Legendary Ex-BTCC Proton Waja Racecars Pop Up For Sale In NZ

Yes, dear reader, that is a Proton Waja racecar hopping the kerb pictured. This specific racecar was known as the BTC-T Impian and it raced in the ultra-competitive BTCC from 2001 to 2004.

In case you didn’t know, Proton once competed in the ultra-competitive British Touring Car Championship (BTCC). This was of course back in the early 2000s when the marque was still present in the UK market with the Waja sedan – soldas the ‘Impian’ there.

Our industry colleagues at both Careta.my and Wapcar.my have done in-depth features covering how Proton’s BTCC entry came to be – it was largely driven by national oil and gas giant Petronas at first – that you can read up on and get up to speed with.

Now, it appears that five ex-BTCC Waja (Impian) racecars have popped up for sale in New Zealand through specialist brokers High Performance Classics. The firm had reportedly advertised them for sale via Facebook first earlier this week.

In total, the firm possesses all five known units of these ex-BTCC Waja (Impian) racecars, and each unit is available for sale individually with prices starting from NZ$35,000 – roughly close to RM86,000 based on current exchange rates.

All five units possessed by High Performance Classics in NZ are in various states of (dis)assembly. The firm notes in this sale posting that each car requires varying levels of restoration to racing (running) condition.

The specialist firm does mention one caveat with this sale, specifically the fact that these units “will require restoration work to get back racing.” Surely, for anyone seeking to own – and perhaps experience – a slice of BTCC history, this is quite the bargain.

From the images published by High Performance Classics, all five ex-BTCC Waja (Impian) racecars are in various state of disassembly, some up to the point of bare metal chassis. What surprisingly remains here are their striking original Petronas liveries.

All five BTC-T Impian race cars started out life as actual Impian (Waja) production models sold by UK dealers before being reworked from the ground up into full-blown race cars.

Known as the BTC-T Impian, these cars started out life as actual Proton Impian (Waja) production models sold by UK dealership before being transformed fully for racing use by some of the UK’s mightiest and renowned motorsports firms.

These cars ran under the Team Petronas Syntium Proton (PSP) banner that was based in Norfolk. All were reworked from the ground up to meet BTCC technical regulations at the time, and we’ll argue all this was done in record time too back in late 2001.

Unlike the original production model, the BTC-T Impian had a fully engineered roll cage, revised suspension geometry, not to mention a myriad of race-specific hardware (wheels, ECU, dash display, etc).

The redux included engineering and fitting a full-blown roll cage plus driver’s seat and harness, revised suspension geometry, as well as extensive aerodynamic redesign of some of the car’s exterior (bumper, intake, splitter, wheel arches, rear wing, etc).

Then there was also the swap for a free-revving Renault-sourced 2.0-litre (1,996cc) 4-cyl naturally aspirated engine built and tuned by UK specialists Mountune. Paired with said mill is a 6-speed racing sequential box supplied by Xtrac.

Under the hood, the BTC-T Impian swapped from the stock Waja's Mitsubishi-supplied 1.6-litre 4G18 4-cyl mill for a specially-tuned Renault-sourced 2.0-litre 4-cyl and paired with an Xtrac 6-speed racing sequential box.

Other notable racing hardware listed by High Performance Classics on their website include airjacks, AP Racing brakes, OZ Racing centre-lock wheels, as well as Pi digital dash displays that are in the midst of being restored, amongst many others.

Despite its short competition career, the fact that the BTC-T Impian was built by the UK’s finest motorsports engineering firms also explains why full sets (in the hundreds) of original technical drawing and plans for all parts built and fabricated for it still exists.

To restore one, you'd definitely need to fork out way more than the initial purchase price touted by High Performance Classic for each unit, which starts circa RM86,000.

In other words, it wouldn’t be difficult for specialist firms with the right resources – and connections – like High Performance Classics in getting every one of these BTC-T Impian racecars fully restored and running again.

The real hurdle is the cost of footing the bill to revive these cars. Naturally, despite the availability of parts schematics and plans noted prior, reproducing and subsequently fitting them all into each – never mind all five – takes time and specialist know-how, and these are costly too.

Certainly, it would be a treat for Malaysian motorsports enthusiasts to see these BTCC podium-winning BTC-T Impian racecars rebooted and ready for a trackday in Sepang.