Before you get ideas for your Perodua Axia, understand that this is just a rendering by dtd_renders.
Take a look at these wild images of the Daihatsu Ayla with a bunch of carbon fibre parts, aero-inspired bumpers and yes, a turbocharged rotary engine mounted longitudinally under the hood.
Before you call up your local fabricator to see if this can be done on your Perodua Axia, know that this photo isn’t real. It’s a digital render by Jakarta-based digital automotive artist D.T.D. These guys have quite a few fun renders under their belt. Most of them are actually quite convincing, despite being very over-the-top.
Realistically, we’re sure this will be an extremely costly modification. Not just for the off-the-shelf parts, but for all the engineering and fabrication work required.
There’s an appeal in taking one of the lowest-powered vehicles available on the market and going full ham on it. It’s not uncommon to see owners of the original Perodua Kancil installing a bunch of half-cut JDM Daihatsu Mira Turbo parts on their vehicles. In fact, it seems to be a less common practice to extensively modify the newer Perodua Axia, which is a spiritual successor to the original Kancil.
Perhaps it’s down to a lack of inspiration. After all, the Kancil had a factory tuned Mira Turbo to use as base inspiration. A lot of the parts were there and wouldn’t have to be fabricated from scratch, tested and then sold.
There was a Daihatsu Ayla Turbo concept that was shown in 2018. It had a two-tone red and black theme taken from the Charade De Tomaso Turbo. The front and rear bumpers were completely redesigned and the interior fitted with a roll cage, bucket seats and not much else. What was really impressive was the fact that they put a modified 1.2L 3NR-VE motor in it with a turbocharger to bring the power figures up to 197hp and 242Nm of torque. The engine was also modified with low-compression pistons, dual fuel injectors, a strengthened connecting rod, an open air filter and more.
All these modifications were costly, but not quite as impressive as you’d think. It shaved just 2.3 seconds off the century sprint time while costing US$35,100 to build.
However, it’s still something Axia owners can use as inspiration. And with the Perodua Ativa now equipped with a turbo engine, there’s a chance we’ll see more performance-modded Axias soon.
