What could go wrong when Chinese automaker Youngman gets its hands on a leftover sedan design from Malaysian Proton, slaps on an appalling body kit, and splashes the whole thing with a gold chrome finish? Don’t forget those “Lotus” badges, either! Oh, Beijing, you’ve nearly outdone yourself here.
This rolling nightmare is what’s known as a Youngman L3 GT—no, we’re not kidding about the “GT” part—and aside from the flaky paint, this is how it’s offered to customers. We think. From what we can determine, the car itself is essentially a Proton Persona, an amazingly boring sedan that first entered the world in 2007, to which Youngman has added an extra dose of SEMA. From some angles, it kind of looks like a previous-generation Subaru WRX STI; from others, the front fascia’s slots look like whiskers. (Now try to not see the whiskers.)
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Believe it or not, those Lotus stickers and “Engineered by Lotus” branding all over Youngman’s Beijing auto show stand are the real deal. Youngman is Lotus’s Chinese importer, a duty that apparently comes with the privilege of access to Lotus’s engineering team, whose talents we’re quite certain were wholly wasted on this car.
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