Words cannot even begin to do justice to the world acclaimed “Lotus ride and handling”, and it was precisely with this in mind that Proton Edar Sdn Bhd decided that the best way to allow people to experience this technology that has gone into designing today’s new generation of Proton cars was to simply allow people into the driver’s seat and behind the wheel.
In a fun-filled weekend of driving on Saturday, 6 March 2010, Proton Edar together with popular radio station Hitz.fm organized the PROTON Ride & Handling event at Danga Bay in Johor Bahru. The event consisted of a number of activities, all evolving around enabling consumers to better understand the importance of ride and handling, and more importantly, how Lotus engineering wizardry influences the driving dynamics of today’s Proton car.
In an extreme test of agility and driving dynamics, a total of 50 participants signed up to compete in a ride and handling challenge behind the wheel of a Proton Saga SE and Satria Neo CPS. With the choice of driving a showroom model car fitted with an automatic or a five-speed manual transmission, contestants pitted their driving skills against one another around a safelydesigned vehicle obstacle course in a race against time. “The objective of the challenge was to enable contestants to experience what is precisely meant by Lotus ride and handling and as we had anticipated, most were absolutely surprised at the cars’ driving characteristics,” said Proton Edar Chief Executive Officer Mohamad Shukor bin Ibrahim.
During the event, visitors were also offered to test drive the Satria Neo CPS, Saga SE and Gen.2 CPS models over a specially set-up course. PROTON also put up a mini technologies display that gave a more elaborate explanation of Lotus ride and handling in Proton cars, in addition to communicating the importance of functions such as the anti-lock brake system (ABS) and electronic brake distribution (EBD). Also on display was the CAMPRO engine.
LOTUS meanwhile, showcased its range of vehicles and performed a driving demonstration.
Other activities included the showcase and contest of outstanding cars from the southern region chapters of the Gen.2 Club, PROSBOC (Proton Saga BLM Owners Club) and the Satria Neo Club.com, the sale of PROTON Lifestyle merchandise, games and quizzes by Hitz.fm’s radio announcers, and performances by local artistes Pesawat and One Buck Short.
