CZECH MATE

EVEN AFTER ALL THESE YEARS, a purebred racing car still feels completely different. I have always been impressed by the wonders manufacturers can achieve when converting softly sprung road cars into hard-as-nails GT3 and GT4 racers, but not even they can change physical law. You have the same body in white and same approximate dimensions as the street machine from which it is derived. Which means the result is always going to be compromised: higher, aerodynamically limited and much heavier than something designed for one purpose alone – to race.

The Praga R1 was only designed to compete so despite being far less powerful than a GT3 or GT4 car, when you put them on the grid together... Well, at last year’s Oulton Park round of the Britcar Endurance Championship there were nine R1s entered which duly qualified in the first nine places. When the season was over, R1s had won seven of the nine rounds.

Which probably goes a long way to explaining why, first, there was a Praga-only class in the championship last year and, second, why even that’s disappearing in 2022 as Praga launches instead