It was not too long ago when a certain Stig was racing cars around the Dunsfold Aerodrome in the Bohema on Top Gear. The masked maskot certainly knew how to race cars, and it seems like he’s put his powers to use again … only to break his own record.
This time, the Stig (aka Ben Collins) raced a Praga Bohema, a car that produces less than half the power produced by modern-day hypercars. Was it all skill then? Nope, much of it had to do with the car itself.
Debuting in 2022, the Bohema has certainly come a long way. It made its way into the hands of its first owners late last year, with Praga announcing a triple customer handover at the forthcoming Goodwood Festival of Speed in July. Breaking the Top Gear track record will only add to the car’s race credentials.
But what’s the record? The Praga Bohema supercar set a time of 1:09.8 at the former Top Gear circuit, which means it narrowly missed out on the previous year's record set by the 1,140-bhp hybrid Aston Martin Valkyrie.
“I knew the Bohema would be fast, but Dunsfold’s tight turns and short straights are not ideal for a car that lives and breathes downforce,” said Collins. “It shows how potent the mix of lightweight engineering, great aerodynamics, and pure combustion can be – even up against hybrid hypercars from established brands with more than 1,000 horsepower.”
Collins drove the car a few times around the lap. He topped the Ferrari 488 Pista's 1:12.7 on his first flying lap with a time of 1:12.3. However, he was still behind the hybrid Ferrari SF90's 1:11.3. Collins continued to push the car, cutting time every lap until he reached 1:10.9. In doing so, he achieved a record time that was only two tenths of a second less than Aston Martin Valkyrie's.
And much like the Valkyrie, the ultra-light Bohema is made almost entirely of carbon fiber, and has intricate bodywork designed to extract as much downforce as possible. A modified Nissan GT-R 3.8-liter twin-turbo V6 engine is tweaked by Litchfield to produce 700 horsepower, which is sent directly to the rear wheels.
The Praga is, in fact, road-legal, but its racing-focused suspension and carbon ceramic brakes have been designed to perform equally well on the track. The supercar generates 1,984 lb (900 kg) of downforce at 155 mph (250 km/h) and can reach 62 mph (100 km/h) from a stop in less than three seconds.
The Dunsfold Aerodrome is a circuit that featured in nearly every episode of Top Gear, which aired from 2002 until 2020. With a lap time of 1:11.3, the Ferrari SF90 Stradale held the record for being the fastest to be recorded on Top Gear.
The Ferrari 488 Pista, Dallara Stradale, Porsche 911 GT2 RS, and McLaren 675LT were next to follow. Since then, the SF90 Stradale lost to the Koenigsegg Jesko Attack at 1:10.9, followed by the Aston Martin Valkyrie at 1:09.6, with the Bohema now sitting in the middle at 1:09.8.
There is, of course, a little disclaimer. The Stig usually had only one flying lap to put out a time during the Top Gear TV era. On the other hand, Collins drove the Bohema for a number of laps, which helped him become more comfortable with the vehicle.
Heck, he even took Misha Charoudin out in the Praga a few days before he attempted the record. Not to forget, factors like weather conditions also affect the results adversely. So, it's not really a level playing field. But even so, it's a remarkable accomplishment for a boutique manufacturer like Praga.
The Czech automaker has a rather rich heritage dating back to 1907, which was revived in 2011 with an eye for producing supercars. Each Bohema is hand-built in the Czech Republic. Initially, the company only intended to produce 89 of these, but demand may force them to produce more or less.
Source: Praga
