As Malaysia Day looms closer, the timing is just right to pay tribute to yet another local automotive hero – the Proton Satria GTi. Malaysia’s most famous hot hatch has a cult following though it isn’t the only Satria with added cili padi.
For a brief while, the Satria GTi was also sold in left-hand-drive (LHD) markets in Europe, called the 318 GTi. As such, it’s a rarity but one Malaysian managed to buy one and best of all, brought it to the ultimate track among auto enthusiasts, the Nürburgring.
Danial Khairi who is based in Germany bought a used DE-spec (That’s Deutschland in German) Satria GTi for EUR 1,000 (~RM 4.5k) back in 2017. 5 years later, he’s living his dream of bringing the hot hatch to the famous circuit known as Green Hell.
In a recent Facebook post, Danial with the help of Jochem and Ruben Gravemade, the Dutch twins who brought their customised Wira ‘teksi’ to Nürburgring back in 2020, managed to do a few laps around the 20.83-km long track.
Danial and the Gravemade brothers attended the track during a session known as Touristenfahrten or tourist drive. During this session, anyone can enter the track as long as their vehicles passed Germany’s stringent TÜV inspection, the equivalent of our Puspakom.
Though it’s basically an open track day, drivers must abide by rules similar to the German autobahn like only overtaking on the left and having no speed limits. In fact, the Nürburgring counts as a toll road with a charge of EUR 25 (RM 113) per lap.
As such, this wasn’t a timed lap as Danial wanted to understand the car’s character and behaviour around the track. In a recent interview with Engear though, he estimated that it took around 11 minutes to get around the circuit but if the track was mostly empty, it might take around 10 minutes.
That’s pretty impressive considering that a certain Jeremy Clarkson only managed to take a diesel Jaguar S-Type around the track in barely under 10 minutes and that’s after multiple attempts. The fastest front-wheel-drive (FWD) production car though was the Renault Megane RS Trophy R which did a lap in 7 minutes 40.1 seconds back in 2019.
Danial’s Satria GTi is also mostly stock with the only modifications being Nankang NS-2R rubbers and a Gestec exhaust system. He also told Engear that the reason for this is to truly test out the capabilities of the Lotus ride and handling.
This Malaysia Day, we salute the owners of Proton cars abroad including Danial, the Gravemade twins, and numerous others for spreading the Malaysia Boleh spirit in their choice of wheels. We also can’t wait to see more of Danial’s adventures with the Satria GTi around Europe and look forward to a proper timed lap around Nürburgring.
Traded advertising for a career that fits his passion for cars. Enjoys spotting cars during his free time and has a soft spot for Japanese Kei cars but drives a thirsty manual sedan.
