Perodua Rally Cars - Pure Car Sound (Kancil, Kelisa, Myvi and Viva)

If you are a Malaysian who owns one or two cars from Perodua, you would probably know that the enthusiast have use their cars to compete in motorsports including track racing and rallying. If you have followed Malaysian Rally Championship since the 90s, you would remember that one team that uses Perodua cars to battle against those big 4WD turbocharged rally cars.

Here’s the seventh Pure Car Sound video in the series. This pure car sound video shows a compilation of the Perodua cars that have been used as a rally car to compete in the Malaysian Rally Championship (MRC) including the works team from Perodua M5 Racing Team that was run by the late Garry Chua.

THE TIMELINE OF PERODUA CARS IN RALLYING

It all started in the 90’s when an ex RX7 (FB3S) racer turned team owner and team manager named Garry Chua when he started his venture into the rallying scene, he and his team were managing and building fleet of rally cars that were based on Perodua cars. He and his team began building the two Kancil (which was actually based on the 3 door version of Daihatsu Mira that has turbo and 4WD) as their first fleet of rally cars specifically to compete in the Petronas sponsored era of the Malaysian Rally Championship (MRC).

The team make their debut with two Kancil 4WD Turbo in MRC as Perodua Castrol Racing Team. They have proved to their rivals (which at that time was the Petronas EON Racing Team along a few other competitors that were using the 4WD turbocharged rally cars) that their small and agile rally cars are competitive enough challenged their rival’s big 4WD turbocharged cars for the championship title which Kan Chee Hong end up winning the MRC title in 1999 and 2001. At that time, there was a few privateers who use the a lightly modified Kancil to compete in the Kancil Cup that was created by the organisers of MRC.

Fast forward to 2002, they’ve began entering their newly build Kelisa 4WD Turbo. The Kelisa 4WD Turbo was based on the road going version of the Kelisa with performances parts from a rally pedigree Daihatsu Storia X4, it was driven by Kan Chee Hong while alongside Lim Leong Onn who was driving the Kancil 4WD Turbo before he gets to drive the second Kelisa 4WD Turbo on the next round.

In 2003, team changed their team name to now known as Perodua M5 Racing Team due to the sponsors from Petronas.

In the 2006 season of MRC, the team debuted their 2WD NA (Natural Aspirated) Kelisa. This one had performance parts from the natural aspirated version of the Storia, this third car was driven by P.Nandakumar as their third driver for the team.

On the second round of the 2007 season in MRC, Kan Chee Hong’s Kelisa 4WD Turbo was replaced with the Myvi 4WD Turbo. Once again, it prove to be very competitive to compete for the top three podium. Lim Leong Onn and P.Nandakumar were still driving their Kelisas before it got replaced with Lim Leong Onn driving Viva 4WD Turbo and P.Nandakumar driving Myvi 2WD NA on the third round of the 2007 season in MRC. There are a few privateers who were competing in this season using their Kancil and Kelisa for their class points.

In 2008, it was Perodua M5 Racing Team’s last year to compete as a works team in MRC before they retired from competition. Kan Chee Hong was still driving his Myvi 4WD Turbo and Lim Leong Onn was still driving his Viva 4WD Turbo. P.Nandakumar end up being replaced by Jamaluddin Tukimin on the fifth round of the 2008 season. He was given a chance to drive the Kelisa 2WD NA for the final round of the season.

Since Perodua M5 Racing Team retired from competing in MRC, many of privateers have continued to compete with their Kelisa for the category podiums.

In 2012, Garry Chua passed away due to leukaemia. Many members of the motorsport fraternity have payed their respects to his family and friends.

Sometime in 2014, the drivers and co-drivers who was part of Garry’s works team decided to compete in the selected rounds in MRC as their way to pay tribute to him. Both Viva and Myvi 4WD Turbo had a newly redesigned racing livery with a embedded text that says “A Tribute To Garry Chua” to mark as a respect to Garry Chua.

From 2016 until now, DWau One Motorsport Bagan Datuk Rally Team (formerly known as One Motorsport Bagan Datoh Rally Team due to their sponsors) were the only team to campaign their Kelisa. Henzee Hamzah (who made a transition from track racing to rallying) was their driver to drive the Kelisa for the 2016 season. Henzee’s Kelisa was a NA engine before the car got upgraded into a turbocharged engine which was currently driven by Ezamin Ezham Ismail (who was also the driver who made a transition from track racing to rallying) for the 2017 season.

Lim Leong Onn, his team and his Viva 4WD Turbo appeared at Putrajaya Rally X - Track Day…