Proton’s forgotten TGDi engine

On this day in 2016, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, as Chairman of Proton then, fired up an engine which was in a room 10,500 kms away in the UK. It was a brand new engine intended to be the successor to the CAMPro engine which dated back to the early 2000s.

The RM600 million project was to take 40 months and was said to involve around 20 engineers from Proton, working with assistance from Lotus Engineering and Ricardo. The design drew on the co-owned intellectual property rights in combustion strategy with Ricardo that was developed earlier in 2012. Following industry trends, it had direct fuel injection and turbocharging.

It was designed with a small displacement, also following the trend of downsizing powerplants. The range would have 3-cylinder and 4-cylinder units with displacements of 1.0, 1.2, 1.3 and 1.5 litres. Along with already common technologies like variable valve timing, the engine could develop up to 180 ps/250 Nm of torque.

To be produced from 2018 onwards
After extensive testing, it was to go into mass production and power Proton models from 2018 onwards. More importantly, the new engines would be tuned to be able to meet the tough emission control standards that had prevented Proton from selling cars in Europe as the existing engines had been designed more with Malaysian standards in mind than those in more advanced markets where the Euro6 standard was introduced.

At one meeting with the media in Geneva in 2011, Tun Mahathir acknowledged that perhaps Proton’s focus in earlier years had been too much on its home market where it was dominant. Exports, though much more than today, were not seen as the main business back then so the need to be pro-active in meeting changing standards was not given more attention.

Proton’s Chief Technical Officer at the time, Abdul Rashid Musa (shown above), was the project manager and was in the UK with representatives from Ricardo and Lotus Engineering to observe the first firing of the engine on-site.

At the press conference on January 18 to announce the engine program, the Proton Chairman was in communication with the team in the UK via a video link. At around 4:30 pm (which was morning in the UK), the signal was given to start the prototype engine and a display showed engine coming to life for the first time as the rpm needle left it idle point. It gradually rose to 1,500 rpm and remained at that speed for a short while.

Project terminated
At that time, the engine family had no fancy name and was just referred to as the ‘GDi/TGDi engine’ (but it was in no way the basis of TGDI engines in the latest Proton models). Though the event seemed to give some optimism to Proton’s future, it would never go further. It is believed that work began to be hampered by lack of funding to move forward. By June the following year, the project was shut down.

However, it was a major event in the carmaker’s history which changed things. 18 months after the engine had fired up for the first time, the Zhejiang Geely Holding Group became DRB-HICOM’s new partner in Proton. With a determination to not only turn Proton around but also to restore it to its former glory, Geely (which took on core management responsibilities) had its own strategy to implement.

Geely also had models ready to be adapted to refresh the Proton range quickly and these models had well developed powertrains more in tune with the latest standards. The new Proton engine – still under development – seemed to be a pointless venture  as it would also require developing new models which would take more time. And trying to marry an engine not originally developed for a Geely model could be a big risk – remember what happened with the Renault-engined Waja 1.8?

Today, it is only because of the internet (where information is stored ‘forever’) that this episode in Proton history is remembered. And while there are various engines on display at Proton’s Gallery of Inspiration in itsheadquarters complex, this particular engine (albeit a prototype) is not there. It is almost as if it was ‘erased’ from the history records.

Proton might also have had a Rover engine
Another engine which could have been under the bonnet of Protons in the 2000s was the K-Series engine from the Rover Group. The British company had signed an agreement with Proton in the mid-1990s to provide the engine which would be emissions-compliant for at least 12 years. It was an advanced engine in its time so it would have given Proton a powerplant suitable for use in export models.

Again, it was bad timing. Just after the deal was signed, Proton was taken over by the DRB Group which created DRB-HICOM, today’s parent company of the carmaker. The engine deal was seen as unimportant and dismissed. At that time too, the Rover Group had been taken over by BMW and while the Rover guys wanted to save the deal, Proton was said to send the message that they would only take an engine ‘if it had a BMW badge on it’.

In any case, Proton under DRB-HICOM ownership had the resources of Lotus Engineering which had also become part of the group. It would benefit greatly in advancing ride and handling of its cars and also be able to have an engine program which led to the CAMPro family being born.

When Proton ‘exploded’ the Waja engine