The “Alami Proton” weekend at Proton Center of Excellence (COE) turned out to be a major success for Proton. Thousands of Malaysians flooded to the COE to witness Proton’s biggest open day ever. Visitors were spoilt for choice as tons of activities awaited them, from factory visits, R&D open day, joyrides from R3 and Lotus, vendor booths, games and food carnival and last but not least, test drive sessions with Proton’s latest baby, the Iriz.
Yours truly was there last Sunday to experience a myriad of activities available during that event. Allow the images here to do the talking…
Thanks to the newly launched Iriz, Proton showrooms were packed with Malaysians from all walks of life to witness and test drive Proton’s latest Myvi fighter. There’s no exception in COE, where its large showroom was packed like never seen before. Scores of Malaysians inspected in and out, and there’s a huge waiting to test drive the car. Judging by the crowd and response, let’s say Proton scored a big win with its third supermini attempt.
A carnival atmosphere outside, with Proton’s vendor booths displaying their products to the public.
The one that caught my attention is the Sprintex Supercharger from Proreka. Previously Proton made an announcement that they purchased Sprintex superchargers from Australia to be installed into the hotter version of the Proton Satria Neo. Years later, that did not happen, but that didn’t stop the official distributor, Proreka, to distribute the Sprintex Superchargers in this country. At RM10K each, this is strictly for those with deep pockets.
Proton’s own tuning arm, R3, meanwhile provided free taxi rides to visitors in its iconic cars – the Satria Neo R3 and the rally car. Needless to say, response is superb as visitors were making a long beeline waiting for their rides.
Sadly, I did not have a chance to visit and snap pictures in the Proton’s factory tour and the R&D center due to time limitation. Those tours alone could take more than an hour and with two days alone, I believe visitors would need an entire weekend to able to enjoy what’s offer at “Alami Proton”. I haven’t even mentioned side events such as concerts, carnival and so on. Moreover with newly released Iriz is making headways, there never a dull moment during that weekend. That alone proves this event was indeed successful and let’s hope for a better (and less packed) edition next year.
