1998 - 2005 Proton Satria GTI - The Hot Hatch That Time (and Everyone Else) Forgot

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This video is about to go viral....in Malaysia 😊

I had a 2010 Proton Neo with the 1.6 Twin Cam which was 1 year old when I bought it, it was a fabulous car. It handled like a dream, was comfortable and had super cold air-con. I’ve been to Malaysia many times and the taxis are always Proton, and back in the 90s virtually all cars were Proton. I like them a lot, they are well built cars. Malaysia has something the UK lost.. a pride in their national car brand.

I'm a proud owner of Proton Satria GTI back in 2002. I had converted the engine to 4G63T Evo III slight tuned engine marked at 300hp and full time 4wd. Pleasant torque & speed and handling was superb ❤ Painted the car with mix color code Ferrari Red and Mistubishi Red. The color turns out outstanding ❤❤ and i changed the wheels as well 17 inch 5Zigen Heidfeld Gold pretty rare to get those rims back then. Upgraded the suspension with fully adjustable soft/hard Gab suspension which quite stiff but suit my younger days purpose 😅 Had a great time with my Proton Satria GTI 4G63T and thanks for the lovely memories ❤❤🔥🔥🇲🇾👍

I'm in Australia and I had a Peugeot 206 GTi in the mid 2000s. Similar power to the Satria. It was a source of annoyance to me that the Protons held their value better than my Pug!

What a blast from the past, my best friend had this car back in the early 2000's, we use to go on car cruises together and once we raced another friend in his Nissan R33 GTST? on the local twisties and the Nissan could not keep up with the Proton. It had really cool seats as well from what I remember.

I had one 5 years ago, handling is spot on, decent mid range grunt but they do feel very strangled at high revs. One thing I really liked was how good the instrument cluster looked when it was illuminated at night

Engine was from a Mitsubishi Lancer GSR without the Turbo and it only came in silver. This engine was a good option because it meant the engine was designed for a lot more power than it had and was very robust. In Australia it came standard with a Blaupunkt stereo that could be heard from a suburb away if you cranked it up 😄 In Australia Proton really tried to sell the car and it was priced competitively at $28k which was cheaper than the VTEC Civic (which looked great on the exterior but had a bland shopping cart interior) and it was cheaper than the Peugeot 206 GTi (which looked svelte and French on the exterior but poorly made on the interior and lacking those Recaro seats) I can remember that when I had a problem with the stereo which they simply replaced and a week later they sent me a box with a key ring, watch and sunglasses all branded with the GTi logo and of decent quality. One year later at the Sydney Motor Show when I told the salesman I had one he immediately went away and excitedly showed me the new front badge for the car which had a lion rather then the more prosaic star logo mine came with. When I said I liked it, he simply gave it to me for free. The exhaust that it came with was poorly engineered and sounded uninspiring. However, if you fitted a custom exhaust with redesigned headers the exhaust freed up some mid range torque and power and added some lovely noise. Plus with a custom exhaust you got rid of those horrible square exhaust tips. Fast 4s magazine in Australia did a special on the car where they fixed a number fo small things which dramatically improved the overall package. Copying their exhaust set up I fitted a nice system that was 2.5 inches the whole way, with rubber bushings on each bracket (front wheel drive motors move east west not north south so the exhaust can bang against mounting brackets the rubber bushings meant there was no metal on metal clanging), and a polished muffler in the back and two nice 2.5 pipes curving out on each side. It handled well but at the limit it was prone to transition without warning and I can remember it snapping from understeer to power oversteer without warning. Fitting adjustable sway bars and front strut brace helped to dial out some of snap transition once adjusted to your taste. Came with some of the best Michelin tyres I have ever had on a car but unfortunately their price come replacement time was well outside my budget. The Recaro seats were fantastic, however the silver middles were very easy to stain and once stained cleaning them was almost impossible so it was definitely a no eating car, plus it was my first introduction to metal gearknob and the pain these deliver to your hands when the car was parked outside on a hot Australian Summer. I had four years of reliable motoring with the car and the only negative was the brand saw people turn up their nose, but it invariably only took one drive in the car for them to change their mind and realise it was a good car that made you smile on an affordable budget

There is a limited R3 version of this car that is under 1000kg with a lot of carbon parts and welded chasis. This car has a lot of mod potential for handling and even keeping the 4g93 in NA form. a total track beast. Nowadays if you own one in malaysia regardless if it's stock configuration or modified, they are stressful to own because people will steal the car. So driving it out and parking it will just fill you with endless worries.

