Staying stock: How this young lad restored his pre-facelift Proton Satria to fit his dream
CY Foong · Mar 15, 2024 03:00 PM
0
0
When the Proton Satria was first introduced in Malaysia 30 years ago, the current owner of this Cherating Green Satria wasn’t around yet. Shane is a 23-year-old university student who is simply passionate and knowledgeable about all things Satria and his car has its own social media channel!
Meeting him in person and learning more about Satina the Satria was worth the trip to Shane’s hometown of Ipoh. Though some might see it as just a bone stock Satria, as Shane delved in more on Satina’s history, it is a truly special car.
The Proton Satria wasn’t just Proton’s first 3-door hatchback model, it was the first model that was exclusive to USPD dealers. In the 1990s, Proton had two sales channels, EON and USPD with the latter a partnership between Proton and DRB.
The Satria was built at DRB’s Pekan plant as opposed to the Shah Alam factory which produced the Saga Iswara and Wira. Launched in November 1994, the Satria saw overwhelming demand that the initial waiting period stretched almost a year.
Up until 1996, the Proton Satria’s exterior design was largely unchanged from the donor fourth-gen Mitsubishi Mirage. The only difference was the front which was shared with the Wira.
During its introduction in late 1994, the Satria was offered with 3 variants – the base 1.3 GL, 1.6 GLi, and 1.6 XLi Automatic. It was priced between RM 38,000 to RM 54,000 which after adjusting for inflation, equates to RM 74k-105k in 2024.
Brochure for the base Satria (Credit: Suzairy Ibrahim)
The base 1.3-litre unit was paired only to a 5-speed manual transmission and came in two colours, red or solid white. This was denoted by a sparse set of equipment including steel rims and black bumpers while a rear wiper, a hi-fi stereo system, powered windows and electric mirrors were optional extras.
From 1996 until its discontinuation in 2005, the Satria was given an extensive “butt-lift” with the number plate positioned on the tailgate to further differentiate it from the Mirage. It was also around this time that the Satria was exported overseas where it was called the Persona Compact in the UK and the 300 Series in Continental Europe.
UK-spec base Satria brochure shown, also known as Persona Compact (Credit: Car Brochure Addict)
While the base Satria remained “kosong” in Malaysia, over in Britain, its Compact equivalent was given hubcaps, a rear wiper, and a Blaupunkt stereo as standard while options include a driver’s airbag and an electric sunroof.
The 1.3 GLi as it was called still kept the black bumpers and side mirrors as the base Malaysian Satria.
Normally, most owners of the early pre-facelift Satria would convert them into Mirage Cyborgs but for Shane, he went for a more subtle upgrade for Satina.
For the love of 2-doors
The Ipoh lad is infatuated with 2-door cars and his first ever car was a Proton Putra that came with the enthusiast-disapproved 4-speed slushbox. Shane admitted that he was unhappy with his automatic Putra but kept it for a year before selling it.
In between finding a replacement for the Putra, he drove his dad’s Kancil. His heart still wanted a 2-door Putra, preferably with a manual transmission but most required a princely sum, especially for a clean, standard one which was harder to find.
Then a thought came across him, “Why not a Satria?”. It is a Putra with a hatchback, albeit with less powerful engines but it at least fulfilled the criterion that it is a 2-door-looking car.
Shane and his dad eventually found a post-’96 Satria but after buying it, realized it had been in an accident. As he wanted the “pre-butt-lift” model, he continued his search until he passed a used car dealer around Bercham.
There, he stumbled upon a cleaner-looking Satria, one with the number plate on the rear bumper. After much convincing with his father, they went to the used car dealer to have a closer look but suspected it may have been involved in a shunt before.
Then, the salesman directed them to a brown 1995 unit which had a modified front but a mostly untouched rear. It seemed like the right car as it had the “plate bawah” spec that he wanted. More importantly, it appeared structurally sound.
Satina before restoration (Credit: Shane Nichol)
After much negotiation with the salesman, he and his dad bought the ’95 Satria for RM 2,500 sans insurance and road tax which was a major steal in terms of bangernomics. This wasn’t meant to be a banger though as Shane and his dad cued the music to begin restoration works.
