A small company builds a racing car around an engine borrowed from an established manufacturer. This description could fit any number of carmakers, such as Ariel or Caterham. The thing is, most of them call the British Isles, not Slovakia, home.
Praga Racing is based in Orechová Potôň, a village in Southwest Slovakia with a population of less than 2,000. Don’t let this fool you, though, because the company is far more serious and said village is also the place where the Autodrom Slovakia Ring, a track built in 2009 that has hosted FIA World Touring and GT1 championship races, is located.
It’s not surprising then that the Praga R1 is a track car. What is startling, though, is that a. it’s its third car, after the R4 and R4RS, and b. that, as the company states, it’s “ready to be driven on public roads if required”.
We see no reason why anyone wouldn’t want to drive the R1 on public roads – apart from scratching that beautiful carbon splitter, that is.
It may boast only 207HP from its mid-mounted 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine that’s the same as the one used in the Formula Renault, but it also has a kerb weight of only 590 kg (1,300 pounds), thanks to its carbon fiber chassis and carbon and Kevlar bodywork, which makes for a low 3,58 kg/kW weight-to-power ratio.
Even though no official numbers are announced, performance is bound to be more than adequate.
The F4R 832 engine features a Cosworth / Pectel ECU with traction control and transmits its power to the rear wheels via a Hewland six-speed sequential gearbox placed in the rear, in a transaxle configuration, with pneumatic paddle shifts and a ZF Sachs twin-plate clutch.
There’s a fully adjustable double-wishbone aluminum suspension all around while AP Racing discs with four-piston calipers take care of braking.
The wild-looking R1 not only conforms to all FIA safety regulations, but it can also be fitted with a passenger seat and front lights if the owner so wishes (rear lights, along with turn signals, are standard).
Production started last month after prototype testing was concluded in October (nice to have a race track at your door step, isn’t it?). The first cars will compete in the one-make Praga Cup series around European circuits and the company says there’s more to come “in the upcoming months”. A road-going version will do very nicely indeed, thank you…
You can view an image gallery, as well as two videos from testing at the Slovakia Ring, right after the break.
By Andrew Tsaousis
PHOTO GALLERY
VIDEO