Proton confident of engine fix after extensive tests

25th July 2010

By Richard Rodgers

Proton team boss Chris Mellors is confident that a punishing testing regime will ensure the engine problems that have plagued its Satria Neo Super 2000s this season will be a thing of the past when the Asia Pacific Rally Championship resumes in Queensland next weekend.

Engineers at the British team have covered more than 1000 kilometres during tests designed to replicate the conditions in which Proton drivers Chris Atkinson and Alister McRae have experienced failures on recent events.

“We’ve had a really busy time since returning from the last Asia Pacific Rally Championship round in New Zealand,” said Mellors. “We have been working non-stop on developing the car, which has meant driving the Satria Neo S2000 in excess of 1,000 testing kilometres. All of that time, the engineers have been replicating the conditions in which we have suffered failures: over-revving the engine on downshifts, sitting the engine on the rev limiter for long periods of time. Believe me, it hurts to do this kind of thing and it sounds horribly painful for the car, but the engine has withstood everything we could throw at it. But now it’s time for the big test, the next event. We’re all feeling confident in the progress we have made and we’re feeling very happy about the next rally, not least because it’s Chris’s home event.”

Alister McRae, a podium finisher for Proton on the last APRC round in New Zealand, said the MEM-run team’s efforts were already having a positive effect. 

“There’s a good feeling around the team ahead of this event,” said McRae. “Since New Zealand, Chris [Mellors] and the team have been busy testing new engine and suspension components to iron out the gremlins which were there and, of course, we arrive in Australia on the back of finishing second in Asia Pacific Rally Championship standings last time out in New Zealand. What we’re looking for this time around is to go one better and to end [next] Sunday standing one step higher on the podium.”

International Rally of Queensland is the fourth of seven APRC rounds this season. It covers 267.94 competitive kilometres over 18 stages from its base in Marcoola Beach.