A Chance Encounter With Ben Collins & The Praga Bohema

A chance encounter with an old friend in the Spa paddock led to an entirely unexpected opportunity to sample the delights of the GT1 Sports Club at Spa.

The opportunity came as I was walking through the paddock past the awning that is home for the weekend to an array of track-focussed super-sports cars – past the Lamborghinis, the astonishing little McMurtry EV, the other worldly Apollo and the (not a GTE honestly!) McLaren Senna GTR came an altogether more lithe and low slung beast, the Praga Bohema (DSC covered the car earlier this year here) .

Suiting up by the car was Ben Collins, a driver I have known for over 20 years, back to his Ascari adventures at Le Mans. Chat and banter inevitably followed together with a very interesting conversation about the Praga that the race/ precision/ stunt driving legend as about to put through its paces on track.

First things first, the car looks incredible, a real two-seater, carbon-tubbed and aero-focussed stunner.

Weighing in at just 950 kilos and powered by a fully reworked (by legendary engine builders Litchfield Engineering) and now dry sump Nissan GT-R-based twin-turbo V6 pumping out an astounding 690 bhp the car, therefore, has a significantly better power-to-weight ratio than a current FIA WEC Hypercar!

The power is transferred to the wheels via a Hewland manual sequential transmission.

So far, so monthly glossy magazine fodder for the – deep breath – 1.3 million Euro beast, built in the Czech Republic by the historic Praga concern that is probably best known to readers here via either their role in the 2013 Lotus T128 LMP2 programme, and/ or the little Praga R1 series of bike-engined prototypes that have featured in endurance racing over the past several years including their own one-make Series o the Britcar bill.

That’s indeed where the link with Ben Collins originated, Ben one of a number of notable drivers tempted to the Praga as an ambitious UK importer invested in the publicity that comes with higher profile drivers.

It’s important to note though that whilst there are the tiniest visuals cues between the R1 and the Bohema these are totally different cars in every regard. Perhaps most notably the engine and transmission are mounted, not as fully stressed members to the chassis, but in their own subframe, giving a significantly less aurally challenging experience to driver and passenger, the R1, as with all carbon monocoque cars with directly mounted powertrains, something of an ordeal for the ears!

An introduction from Ben to the management team accompanying the car offered a slim chance of an on-track adventure but with most of the sessions dedicated to runs with potential customers chances seemed slim at best, but it was a very nice thought!

That all changed on Friday morning though with a text message that set me scrambling – a slot HAD opened up – but I’d need full race kit.

As the message arrived I was standing by the pit garage of Bullitt Racing and Team Manager Steffen Patrick could not have been more accommodating, race suit and gloves were loaned (many thanks Steffen) and I was on my way. This btw explains to anyone that encountered me in the paddock that no, this shambling wreck of a human was not on the grid for the Spa 24 Hours!

The briefing on the Bohema was short and hugely helpful, the cockpit was snug but entirely comfortable, ergonomically designed with literal elbow room to keep the passenger’s arms out of the way of the enthusiastic driver.

The all-important door release and manual over-ride was explained too – the car and the driver exude confidence but this was going to be a (very) high-speed run on a very demanding track.

The next thing to note is that the Bohema is NOT a track-only car. The car on display at Spa is road registered and legal. As was made clear just before it took to the track when there was a polite request to remove the license plate!

“As you might expect, the car has significant street presence,” said

A walk from the middle paddock down to pit out at Eau Rouge gave plenty of time to ponder on just what the GT1 Sports Club is attempting to achieve, a shop window for car makers, and an opportunity for the owners of some truly extraordinary machinery to take time on track in front of an audience that likely has never seen these machines outside of the internet or the pages of a glossy magazine.

Three cars were due to join the Friday lunchtime session, the Praga, one of three Lamborghini SCV12s present and an Apollo Intensa Emozione, the German-built hypercar though suffered a technical failure and driver Maxime Soulet stalked off to await his next racing session.

So the Lambo and Praga alone it was. With the session about to start the signal to start engines was given, and the Lamborghini was certainly loud and more sonorous with its big V12, the Bohema an altogether more understated but purposeful tone.

Ben powered away to put a couple of solo laps in to warm everything up and ensure the car was behaving well. It was, and it was coming around much, MUCH faster than the Lamborghini!

Into pit lane and it was time for me to join in the fun, suited, helmeted and booted, getting aboard was simplicity itself, part race car (big side pods) but with a door opening easily navigable by even the least fleet of foot and generous of girth! Six-point belts fastened and tightened and it was go-time, out lap, two flying laps and in lap. This was going to be fun.

Initial acceleration, from a standing start up and out of pit exit to driver’s right of Eau Rouge, emerging on the right-hand side of Raidillon, was significant but not excessive, when on track though the Bohema gathered momentum like nothing else I have ever experienced, and I have been on track in some very fast cars with some very good drivers.

With the car already warmed up, Ben was immediately ‘on it’ with the acceleration already race car fast but the two aces in the hole were about to be played!

First the braking. The Bohema has lightweight but durable 380mm carbon ceramic discs with six-piston calipers on each corner. To say they have impressive stopping power would be an understatement akin to saying that a fully grown Husky is fond of a snack. The anchors came on seemingly impossibly late for Les Combes. Had my pilot been a less experienced and able driver I might even have been a tad nervy, but Ben was in full control, as the next move confirmed.

This thing handled like a full-blooded race car but with road car refinement, the hard, HARD braking translated seemingly effortlessly into a beautifully controlled, apex clipping demonstration of raw capability.

Ben was pushing on, I’d made it clear that I wanted nothing held back on my account and he was delivering. Down the hill we began, the Praga gathering speed very rapidly, the braking and handling of the car increasing this passenger’s confidence – corner by corner – that the car was more than capable of soaking up the effort that Ben was very clearly putting in.

As always he was the consummate Pro, checking in that all was OK in the passenger seat (it was, more than OK) and pushing hard again, the car had simply astounding mechanical grip, and no little aero grip too, the car was designed to generate 900kg of downforce at 250 km/h, and we reached around that speed several times per lap!

A couple of runs over the kerbs showed one of the most impressive parts of the Praga story, its refinement – no rattling of fillings, no discomfort at all in fact, the suspension soaked it all up and wrung it out for the next phase of the lap.

I asked Ben at one point if the car was ‘chuckable’. The answer is that you can be a hooligan and get away with things that a more ordinary car would punish you hard for. That’s not Collins’ style of course. Instead, he pushes the envelope in an altogether more professional and controlled way, with the margins very small indeed.

There was one minor error – and it came through Eau Rouge – with a bit of a moment where the charging Bohema found itself (only marginally) somewhere other than intended – Ben though had gathered it up and kept it all (literally) on track before I had the chance to register a mini-drama.

Pure performance in one plane is a relatively simple matter, expanding that portfolio across the range of required attributes is altogether more difficult – doing all of that with a car that soaks up the punishment in road-car fashion is, quite frankly, astonishing.

Am I joining the queue to buy one? Not in my income bracket, but those that do are going to be in command of something that is miles clear of the millionaire’s brag-wagon norm.