When Proton ‘exploded’ the Waja engine

In the early 2000s, shortly after the Waja was launched, Proton had a unique display at the Pusat Sains Negara in Kuala Lumpur which showed the various parts of the new car’s engine.

Different from the Wira engine
The 1.6-litre engine in the Waja was not the same as the Wira engine, although it was also a Mitsubishi-based powerplant. Coded 4G18, the 1584 cc long-stroke 4-cylinder engine differed from the Wira’s in the way the transmission was located on the left side of the engine instead of the right side.

Various reasons were given for this configuration but it was largely influenced by the fact that the future engines planned for the Waja were to have transmissions on the left side.

The output of the engine was 103.4 bhp/6,000 rpm with 140 Nm of torque at 2,750 rpm, which was 10% better than the Wira’s engine. It was later replaced by the Campro engine developed by Proton.

First indigenous design
Developed over a period of 36 months at a cost of RM970 million, with 1.7 million engineering man-hours, the Waja was presented by the company’s CEO as ‘an indigenous design and the first model developed almost entirely by Proton and not adapted from another manufacturer’s design’. Its signified Proton’s ‘coming of age’ as a carmaker because it could do its own development work, an important capability in becoming a global player.

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