For all the eye Perodua and Proton have been garnering as they go at one another hammer and tongs for sales supremacy, there’s a little-known outfit in Kepong quietly churning out much more impressive work – bespoke, highly individual sports cars with a give attention to distinctive prewar-inspired designs.
I’m talking, after all, about Bufori, and its latest model, the CS8, is definitely its most conventional yet. But you’re still the diametric opposite of the Proton eMas 5 – an extended and low two-seat sports automobile with a muscle automobile V8 on the front, a ZF eight-speed automatic sending drive to the rear wheels and a wholly hand-built cabin lined in leather.
Plus, unlike that eMas 5, the CS8 is nearly entirely made in Malaysia using local components. That features the carbon Kevlar monocoque that’s even woven in-house, in addition to the wiring harness, computers, PCB chips and software. That is despite the proven fact that Bufori is assessed as a foreign carmaker and has to pay full import and excise duties, although its cars never cross a sea or land border to enter the country – a downright crime in case you ask us.
Those duties are the explanation why the CS8 costs as much because it does – a whopping RM2,188,000 on-the-road without insurance puts it in direct competition with big-name GTs just like the Aston Martin Vantage. But I digress.
The automobile itself uses a supercharged Hemi V8 from Dodge’s old Hellcat models, but this isn’t simply a crate engine out of the Mopar parts catalogue. The engine has been blueprinted and comes with forged internals, leading to a displacement boost from 6.2 to six.4 litres.
As you possibly can imagine, performance is monumental, with 810 hp (750 wheel horsepower) and 975 Nm of torque pushing the CS8 to 100 km/h in only three seconds flat, on its technique to a soaring top speed of 330 km/h. Your eccentric uncle’s La Joya this most definitely isn’t.
It’s quick since it’s so light. A goal weight of 1,450 kg – about as much as a base Porsche 718 Cayman – doesn’t seem all that spectacular until you realise that an equivalent Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat crushed the scales at over two tonnes. That’s despite the CS8’s interior featuring loads of kit, including heavily-bolstered Recaro buckets and the trademark fully-featured Snap-On tool kit (itself value RM13,000) that comes with every Bufori.
Our man Hafriz Shah managed to have a go behind the wheel of the demo CS8 prototype because it underwent final development ahead of deliveries in the primary quarter of next yr. As such, the automobile’s parts bin interior isn’t quite the finished article, with minor changes expected to freshen the look and tweak the displays; it also rides on passive coilover suspension as an alternative of the adaptive dampers which might be expected to form a part of the usual equipment.
Consider it as a primary drive moderately than a full review, then. But what does Hafriz consider Malaysia’s only true homegrown sports automobile? He seems pretty impressed – watch the video below to search out out his thoughts.
This Article First Appeared At paultan.org
