interior. The special materials used for the revised dashboard had the property of being able to raise the hairs on your forearms through static electricity alone even before the thrill of driving such a machine raised them again.
The later style dashboard revisions made the confusing array of controls fall easily to hand. Sadly in our example the radio did not work.
A primitive version of air conditioning was fitted, although the blower position lever was very similar to a child's toy telephone in as much as all the buttons made noises, but nothing actually happened.
All Sagas of this era came fitted with a luxury 5-speed manual transmission. The quality of the gearchange feels slightly similar to when you change colour on one of those 6 colour ballpoint pens, engaging with a satisfying plasticky snap.
Out on the open highway the sensation of driving was exhilarating, possibly because it was the first car I had driven in 10 months. The purported 83bhp was delivered in surging chunks of acceleration as the single carburettor coughed and choked its way through chunks of crap that must have been in the very bottom of the tank as it was supplied with fumes only. After a long drink of 10L of finest 95 octane we started on our 100km long island adventure.
During one particularly long 3rd gear right hander the surging reappeared worse than usual. Soon after this the engine came to a halt whilst valiantly charging up a slight incline. After several failed attempts to restart we had to reverse coast to a place of safety at the side of the road. There was no fan running and not one of the two dash lights had illuminated so we assumed the fuel surge from the over-0.15g-corner had caused the sparse fuel to end up on the opposite side of the cruddy fuel tank to the low-pressure carby pump and the poor engine had run dry. 5 minutes of quiet contemplation at horizontal was all the plucky Proton needed before it reluctantly took its next few sips of aereated petroleum and we accelerated off into the hills once more, in search of the next squealing apex and another fuel station.
Edited by HairyPutter on Saturday 26th July 09:03
Living in Malaysia I'm not surprised, it is common for people to hire out cars when they can't afford payments on. And there is no mot, you see some amazing things in the villages, the only check of road worthiness is when you change owner, and then they only check engine and chassis numbers are correct.
But there are some serious classics, no real rust issues, loads of good 1600 escort 2door from around 800 pound, I've Orton thought of looking at importing to the uk.
But there are some serious classics, no real rust issues, loads of good 1600 escort 2door from around 800 pound, I've Orton thought of looking at importing to the uk.
At least the Perodua (Kancil?) we hired in Langkawi 10 years ago was relatively new and all the same colour. My abiding memory of it is of my now wife switching the aircon on and off as we drove up the big hill in the centre of the island and the car alternatively slowing and speeding up as she did so. Glad we only had it for 6 hours and it's a small island.
Oliver.
Oliver.
Have a look at mudah.com for Malaysian cars, take descriptions with a pinch is salt, but they tend to be relatively rust free, there are some serious classics in Malaysia, I have the only lotus Carlton, one of only two Elan plus 2's, lots of classics come from royal collections so mileage is low, e.g. my mate has a 308 with 8000miles on the clock, my wife has a 85 944 with 30k miles, loads of mgb's around, and a few years ago there were a lot of sunbeam alpine for sale but these appear to have run dry now.
To be dead honest it was a pretty tight car, no knocks or bangs from the suspension and broke and drove and stopped as it should. Not a hint of rust either despite the numerous creases!
Berw, I totally agree there were some mint old Escorts around that would fetch a pretty penny over in the UK, even saw a bright RS1600 looking pretty standerd. Not a bad idea to round up a few and ship them over. I was also pleasantly surprised by the multitude of cheap (copy) alloy wheels to be had. Almost everything (and I mean everything) has been lowered/widened with some Volks replicas or similar and have a generous fart cannon as well. Where are you in Malaysia? We saw pretty much most of the west side on this tour.
I wish I had more to review from Malaysia but it was just a hire car. Now, Borneo on the other hand, we had another hire car - Daihatsu Mira - that had some quite major failure on the drive when the bodged alternator bracket came off and we were offered a huge Toyota as a replacement for a healthy upgrade. If only I had taken more pics!
Berw, I totally agree there were some mint old Escorts around that would fetch a pretty penny over in the UK, even saw a bright RS1600 looking pretty standerd. Not a bad idea to round up a few and ship them over. I was also pleasantly surprised by the multitude of cheap (copy) alloy wheels to be had. Almost everything (and I mean everything) has been lowered/widened with some Volks replicas or similar and have a generous fart cannon as well. Where are you in Malaysia? We saw pretty much most of the west side on this tour.
I wish I had more to review from Malaysia but it was just a hire car. Now, Borneo on the other hand, we had another hire car - Daihatsu Mira - that had some quite major failure on the drive when the bodged alternator bracket came off and we were offered a huge Toyota as a replacement for a healthy upgrade. If only I had taken more pics!
Borneo is interesting, I used to live there, was offered a nice mk1gt Corrine for 200pounds, but I've got to many classics. If you go into the jungle you can see some interesting stuff. I know for a garage in central Malaysia that has 6 morrri thou, my mate just sold his mint stag to a guy in Sabah.
I was just reflecting on my visit to KL and Borneo last year and this thread sprung to mind. It deserves more exposure!
Did a few journeys in old Protons, they were fabulously crappy but the simplicity and crappyness, plus the Malaysian people's resilient love for their national car, endears you to them and you end up oddly proud that you aren't in a Toyota or something.
Did a few journeys in old Protons, they were fabulously crappy but the simplicity and crappyness, plus the Malaysian people's resilient love for their national car, endears you to them and you end up oddly proud that you aren't in a Toyota or something.
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