Vanli Auto – Pursuing Excellence Through Motorsports
For 30 years, the folks in the Vanli Group were a contented lot. Their business, which started with dealings of Daihatsu spare parts have seen them gradually grow into one of the country’s biggest and most influential spare parts dealer.
Parts export has recently been added to the company portfolio, and Vanli is now looking to dabble into the consumer market as well. Culmination of their efforts in this area is the opening of its new spare parts showroom at Jalan Ipoh, the first of its kind in Malaysia.
A crucial element of success for any business is brand awareness amongst consumers of its target market. The Vanli name might be a massive one amongst spare part dealers; it was something of an unknown quantity to the average Joe. An avenue was needed to imprint the Vanli brand into the consciousness of the public.
One such avenue that presented itself to Vanli was motorsports, specifically autocrossing events organized by Grass Racing Autosports (GRA). Unlike track days and rallying, autocrossing involves road legal and mostly stock standard cars, which are accessible to the common folk.
It is motorsports at its most affordable level, and in 2008 Vanli signed up as a sponsor for GRA. The GRA sponsorship deal puts the Vanli logo on the livery of every car, and also allows Vanli to display its range of products at the race venue. The closely-knit community in GRA also allows Vanli to build its brand more intimately with a core group of passionate motoring enthusiasts, who could potentially serve as ambassadors for the brand.
Not content just occupying the sidelines; Vanli also put its own car into the track – a Perodua Kancil 660cc driven by Woo Keen Pong. April 13th 2008 was the fateful day that Pong and Vanli made their GRA debut and neither has looked back since. Pong’s Kancil finished 4th in Grass Class A that day, and followed it up with another 2 fourth-placed finishes. He got his first podium finish (2nd place) in Round 4 of 2008, and at the end of the season, he was third in the Grass Class A championship points standing.
The following year, Pong upped his ante by plonking a turbocharger into his Kancil. That modification moved him to the more difficult Pro-Grass OA, but the added power immediately paid dividends, as Pong secured a 3rd place finish in the season-opener of 2009 held at Stadium Shah Alam. Round 2 was a forgettable affair, and Round 3 was skipped altogether due to a busy schedule, but Pong returned to take another 3rd place finish in Round 4 (being named Fastest FWD Turbo Car in the process) to finish 4th place in the Pro-Grass OA championship standings.
For 2010, Vanli stepped the exposure of their brand in GRA by fielding not one but two entries for the season. Pong swapped his Kancil for a Proton Satria 1.6, and alongside him in Vanli colours is William Lim’s Suzuki Swift. William is one of GRA’s most talented and impressive drivers, being able to push his (almost) stock standard Suzuki Swift to times that shame many turbocharged 4WD cars. The running joke amongst the GRA fraternity is that he should be banned from competing because he is too good for the competition!
In every round, William competes in both Grass Class AA and Pro-Grass OA categories. He wins Grass Class AA and the overall Grass Class without fail – that saw him comfortably top the Grass Class AA and overall Grass Class championship standings for 2010. He also consistently excels in the more challenging Pro-Grass OA – only Alven Lee was able to get the better of him all season, but William still bagged the Pro-Grass OA championship title at the end of the season.
Moving on, Vanli will also look forward to see its business grow hand-in-hand with its progress in the motorsports arena. To further expand its market coverage, Vanli has secured dealership rights for spare parts of continental and Chinese car marques such as Land Rover, Audi, Chana and Jin Bei. William and Pong, meanwhile, will be looking forward to another strong showing for GRA 2011.
See also: Vanli Auto – Your best source of original spare parts in town