Were somewhat popular here in AU, and yes based on the lancer/mirage badging over here. The plastic flares were the bomb! Had a friend who modified one and set of headers helped the top end a bit. Popular to get the 4g93 upgrade from the CC GSR lancer or the big boy 4g63 from an evo conversion back in the day. THere was also a MIVEC (mitsi's VTEC) swap option. Also shared commonality with the proton Jumbuck - a small ute variant

I remember there was a Satria GTi living nearby when I was a teenager and I did think it was a seriously cool little car. I really like the looks; it looks proper for a hot-hatch of the era. Glad to see one on the channel as I still have a sort spot for it.

This Satria had arguably coming from the best era of Proton, in my Malaysian opinion. However, back home like the Putra and Arena this was priced a lot higher than the Lancer-derived Wira. Despite this it still sold relatively well for a car with only two doors. Today it’s still a bargain second-hand purchase and it often had a 1.3L 4G13 base engine found in many Proton cars. Then there’s the Satria NEO which uh, I’m sure you already know of. Not a lot of people enjoyed the CAMPRO engine which abandoned the Mitsubishi heritage.

Great to see a video on the Proton GTI! I had forgotten it was called a Satrie GTI - always think of it as the Proton GTI. I've always been interested in these on account of having a flavour of a Saxo VTS in the styling, Lotus handling and the Mitsubishi Colt underpinnings. I went on to run a later Colt Ralliart for ten years and miss that car. Perhaps the Proton is a worthy replacement!

I had one of these in Sydney, brand new in 2001 it cost $30K. It was a great first motor! Had it for five year and enjoyed every minute of it. I sold it for $10K and then got a Ford XR6T Ute.

This was my first car after i got my drivers license. Absolutely loved it! Had to sell if off unfortunately as i got into alot of trouble with the Malaysian police whilst driving this car. They would try to find any kind of fault with a young kid driving the GTI. The moment i switched to a honda accord, the problems with the police stopped lol.

We got these in Australia. They were a great little genuinely quick hot hatch for their time. But to put this car into perspective considering it’s basically a Mitsubishi clone; we also got a handful of MIVEC engined Mitsubishi Mirages which had preceded this by quite a few years, and were another level again in performance. It’s a pity they were “Japan only” models brought over specifically for racing. They were like Honda Civic spoon engined cars.

I lived in Malaysia in the late 90s- mid 2000s, this car was so lustworthy :D An honorable mention is the Perdana V6, a very decent saloon

I'm thrilled to see your appreciation for Malaysia. As a proud Malaysian myself, I couldn't agree more. Proton is truly remarkable, with so much to offer.

As a young lad growing up in Malaysia during the early 2000's , I can say the Satria GTI is one of my dream cars to ever own. It has that aura about it, the same way young people craved for a Supra or a Skyline R34 or even a Honda Civic type R back in the day, and even until now. I had own a basic 1.3 liter Satria with a 4G13 engine before (2nd hand) , but have to part ways with it because it was too much gone to be restored. However , I can tell you that the basic Satria is no where near the pedigree of a Satria GTI, because the GTI was simply made better. If anyone in the European region want to find parts for the Satria, try to look for parts in the Malaysian market, we still have a scene for them here, and it is still one of the most popular car for young people , and even a popular choice for entry level racing car.

the steering should have no bussiness whatsoever being that loose. there might be a problem with the mounting bushes and/or tie rod (inner/ends). it's an over 20 years old car after all..i have both a Gti and base model satria and even that have more direct steering feel than this one. nevertheless what a fine example you got. cant believe there's still good ones like this in the UK. great and unbiased review as always Jay. glad that you find it likeable