Aussie’s Extremely Abused Proton Saga Drives Around Racetrack Like a Champ

By Danial Martinus  •  17 Oct 2025 in Cars

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Whether you like it or not, you can’t escape national carmaker Proton no matter where you go in Malaysia.

Opinions differ regarding the reliability of Protons, but one thing’s for sure: They’re awesome cars if you’re looking for a set of wheels to get from Point A to Point B. But who would’ve thought that an old, beat-up Proton Saga would be put to use on the track in Australia?

To YouTuber Garbage Time‘s surprise, his trusty 2009 Proton Saga (known as the S16 in Australia) did much better than expected, and still got him home in one piece afterwards.

Affectionately known as the “Goober”

The video starts off with Garbage Time telling us about how he spent the day at The Bend Motorsport Park in Adelaide, Australia. He initially went for a drive-along in a heavily modified Mitsubishi Evo, intending on driving it himself after a couple of laps in the passenger seat.

Unfortunately for him, the car broke down, eliminating any chance at driving it. But his luck changed when he was told he could drive his own car on the track. The only thing is, the car he drove there was a severely abused 2009 Proton Saga, which he had used to conduct wild experiments on in previous videos. He affectionately calls it the “Goober”.

Among the abuses, the most horrid examples of them all include replacing the engine lubricant with Nutella and the coolant with Pepsi. Here’s the kicker, the car still worked. But of course, he put the Goober through a deep clean, removing most of the Nutella residue. However, he opted to keep his Pepsi coolant.

Bearing all that in mind, the man managed to take his Saga around the track, and it performed so much better than anyone could’ve hoped for. It even reached a top speed of 156 kph, which is such an unreal number if you think about all the crap the car’s been through.

After some twists, turns, and lots of tyre screeching, the car is miraculously still in one piece. The cherry on top is the fact that the Goober still managed to get him home, safe and sound, no hiccups in sight.

“Any time I see an old Proton in traffic, I now know that that thing is undefeatable,” he says. “You just can’t kill these.”

Watch the video below:

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