Since i've got nothing better to do i've decided to make a post to the humble Proton Saga! A brief history of this, it was Malaysia's first ever national car. What proton decided to do to name it is to give the public a contest to come up with a quirky name for their
You guys I hope will find more credible sources to read the history of this national car, because truthfully I'm too lazy to reference everything accurately. I love the Proton Saga though. Why? Well rewinding the clock to when my dad was much younger and I was still in a single digit state of age, my dad owned a 1985 metallic maroon Mitsubishi Cordia. Basically it is a coupe version of this proton, much lower, wider, 2 doors and well... FWD. It wasn't a performance car at all but it sure looked like one. Long nose, short tail, deep maroon paint, when you're young you can't tell the difference between a performance car and a slow but stylish one.
Now that i'm 19+ and have done my fair share of reading and driving, I have taken liking for this last generation saga. This was proton's final attempt at 'modernizing' the original saga. Think about that. refreshing a 20+ year old car. I think it was one of the last few cars in Malaysia that could be bought with a carburettor still. ANYWAYS ironically that is exactly WHY I love the car so much! You see as finicky & picky as I am, I like simple things. I just like simple things done right.
So for starters this car is a very simple car. The only added weight on these things are probably the power steering units... if you ordered them. They have no ABS, EBD, AYC, SC, or any other sort of safety device and acronyms besides seatbelts. But the good thing about these cars are that the interior was somewhat updated! You get a fancy dashboard that looks pretty similiar to the first generation lotus elise. Nothing surprisng there considering proton owns lotus. I just like the simpleness of the interior.
Driving the saga with your eyes shut would make you feel like you're driving in the past. The saga is really one of THE most comfortable cars i've ever sat in my life. Don't forget i've driven a rolls-royce before and tons of luxury cars. The Saga's suspension is so soft it just absorbs majority of bumps it encounters. It feels sloppy to drive just like an old car should, but perhaps thats the charm of it that I love.
See I love simple things, taking them and then modifying them to be better. My dream would be to acquire one of these last-gen Sagas and build it up to the quality of Hondas overseas. The full works, interior, suspension, engine work, and do it with that certain quality that 99.99% of Malaysians can never pull off.
The engine is another thing I have this love hate relationship with. I love the fact that the 4G13/5 engines are so simple to work on. There are tons of mechanics who can fix it, spare parts are aplenty and likewise too aftermarket mods. Basic stuff from air filters all the way to stroker kits. What I do not like about it ironically is its... age. Being a 20+ year old engine in design isn't the best recipe to squeeze out power unless it has VTEC or Cosworth somewhere written in it. So what i've always dreamed of doing with this 4G1 series engine is to... well... squeeze as much power as I can out of it! And what more a better platform than the aged saga. You have an aged body & engine but both have been modded with the highest end parts, brimming with technolgy. That is my ulitmate goal besides building the wagon. Anyways this is also the closest I can get to a cordia. Majority of them out there are all rolling shitboxes anyways.
My love for these old engines started due to a certain someone inviting me to join their group for a race. Specifically, Zeno inviting me to join the 4G1Series guys. Thanks to them my family now has a little satria 3-speed auto which I love so dearly. I enjoy squeezing as much efficiency as I can from that ancient engine. As ancient as it is proton has tried to update it to modern standards. The last few models were dubbed as 'VDO or SVDO' engines due to their Siemens VDO ecu. Pretty smart ECU too. It has both closed & open loop functions for the AFR, basically meaning it is a self correcting ecu at certain conditions. This has caused a LOT of frustration to stupider people wanting to modify and 'tune' the VDO. They call it rubbish because it overwrites the open loop tuning when in closed loop. The only piggybacks that can control it are Works Engineering EMS & Unichip for all I know. Anyways i've always wondered how it would be like transplanting in a 4G15 VDO into the aging saga and then mod it from there onwards. As much as I love carburetted cars I hate the fact that twin-carb cars and airconditioning aren't a great combo. That and lopey camshaft idling doesn't help either.
Handling the saga needs a lot of work to be done to the chassis to make it handle well. Autofoam, ALL the Ultra Racing chassis bars would be a start. All except the ARBs. I find those too small a diameter. Then there would be... HWL with their coilovers. The only thing I want from them would be the rear springs though. The dampers and all I think there are always better ones out there. The saga's weak chassis needs all the stiffening it can get.
To those who are looking for a cheap starter race car, by all means get one of these if your intention is just to have fun. To be competitive and win, go with a newer platform with better geometry. I just did this post out of fun to let my thoughts out of my head, hope you enjoyed reading it eitherways!
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