Bufori CS8 Malaysian review – 810 hp V8, from RM2.19 million; has Kepong built a world-class sports car?

For all the attention Perodua and Proton have been garnering as they go at each other hammer and tongs for sales supremacy, there’s a little-known outfit in Kepong quietly churning out even more impressive work – bespoke, highly individual sports cars with a focus on distinctive prewar-inspired designs.

I’m talking, of course, about Bufori, and its latest model, the CS8, is easily its most conventional yet. But you’re still looking at the diametric opposite of the Proton eMas 5 – a long and low two-seat sports car with a muscle car V8 at the front, a ZF eight-speed automatic sending drive to the rear wheels and an entirely hand-built cabin lined in leather.

Plus, unlike that eMas 5, the CS8 is almost entirely made in Malaysia using local components. That includes the carbon Kevlar monocoque that is even woven in-house, as well as the wiring harness, computers, PCB chips and software. This is despite the fact that Bufori is classified as a foreign carmaker and has to pay full import and excise duties, even though its cars never cross a sea or land border to enter the country – a downright crime if you ask us.

Those duties are the reason why the CS8 costs as much as it does – a whopping RM2,188,000 on-the-road without insurance puts it in direct competition with big-name GTs like the Aston Martin Vantage. But I digress.

The car 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, resulting in a displacement boost from 6.2 to 6.4 litres.

As you can imagine, performance is monumental, with 810 hp (750 wheel horsepower) and 975 Nm of torque pushing the CS8 to 100 km/h in just three seconds flat, on its way to a soaring top speed of 330 km/h. Your eccentric uncle’s La Joya this most certainly isn’t.

It’s quick because it’s so light. A target weight of 1,450 kg – about as much as a base Porsche 718 Cayman – doesn’t seem all that impressive 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 plenty of kit, including heavily-bolstered Recaro buckets and the trademark fully-featured Snap-On tool kit (itself worth RM13,000) that comes with every Bufori.

Our man Hafriz Shah managed to have a go behind the wheel of the demo CS8 prototype as it underwent final development ahead of deliveries in the first quarter of next year. As such, the car’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 instead of the adaptive dampers that are expected to form part of the standard equipment.

Think of it as a first drive rather than a full review, then. But what does Hafriz think of Malaysia’s only true homegrown sports car? He seems pretty impressed – watch the video below to find out his thoughts.