Proton S70 R3 Malaysian Touring Car for S1K: bodykit, carbon rear wing, to use NA version of 1.5L 3-cylinder?

Also revealed at the Proton stand at the Malaysia Autoshow 2024 is the S70 R3 Malaysian Touring Car, the national carmaker’s first all-new race car since the Saga in 2019. It’s also the first to be built on a Geely-based model and will compete at the Sepang 1,000 km (S1K) endurance race for the first time since that year.

The S70 race car will debut a new aero package, which appears to be based on the bodykit currently offered as an option (and fitted to the first 3,000 units of the range-topping Flagship X), along with a large carbon fibre rear wing. It also rides on 15-inch Raxer RP10X flow-formed alloy wheels wrapped in Hankook Ventus TD semi-slick tyres.

If it appears that the car you see here is simply a kitted-up Flagship with R3’s signature black and yellow graphics, you’re absolutely right – it’s missing the regulation roll cage, stripped-out cabin and larger track-biased brakes, and it still sports the ADAS windscreen-mounted camera that is obviously not necessary for racing.

So it’s no surprise that technical details are thin on the ground. The retail S70 uses a 1.5 litre port-injected turbocharged three-cylinder engine that pushes out 150 PS and 226 Nm of torque, mated to a seven-speed wet dual-clutch transmission. However, there will be some changes necessitated by regulations and the punishing nature of racing.

The S1K race uses Malaysian Touring Car (MTC) regulations comparable to the M-Production (Modified) category of the Malaysia Championship Series (MCS), which forbids the use of forced induction. This means Proton will have to remove the turbo from the three-pot and modify it for race use – likely with increased stroke to bump up the engine capacity to the 1,600 cc limit.

The alternative would be to use the 1.5 litre naturally-aspirated four-pot from the S70’s donor car, the Geely Emgrand; in China, this engine makes 114 PS and 147 Nm. The DCT will also have to be swapped out for a hardier race gearbox, likely a sequential unit.