R3: iLoud • iRough • iStick

Preamble: This post is dedicated to the boost junkies who gave birth to the R3 while directed to those who have 'compromised' it. Three days with Djan’s red dog puppied from Mellor’s big yellow wolf left it dreaming of its loud mother licking it dry given placenta is divorced almost but still married to cord and true to job description lone yellow bitch of the male bastion foisted wriggling puppy red onto civilian asphalt slurping fetal sac enabling Sankaran's rascal to tighten up and restate the rough cacophony of its forerunner via some re-profiled internal combustion construct emanating through a stainless hot-water flask nestled at its steel anus while mutating into but mercifully remaining in the realm of the hard stick.

Trans-written with a tall Bud • Tommy Peters

Short-shift (Suriya-centric) ball  ∆

Wilson Picket • Mustang Sally  ∆

© Gary Lee (used without permission)  ∆

Afterword: May 3rd 2012, I moved out of Proton Mutiara Damansara the 141^st build of the R3 Satria Neo underscoring my conviction for the frog in 2007 when I swayed my other half to plough funds into the only affordable set of wheels women do not wish to own and thankfully she did and still pilots her beloved Satria Neo 1.6 auto that is about to clock 60,000km. At the time she purchased her unit I posted a list (refreshed below) that attracted me to it as well as the factors that disappointed me.

The R3 (@ home) juxtaposed with the tandem and cabrio  ∆

The showroom layout (with the JPJ-approved header)  ∆

Extractors for a little boost  ∆

A note on the drain-hose of the (air-con) cooling coil. The right-angled part of the hose from the grommet (as shown) is on the outside of the body. Thing is, it aims smack on top of the steering-rack cap that would cause it to rust over time. Solution? Yank out the hose (from the cooling-coil under the glove-box) and attach a 6 - 8" water hose to the end. Push it back in and guide the hose past the steering rack to rest on the edge of the cross-beam. A Neo-centric flaw missed by the 'brothers' at CoE but please, stop being a big-girl about it and fix it yourself.

Denso's IT20 Iridiums for a little more boost 

The K&N 're-charge' drill

Bosch 8mm leads
(before the Twin-Screw 'leaf blower' is installed)

Appealing points were and still are • A case for ‘originality’ which none of the other local manufacturers such as Naza, Inokom and Perodua have in common • Original body and chassis design • A one on one is very possible with the ‘brothers’ who designed it • Beautiful shutlines • Old school door seals • Independent (of Mitsubishi or Renault) engine design with the CPS/VIM impending then (CPS is onboard at the time of writing) • Body and engine development totally in-house given that Lotus is a wholly owned subsidiary. This synergy is akin to Fiat working with Ferrari, its wholly owned subsidiary, to develop its Coupe, but still it sourced the services of Pinninfarina for the shell design, hence its niche road-burner is not totally in-house • Tested at 200km per hour ‘unofficially’ by Proton engineers on a dry shell 1.6 manual made possible not due to its engine, but the stiffness of the shell and suspension. (Official 195km)  • Drives like a slab due to its Lotus inspired suspension • Uncomfortably stiff and seriously lacking suspension. Such character •  Low slung floor pan • Squat frog stance • Definitive front crumple zone. Notice the missing sub-frame. Remember, always 1st party insurance. Easily totaled • Wonderful throaty engine right from the showroom, mainly due to the Hot Water Flask centralized muffler and deliberate lack of soundproofing – not an unusual sound for boxer Alfa or Subaru • Fresh Spartan interior • Aggressive forward stance low rake dash • Auntie-proof. Uneasy access in and out in front. Almost no headroom at rear • Durable feel door handles. Heavy doors (due to reinforcement) which close with a solid swish • Uncomfortable rear view – adds character doesn’t it? • EMS computer kept cool under the seat as opposed to under the hood • Used as a safety car (unmodified) in the Australian rally (2006). A statement in itself • Sold by a company that lacks commercial sense. In many ways such a situation is a boon for the end user • EON service centre near my home. Excellent reception • The auto gearbox married to the CamPro behaves quite differently from the auto married to the Mitsubshi engine. Sluggish if you're lazy. Makes you take a second look at 3 2 and 1 below D. Owners, I gather, are screaming oblivious that it is configured for the 'sensitive' Campro, the full CPS/VIM.

Disappointing factors • The glove box, vanity mirrors and grab handles are unnecessary for this genre • Insignias such as ‘1.6 Satria NEO”, save for the Proton emblem is unnecessary • Audio controls on steering, ill-fitting • Interior door levers flimsy  • Horrible seats (on the M-line) all round – lacking lumbar support • Falsy interior allen screws • Falsy aluminium bezels • Falsy allen screws on filler cap • Grids on grill and fenders ought to be alloy • Hot Water Flask muffler ought to be stainless steel with a cast-iron impeller inbuilt within the tailpipe • Wheels ought to be 17”, mindful of the ample arch space.

Two things on playing movies from the SD card or USB port. 1. To play movies while driving, uncheck 'Parking On' at Settings. This allows video to be displayed while driving (with the parking brake down). 2. For movies to play, they have to be re-encoded to AVI at a 640 x 480 resolution or smaller. Other formats are not playable on this unit.
                                      

Updating the Papago Map. Mr. Nash, Customer Support Executive, of M3GPS Asia walked me through the phone on Papago's X8.5 Map update for May 2012 that saved the grief of shuttling to the centre at Phileo Damansara II Petaling Jaya. The update went without a hitch when I followed his instructions to the letter :-

1. Checked my version and last date of the map update through the unit.

2. Logged on www.malfreemaps.com, registered and activated my account via email

3. Logged in and clicked ‘Free Public Download’

4. Clicked ‘Papago’ and then ‘FREE MFM-PAPAGO-X8.5 MAP-120503’

5. At two given download links I clicked ‘Mediafire’ and download the .rar file.

6. Once downloaded I used Zipeg to extract the folder from the .rar named ‘MFM-PAPAGO-X8.5 MAP-120503’ and placed it on the desktop.

7. The freshly downloaded folder (depicted below) contained 34 items.

8. Removed the SD card from the unit, inserted it in the Mac and opened the folder named Maps. The folder contained 36 items. Two out of the 36 items are folders named ‘INDONESIA85’ and ‘THAiX85’ respectively.

9. Deleted all items from the ‘Maps’ folder except the folders named ‘INDONESIA85’ and ‘THAiX85’.

10. Copied all 34 items from the freshly downloaded folder named ‘MFM-PAPAGO-X8.5 MAP -120503’ to the ‘Maps’ folder in the SD card.

11. The end result is the ‘Maps’ folder contains 36 items, i.e. the 2 original folders named ‘INDONESIA85’ and ‘THAiX85’ and the 34 new items that were copied into it.

12. Checked the version and confirmed the last date of the map update through the unit.