Proton love..

[red5]

Came across some old photos while sorting out stuff for a house move....will try and post more/scan properly when I get the chance.

 

They are of the Proton headquarters circa 1991 - The KR1-S is mine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Same as posted on OJC for the usual suspects.

[M'coli]

How long did pistons on the KR1 usually last?

[MrDuke]

I personally would kill for a red or white saloon now. There's a silver 'ltd edition' jobbie not far from me that always earns some lustful glances as I go past. I genuinely love these cars, although I'm not entirely sure why?

[red5]

How long did pistons on the KR1 usually last?

About 3-3500 miles. If I was lucky. Gudgeon pins about 1/2 that. Front tyre about 2500 on the sticky stuff, which it needed. Probably the one bike I wish I'd kept. Absoulute, screaming abdab lunacy. It could lock the front wheel at 100+Anyway - check out the Shite-in-waiting then !

[red5]

I personally would kill for a red or white saloon now. There's a silver 'ltd edition' jobbie not far from me that always earns some lustful glances as I go past. I genuinely love these cars, although I'm not entirely sure why?

Red or White was the GE povvo spec entire colour choice !

[red5]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The speakers were Radiomobile used in the manufacture of an extra trim level for the UK...they were all shipped over with no A/c, sunroofs and in 3 trim levels. We offered 4 in the UK so 'GLS' was made up.

 

 

Will try and some descriptions later on. And some better scans of pics.

[Station]

I had the lime green Proton MPi 'sagmobile'. Everything sagged on that car!I thought it me, but those 1.5 engines were rapid.

[ashmicro]

GR16 photos! Funny how you hardly ever see Protons round here any more, yet the ones I do see are the old ones like these. KR1S still looks the business even after all this time. Had one myself, a motorcycle for mentalists.

[Cavcraft]

KR1S is fucking ace, wonder what spares availability is like now?take it all Protons came through HQ first to be trimmed up before being sent out to dealers?

[red5]

Yep, every car went throught the HQ 1st....for rectification before respeccing ! nothing major though - usually misbuilds or odd trim distortions, or the occasional major oddness episode - like the 1.5 Saloon with a gearbox full of casting sand, or a 1.3 saloon with a factory roof chop. Mostly we changed n/s/f dashpads as a matter of course - it was an add-on to the standard Lancer dash and basically never fitted. Ever. It was a complete dash removal to replace it as well.As previously mentioned, they originally came in 3 flavours of trim - GE povvo, GL and SE. We made up GLS from GL models with rear speakers,uk sourced wheel trims, GLS coachlines (w00t) and a sunroof - a Tudor-Webasto tilt and slide number. Hence the huuuge amount of surplus wheel trims available - last count the top floor of the stores had 2-3 thousand boxes of them!On a side note - the preparation they got before delivery to the dealers really was superb, nothing left there with any defect at all, it wasn't tolerated to the extent they would hold a car or replace it rather then send out something unrectified. Only right when you were trying to build a market share though, and it seemed to work.Will try and see if I have any pictures lurking of the special editions, especially the full body kit Puma! Or the ladies special Panache....

[meggersdog]

I followed one round a roundabout on Monday and was thinking not seen one for years.It was a silver triple valve saloon on a H.reg.

[Station]

and a sunroof - a Tudor-Webasto tilt and slide number.

Mine leaked and came presold with bathroom sealant, don't think it was ever opened.What are dashpads?

[red5]

The standard Lancer dash was a hard moulded type - the dashpad was fitted over the original one at the factory (badly) to give the passenger a soft pad to hit in the event one actually ever got fast enough in the hands of the bluerinsers to hit anything. :-)Changed perhaps 1 in 10 of them before shipment to dealer. Someone was pretty much on them permanently - usually as a penance for some cock-up. They were secured from behind the dash...

[pompei]

Humberside Plod had a fleet of Protons.A copper I spoke to said they were hopeless. Apparently if you went too fast round a corner or roundabout, then the car suffered fuel starvation ... GR8 4 chasing robbers.

[red5]

Humberside Plod had a fleet of Protons.A copper I spoke to said they were hopeless. Apparently if you went too fast round a corner or roundabout, then the car suffered fuel starvation ... GR8 4 chasing robbers.

Sounds like a crock to me to be honest. Never had any problems in Lancer or 1.3/1.5 incarnations. More like didn't want to be seen in a budget car methinks....

[pompei]

He said it had some kind of fuel cut-off device fitted which was activated by excessive body roll. Don't know if that really is the case, or a case of "just fell down the stairs"... He was a traffic cop who drove whatever was fast at the time.

