A Proton Satria GTi has lapped the Nürburgring!

(Image source: Danial Khairi via Facebook)

Our nation celebrates its 57th Malaysia Day today and, whilst we honour past heroes who’ve made our humble little nation proud, we reckon this German-based Malaysian lad deserves also special recognition on this momentous day too.

That’s because this particular Malaysian, named Danial Khairi, fulfilled a personal dream of his – and perhaps a number of other Malaysian enthusiasts! – earlier this month when he took his prized Proton Satria GTi to tackle Germany’s infamous ‘Green Hell’ – the Nürburgring.

(Image source: Danial Khairi via Facebook)

Yes, you read that right, folks. A Malaysian-made Proton Satria GTi has finally been given the chance to lap the famed Nordschleife course, and with a Malaysian helming its wheel!

Thankfully, Danial documented and shared his endeavour through both his Facebook and Instagram. And thanks to an interview he did recently with local Bahasa-language motoring portal EnGear, he also shed more light into how his mission was made possible.

(Image source: Danial Khairi via Facebook)

Firstly, the car. Historically, the Malaysian-built Proton Satria GTi, which is based upon the Mitsubishi Mirage/Colt of the same era, did see limited success when it was exported to certain overseas markets. In select European markets such as Germany, it was known as the 318 GTi.

Danial managed to track one such example from the local German used car market, which he purchased and paid EUR1,000 (approx. RM4,530) for back in 2017. It’s safe to say Danial got himself quite the bargain indeed.

Danial with his prized Proton Satria GTi at the famed Nurburgring paddock. (Image source: Danial Khairi via Facebook) 

After which, the Malaysian proceeded to link up with Dutch twins Jochem and Ruben Gravemade – the duo famed for putting in a few laps of the renowned 20.83km-long German course in a Proton Wira ‘Teksi’ back in 2020.

Together with the twins, Danial took part in a track session held at said course known as ‘Touristenfahrten’ or tourist drive. Said session is hosted regularly, allowing entry to the track for any vehicles that have passed Germany’s strict TÜV inspection (ze German’s version of Puspakom, perhaps 100 times more stringent).

Essentially, this tourist drive is akin to an open track day, and it sees drivers abiding to similar rules as when driving through Germany’s other famed stretch of asphalt – the Autobahn. Rules here are simple though: a) no any speed limits, and b) only overtake on the left. Given that the Nürburgring counts as a toll road, the third rule here was to cough up the EUR25 (approx. RM113) toll that the circuit charges per lap.

(Image source: Danial Khairi via Facebook)

Apart from the Gestec exhaust system, as well as the Nankang NS2-R tyres shod, Danial’s German-spec Satria GTi (or 318 GTi, if you will) is mostly stock.

Through his interview with EnGear, Danial said his intent was to truly test out the car’s famed ride and handling capabilities that was engineered by a certain British sportscar and engineering outfit that Proton owned at the time – Lotus.

Besides that, Danial also clarified that this wasn’t a timed lap. He added that the whole endeavour (see video posted below) took roughly 11 minutes to complete, though by his estimates, it could’ve been slightly quicker – roughly 10 minutes – if the track was empty, which rarely happens.

For reference, the current front-wheel-drive production car lap record was set by the manic Renault Megane RS Trophy R back in 2019 where it charted 7 minutes 40.1 seconds.

Given the vintage of Danial’s Satria GTi, and perhaps its ‘modest’ 138 hp (when new) output from its rev-happy and Mitsubishi-sourced 4G93P 1.8-litre 4-cyl heart, perhaps we can forgive the somewhat slow laptime.

However, that’s perhaps irrelevant to the fact that a Malaysian has finally driven a rare example of a Malaysian-made performance car across the famed German course. Surely, Danial deserves our heartiest salute for this somewhat historic feat!

(Image source: Danial Khairi via Facebook)