- Praga is delivering its first production Bohema today, December 6, 2024.
- It marks a return to road car production for the brand after 77 years.
- The supercar makes 700 horsepower and weighs just 2,300 pounds.
In a world awash with vaporware supercars and half-baked hypercar concepts, the Praga Bohema arrives as a rare breed: a promised car that actually made it to production. The first customer took delivery of their Bohema today in the Netherlands, with none other than racer and development driver Romain Grosjean on hand to make the delivery.
A Long-Awaited Reality
For those that might have (understandably) forgotten, the development of the Bohema started back in 2022. Since then, Praga has tested it, improved it, and standardized production to get to this day. Handbuilt at Praga’s factory in the Czech Republic, the resulting car is truly jaw-dropping. Don’t take that from me either – James May and Jeremy Clarkson were impressed too when they drove it last year.
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Under the rear decklid of the Bohema is a 700 horsepower (521 kW) twin-turbocharged V6 built by Litchfield. That engine starts out life as a Nissan GT-R motor before Litchfield converts it to a dry sump setup, swaps the turbos out, and adds a titanium exhaust. It sends the resulting power to the rear wheels via a Hewland sequential gearbox. What’s more, thanks to its carbon fiber construction, the whole car weighs just 2,300 pounds (1,000 kg). That’s less than a Mazda MX-5 if you’re keeping track.
Needless to say, that sort of power-to-weight ratio makes for excellent performance. Praga claims the Bohema can hit 62 mph (100 km/h) in a mere 2.3 seconds, with a top speed of 197 mph (317 km/h). For the uninitiated, that’s the kind of acceleration that’ll have you questioning your own mortality.
Track Car That’s Road-Legal
But the Bohema isn’t just fast in a straight line. Praga says the car is capable of matching the lap times of a GT3 race car, all while rolling on street tires. And here’s the kicker: you can legally drive it to and from the track. It’s an impressive feat in a market littered with race cars that are almost entirely unusable in daily life.
As Praga’s owner Tomas Kasparek puts it, “We always promised no concepts, no teasers, no b-s… just a pure, lightweight, very fast and beautifully appointed road-legal race car for a limited number of supercar buyers who can really drive – and that’s what we have delivered”.
Grosjean’s Take: A Supercar That’s Actually Usable
How does the Bohema drive? Romain Grosjean, a man with a fair amount of seat time in some of the world’s finest machines, for one, sings its praise:
“I was astonished by the Bohema’s amazing performance on track, its accessibility on road, and the ease of transition between the two. Praga has truly delivered on my challenge,” he explains.
“On the road, you get a smooth ride, the car eliminates bumps, you can chat with the passenger, and everything is calm. Then simply switch focus and you are on the track. The same clothes, the same car, but the feeling changes and you are pushing the limit and achieving amazing lap times again and again, discovering unbelievable possibilities in the Bohema,” he added.
That makes sense as this is a bespoke chassis and body that Praga designed in-house and then tested in an F1 wind tunnel. In 2012, Praga began building race cars so it leveraged what it learned there. The result sounds like a truly well-rounded machine. In fact, even the former Top Gear Stig Ben Collins liked a pre-production prototype when he had a go in 2022.
The cockpit can fit two adults who stand six foot-five tall. The seats, steering wheel, and pedals are all adjustable to get the right fit. Buyers will enjoy what Praga calls “generous luggage space,” too.
Production will continue with a maximum of just under 20 cars per year for the next four years. That is, provided that it can find buyers willing to fork over the €1.36 million ($1.43 million at current exchange rates) price for one.
The Anti-Vaporware Hero
This is the sort of walk softly and carry a big stick attitude that so few car makers have today. Even large-scale operations like Tesla can end up relying on big, flashy concepts to sell cars or pump stock prices. In a world of far too many concepts that don’t translate into real cars, the Praga Bohema is an outstanding example of just doing the damn thing.