[red5]

What on earth was he doing in a Proton then. :-)Damn it, I want one now. 1.5 GL 4dr Triple valve Puma in Silver.

[blackbird]

Like these just been noticing them lately any more pics what were the trim specs ?was there ever special orders with leather or anything odd ?

[Pillock]

Wow, no offence but that really does look like a backstreet garage... can imagine someone with a rollup stuck to their lip banging on a few wheeltrims and sucking air through their teeth every time they had to put a coachline on.Is a KR1S different to old-school hiphoppers KRS-One?

[Station]

If I were to don the rose tinted spectacles, I'd say I'd love another Proton, but I had to drive on everyday when I was skint (I had a huge amount of French ciggies and was smoking them - god, they were horrible) and had just been dumped by my girlfriend, and having to get into that thing was a totally soul destroying experience. I don't want to sound like a car journo picking out the bits nobody really notices until they read about them but it had terrible PAS, changing gears felt like (literally) choking a dead chicken, and just thin, tinny build. Considering it was a newish car (10 years) at the time.

[red5]

Wow, no offence but that really does look like a backstreet garage... can imagine someone with a rollup stuck to their lip banging on a few wheeltrims and sucking air through their teeth every time they had to put a coachline on.Is a KR1S different to old-school hiphoppers KRS-One?

All old garages pretty much looked like that. it was a converted HGV workshop and the pictures don't really do it justice, along with my appalling copying. New builds tended to be big on presentability and small on real world use, although it's all shiny shiny these days. The site was shared with Autocar transporters, TNT and a few local dealer groups who used it for storage. Over 7000 cars on one site! Keys in everyone one of them with a few notable exceptions - Any Cosworth (Sierra,Escort and Granada), the ERA Mini Turbos and Sunny GTi-Rs.... and oddly enough a shite-load of Montego Clubman TD estates.....

[RichL]

Interesting thread. Reminds me of the early days of my career working in the parts dept of a Hyundai dealership in the late 90's. Sounds late but then we were still dealing with early stuff like Pony's, X2's MK1 Lantra's, S'Coupe's and the odd Stellar. All the made up UK only spec's and special editions used to be a nightmare when it came to parts identification, as, I can still remember my manager saying: "Basically they did all this stuff when the cars landed in the UK, and forgot what they did". No Computers to help then, only books and old brochures. Great job though, the best garage I've ever worked in.

[brammy777]

Great photos, I bet at the time you never knew they would provide so much interest in a few years. The Proton models based on the Lancer always seem to stick around, despite the scrappage scheme and general age of them now, I see a few locally. All seem to be owned by old folks though. Theres a blue and silver 10th anniversary one, thats the only special edition Ive seen recently. They sometimes have a massive array of badges on the back, I swear Proton seem to have strived to provide as much information as possible on the back of their cars...

[BrianDamaged]

I've no experience of the earlier square-rigged Protons, but one of my mates has just bought this with FSH and 23k from new for stupid money:

It did have a full compliment of alloys but for a puncture the day before I took this pic, and another one on the day. Maybe those swarthy rims are porous like the old Exactons they fitted to the Allegro Equipe.

I have to say having had a drive of it that I'm quite impressed. A bit short-geared, but it seemed to go very well. Mind you after a 1900TD Citroen Xantia anything feels fast.

[Cavcraft]

Had one of those recently Brian and was very impressed with the way it drove. Absolute blast to drive, really good fun and handled nicely.

[Station]

'Handling by Lotus', didn't Proton own Lotus at the time?

[Dukestar25]

I saw a white P-reg MPi on my way to work yesterday and there's an old carb-fed 1.5 saloon on Autotrader, T&T for less than 400 clams 8)But yeah, these old protons were great. The 1.3 was very good on juice and not too slow. Must be because it was made from bacofoil or something...

[AnthonyG]

Proton (or more accurately the Malaysian government) bought Lotus in the late 1990s - Until then Lotus was owned by a Mr Artoli (sp?) who also started Bugatti up again in around 1991 with the EB110. Artoli bought Lotus off GM in the early 1990s. Great pictures - got me thinking that some pics of the Lada facility in Bridlington would be great. Unlike Protons, there was quite a lot of rectification needed!

[mattblack]

From 'Practical Motorist', December 1989...

 

[maxpower]

i have just been offered a 1.5 lxi proton wira on an 02 reg.. really clean motor... ticket till mar 2011never heard of the wira until i saw that one..read review in parkers and he says "RUN FOR THE HILLS" just wondering what you guys think of them..and what price you would pay for the above model..sorry about the thread ambush