In a world where every other week someone announces they're building a 2,000 horsepower hypercar made from unobtainium and powered by the dreams of unicorns, something rather remarkable has happened. A company has actually delivered what they promised. And not just delivered it - they've made something that works. Image Credits: Praga Automotive, available at [link] The Praga Bohema - which sounds like something you'd catch in Eastern Europe - has just been handed over to its first customer in the Netherlands. Image Credits: Praga Automotive, available at [link] And Romain Grosjean was there to do the honors, presumably because he's one of the few people qualified to explain how to handle something this potent without ending up in a different postal code. You see, this isn't just another supercar with big numbers and bigger promises. This is what happens when Czech engineers decide to build something properly mental, but in a sensible sort of way. Image Credits: Praga Automotive, available at [link] Think of it as a track car that's learned to behave itself on the road, like a tiger that's worked out how to use a knife and fork. Image Credits: Praga Automotive, available at [link] Under the rear deck lives a rather interesting engine. Image Credits: Praga Automotive, available at [link] It started life as a Nissan GT-R motor, but then Litchfield - the people who make fast Nissans even faster - got their hands on it. They've converted it to a dry sump setup, fitted new turbos, and added a titanium exhaust system that probably costs more than my house. Image Credits: Praga Automotive, available at [link] The result is 700 horsepower, which in most cars would be plenty. But here's where it gets properly silly. The whole thing weighs just 2,300 pounds. Image Credits: Praga Automotive, available at [link] That's less than a Mazda MX-5. They've basically built a car with the power-to-weight ratio of a Saturn V rocket but with number plates. Image Credits: Praga Automotive, available at [link] The performance figures are, quite frankly, ridiculous. It'll do 0-62 mph in 2.3 seconds, which is the sort of acceleration that makes your eyes go rectangular. But straight-line speed is for Americans. Image Credits: Praga Automotive, available at [link] What's really clever is that this thing can apparently match a GT3 race car around a track while wearing street tires. Image Credits: Praga Automotive, available at [link] And then you can drive it home. Image Credits: Praga Automotive, available at [link] It's like having a pit bull that can win Crufts and then curl up by the fire with your grandmother. The really shocking bit? It all actually works. Image Credits: Praga Automotive, available at [link] Even the cabin is sensible. You can fit two six-foot-five adults in there, which means it's more practical than most Italian supercars where the design brief apparently specified that all drivers must be shaped like Danny DeVito. Praga's owner, Tomas Kasparek, says they promised "no concepts, no teasers, no b-s." Which in the world of supercar manufacturing is like finding a unicorn that does its own taxes. They just got on with it, tested it properly (in an F1 wind tunnel, no less), and built something that works. Image Credits: Praga Automotive, available at [link] Even Grosjean - a man who's driven everything from F1 cars to IndyCars - seems genuinely impressed. He says you can chat with your passenger on the road, and then switch to attack mode on the track and "discover unbelievable possibilities." Though I suspect in Grosjean's case, some of those possibilities might involve leaving the track in creative new ways. They're going to build about 20 cars a year for the next four years, each costing €1.36 million. That's about $1.43 million in real money, which actually seems almost reasonable given what you're getting. It's like they've looked at what Ferrari and McLaren charge and thought "Well, we could probably do that for less." And on that bombshell, I'm left wondering - is this what happens when supercar manufacturers stop spending their budget on marketing and actually focus on engineering? Though I suspect if I want to find out firsthand, I'll need to sell considerably more than just my house. Praga, if you give me one to have a go in, I'll only write nice things about it.
