The most popular brand of cars to join for a Route Hunters drive event happens to be the BMW, with the BMW M340i taking the top spot. The second most popular brand is Proton, with the top spot shared by the Proton X50 and the Proton X70. Here’s why we think they make good cars for a Route Hunters trip.
The Route Hunters Drive events
At Route Hunters Malaysia, we document the best driving roads in the country. If you like Ulu Yam and the Genting Highlands type of routes which has lovely twisty roads with relatively good surface condition, excellent views and nice place to eat, we have in the past 10 years documented nearly 100 routes like these across Peninsular Malaysia alone. Some are even closer to the Klang Valley than Ulu Yam and Genting, with far lesser traffic.
We conduct experience drives on these routes to show our community members where they are, how to get them, bring them to hidden gem spots to hang out and sample the best local cuisine the area has to offer. Naturally a responsive car with great handling would be alot of fun on these drives. Which is why Proton entries are way higher than Perodua’s for a typical Route Hunters Drive event.
The popularity (for our drives) is due to its hardware
Almost all the X70’s that showed up for our events in the past 2 years were the facelift models. Simply put its one of the best handling SUV’s out there on sale today. Its a 3 way battle for the best handling SUV in this segment, and it most significant standout is the Mazda CX5, but not by a huge margin. Almost inseparable for 2nd place would be between the Proton X70 1.5 TGDI and the Peugeot 3008. It really comes down to preference on what type of setup you prefer.
The most potent hardware the Proton brings to the fight is its 1.5 3 cylinder engine putting out a fat 255Nm from 1500 – 4000 rpm. That’s still 15 Nm higher than the current Honda Civic RS. The fact that the power goes to the front wheels via a 7 speed DCT gearbox makes it even better. This package is complimented by the well tuned dampers which, to a great deal, conceals the roll issue the donor Geely had. This is purely down to the work of the Proton engineers. Together they make the Proton X70 a responsive package.
What does all that hardware translate in to experience?
All that hardware and its refinement means you feel good when you’re driving on our back roads, and the car feels effortless hustling in the turns. We started this years drive with the X70 1.5 TGDI as the lead car, and it did handle the twists and turns of our backroads and mountain passes relatively well. With a spirited enough pace to allow cars like a 996, GT86 and the 340i to ‘stretch their legs’.
After a day of hard driving, it also helps that the creature comfort at hand for the X70 is pretty good. There’s plenty in the way of headroom and legroom for the front and back. Plus those vented seats for the top spec cars really come in handy to cool one down after a day of intense driving.
In Conclusion
The Proton X70, especially in the 1.5 TGDI spec performs quite well in several aspects in its class, especially in driving response. However as an overall package for the price it commands, there’s nothing else in the market that comes close.