Stock looks, upgraded trims
Shane didn’t reveal how much exactly he spent on restoring Satina, but he explained that it can cost around RM 20,000-30,000 to restore one to stock condition with OEM parts.
The young lad said that since his car is the base model with a carburetted 1.3-litre engine, it has little to no demand which was why he got it for less than a well-used Perodua Kancil.
Then again, Shane isn’t like most car enthusiasts or as a matter of fact, unlike most Satria owners. Most would convert them to either Mirages or Satria GTis just like Shane’s friend who joined us in his converted GTi.
Instead, Shane wanted to preserve his Satria as mint as possible with a few upgrades to become a reimagining of a top-of-the-line 1.3-litre variant. Shane’s 1.3 GLi is inspired by the 1.6 GLi specs he saw in the Satria’s brochure.
The most obvious change is the Cherating Green colour which was the Satria’s hero colour but it was only offered for the ’94-’96 1.6 variants. Originally when it was first purchased at USPD Ipoh, it was white.
Then, the second owner repainted it brown and added the Satria Special Edition (SE) front bumper.
The front Satria SE bumper was swapped out with a more period-accurate front bumper with oval cornering lamps. Then, the original rear boot which did not come with a rear wiper was replaced with one taken from a Mirage to fit the wiper and rear spoiler.
It even had the oh-so-90s sticker decals and original JRD 5-spoke alloy wheels. Some of the parts and trims were taken from a donor Satria 1.6 including the door trims which feature the power window controls.
An addendum: The original base 1.3-litre variant had optional power windows controls located in the centre console.
The original Sanyo-based Satria stereo system. It has a handle at the bottom that the owner can remove as an anti-theft method.
Shane tried his best to create a faithful reimagination of a 1.3 GLi based on the specifications in the brochure with additions including a tachometer, swapping out the aftermarket steering wheel for a Proton two-spoke, and rewiring the electrically adjustable side mirrors.
He even procured an original Satria-branded radio made by Sanyo but it sadly didn’t work and used an aftermarket cassette stereo unit instead. At least the cassette holder remains.
The only personal embellishments added to Satina were the MIVEC exhaust wingtips, stainless steel extractors, and a custom 1.3 GLi sticker since that variant did not exist in Malaysia.
The abridged restoration process
The carburetted 1.3-litre 4G13P 12-valve engine is not a high-performance unit as it only produced 84 PS/108 Nm when it was new. It is a generally reliable unit but when Shane first got Satina, the powerplant was in terrible shape.
Shane suspected the first owner hardly ever maintained the car and seeing it was the base variant, treated it as such. The second owner probably didn’t maintain the engine any better but at least, it never experienced anything catastrophic.
The mechanicals were the first thing Shane began working on. The entire 4G13P was taken out and overhauled from top to bottom while retuning the carburettor. Then, new parts like the clutch, pressure plates with clutch cables, driveshaft, distributor, and absorber mountings were brought in.
The original 1.3 GL never came with a tachometer, this was sourced from a 1.6 variant and the 200 km/h top speed is way too optimistic for the 1.3-litre unit
Shane used a Satria 1.6 as a donor car to upgrade his base 1.3 with most parts used for the interior. Besides trims, other parts sourced from the 1.6 included the rear disc brakes and the suspension.
One thing Shane pointed out on his restored Satria was the roof. Pre-2000 Satrias were prone to rust and his ’95 unit experienced the same brown infection when he bought it. He explained that the roof of earlier models was glued with the other body panels that easily attracted moisture.
Even though restoring the Satria to a high-spec variant wasn’t cheap nor was it easy, Shane had plenty of fun with it. Hearing him share his knowledge on a car that was older than him brings out a true automotive passion for a car that lacks performance.
This young university student was all smiles when recounting his restoration stories to us and happily showed us his Satria memorabilia including a number plate, an Australian-spec Satria owner’s manual, and a set of original Satria centre wheel caps.
Though the work that he has done to restore Satina is worth appreciating, Shane isn’t completely done with one Satria. He recently shared that he bought another 1995 ‘plate bawah’ Satria and named it Selena.
Special thanks to Shane for allowing us some time with his Satria. You can follow him on Instagram @thenyonyasatrias.
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.
