Malaysia isn’t widely known in the West as a hub for car manufacturing. But it actually hosts a handful of brands, like Proton and Perodua. Modenas, a company specializing in scooters and motorcycles, is also based in Malaysia. The coolest Malaysian brand, without a doubt, is Bufori. Since the 1980s, the low-production automaker has been building funky, retro-inspired luxury and performance cars. Now, it has a real-deal supercar. And honestly, based on what I see: I love it.
Bufori calls it the CS8, and going by the spec sheet, it has all the makings of a serious performance machine. It’s a front-engine, rear-drive coupe with two seats and a body made from carbon-kevlar. There’s a 6.4-liter supercharged Hemi V8 under the hood making 810 horsepower, mated to an eight-speed torque converter automatic. Stopping power comes from Brembo, with six-piston calipers up front and four-pistons in the rear. Bufori promises a curb weight as light as 3,417 pounds, and a 50-50 weight distribution. Sounds like a good time to me.
There’s some pretty obvious parts-sharing going on here, of course. The 19-inch forged alloy wheels are lifted straight from a Charger Hellcat Widebody, while the steering wheel buttons, airbag, gear selector knob, headlight switch, and gauge cluster are all clearly Chrysler products. Bufori doesn’t clarify, but the engine and transmission are both likely Stellantis-sourced as well. The air vents, meanwhile, remind me a lot of the units found on late-model Mercedes-Benz products.
Source: Bufori
Bufori told Malaysian publication AutoBuzz that just 10 percent of the CS8’s parts were sourced from Stellantis. The other 90 percent is all local product. The car is entirely handbuilt at the company’s factory in Kuala Lumpur, with owner Gerry Khouri telling Paultan.org it takes 9,000 hours to build each example. No CS8 is expected to be alike, with bespoke paint colors and customizable trim materials available to order. This is real supercar stuff, folks.
Though Bufori doesn’t mention this in its press release, options buried in the spec sheet reveal buyers can have the CS8 with a naturally aspirated version of the 6.4-liter Hemi, rated at 475 hp. If you’d rather have something more subdued, owners can spec a supercharged 3.6-liter V-6 with 455 hp, a naturally aspirated V-6 with 320 hp, or a twin-turbo 3.0-liter straight-six with 550 hp.
The CS8 has been a long time coming for Bufori—the company first showed a prototype all the way back in 2019. Should the brand continue to produce its executive sedan, the Geneva, it’ll be the first time Bufori will offer two models at once—bold, considering it employs around just 130 people.
Bufori was founded by three brothers from Australia, where its first factory in Sydney pushed out pre-war roadster-inspired sports cars. In the mid-1990s the company moved to Malaysia and expanded into the company it is today, launching the Geneva in 2010. According to its website, BUFORI is actually an acronym for Beautiful, Unique, Funtastic, Original, Romantic, Irresistible. On that fact alone, I’d defend this business with my life.
It’s unclear if Bufori has any plans to import the CS8 to Europe or the United States. While it wouldn’t likely pass our crash test standards, the possible death of the 25-year import rule could mean a possible loophole for buyers. Even if someone could legally import a CS8, they’ll have to fork up 2.188 million Malaysian Ringgits, or roughly $518,000, first. That begs the question: Bufori CS8, or a brand-new Aston Martin Vanquish? I know where my money’s going.
Top photo: Bufori
Lotta coin for something that has the looks and name of something you’d find in GTA5.
That’s a really great looking car! Not worth the price given the Stellantis power plants though. Just buy a Demon or Hellcat and use the rest of the cash to buy a damn house or something.
Malaysian car industry has seemed like the continuation of the Aussie car industry to me for a while. A lot of cheap little cars to fit a need and some really interesting cars. Price seems a bit steep especially considering the Malaysian labor rates but I guess it’s about 1/4 of the price other hand built cars globally.
Looks fantastic, probably sounds fantastic, it’s not yet another damned EV. The interior even looks like it might have real gauges, even if it has the ubiquitous giant screen in the center. Can’t win them all, I guess.
That engine line-up is just weird.
Why supercharge the Pentastar when the S.O Hurricane is available? And at that same point, why offer the N/A 392 if they’re going for “an engine for a hundred horsepower” (300 for the 3.6, etc.), as the S/O makes slightly less but far more torque, and likely even lighter?
The Bufori looks like a compelling way to use a Hemi, but the price just doesn’t work.
When you make a sports car out of mass-produced components, you should undercut the big names, like De Tomaso and TVR once did. Small-scale engine manufacturing is very costly, and when you cut out that cost, you should be able to charge a lot less.
So, what do we have here? a 518,000-dollar vehicle that has a $30,000 crate engine. That’s $488,000 worth of “bespoke” body and interior, except the switchgear is parts-bin, the transmission is industry-standard and the touchscreen is boring.
You’d need Pagani or Spyker levels of interior to justify the price, not a gauntlet of mass-produced buttons and touchscreens set into “bespoke” materials. The body looks like it was designed in Automation: The Car Company Tycoon Game, the bend radius of the creases around the flares, the vents, body lines and headlights looks like someone cut and/or glued pieces of wood together and half-heartedly sanded the edges, the grille is totally two-dimensional with that same cut-out appearance. I’m no Adrian Clarke, but I can pick up on the kit-car aesthetics, the whole body reeks of “how hard could it be?” and “I can’t afford a headlight housing, or any trim for that matter, but I can make up for all shortcomings with my sick fiberglass skills”.
But is that $518,000 vehicle coming standard with the supercharged 392?
What if it starts off with the 3.6? That’d be even worse!
I didn’t even stop to think about that, half a million for a Pentastar is diabolical.
Everything I know about the Malaysian car scene I learned from Mighty Car Mods. They did a 24 hour endurance race there with a Perodua, it was fantastic
Did they not release any interior pictures or are they missing from this article?
The press kit Bufori forwarded me didn’t have any interior pics, which is why I embedded the video.
If you click the link for Paultan.org in the article, there are a bunch of interior pics in the gallery. It’s very 2019 Chrysler in there.
Brief shot of the interior at 1:08
Longer one at :35. That’s what I get for skipping around the video
It looks like Karmic recycling is real. Right, Fisker?
My first thought exactly. Has a very familiar vibe, but can’t put my Fisker on it….
You mustache be kidding…
So its just a smaller Challenger Hellcat.
Every time I see one of these latter-day cottage-industry cars with a parts-bin drivetrain and an exorbitant price tag, I wonder who this is actually for.
I’m not feeling this one.
I’m sure it’d be great fun to drive. But more fun than a C6 at many multiples of the price?
Yeah, I’ll take a Mustang GTD and Corvette ZR1 for the same cost and more than double the HP!