Praga hypercar teased ahead of launch

Czech manufacturer Praga has teased its entry into the hypercar segment with a third and final video before the official launch on November 23 at 17:00 GMT (04:00 AEDT Thursday 24).

The road-legal hypercar is “planned for all major hypercar markets”, a Praga spokesperson has confirmed.

However, we will be lucky to see the model on Australian shores, as it will be “hand-built and limited in number to ensure exclusivity” with only an initial 10 cars scheduled for production in 2023.

Praga says that the car is “not a concept” and is in the final stages of development so it will be launched ready to order.

The teaser video Praga has released only reveals minimal details of the car, including a plume of smoke from the dual titanium exhaust pipes, enclosed wheels with Alcon brakes, and what looks to be a cockpit-style silhouette design.

The name, price, and full technical details will be released at Wednesday’s launch.

The company has confirmed it will be lightweight, have a petrol-powered combustion engine, and use an all-carbon chassis construction.

Praga is a 115-year-old manufacturing and engineering firm that until now has been building everything from trucks, to tractors, tanks, motorcycles, aeroplanes, and karts, and now a road-legal hypercar under its Praga Cars division.

The company is also heavily involved in motorsports with its monocoque racing car, the Praga R1.

The R1 houses a Renault-Alpine F4R Formula 2.0 engine that produces 272kW of power and 395Nm of torque, and up to 3G of lateral force in high-speed corners.

Driven by Australian DTM driver Ricky Capo with Praga Racing ANZ, the R1 was a winner at the non-championship round of the Australian Prototype Series at Mount Panorama circuit in Bathurst this month.

However, Praga says the R1 has “no connection to the road car aside from its philosophical spirit of aerodynamics and dramatic high power-to-weight ratio.”

Nevertheless, the new hypercar will still be extremely track-focused.

IndyCar driver and former Formula 1 driver, Roman Grosjean was able to test the car on the track before its release as a spokesperson for Praga cars.

In the third teaser video Grosjean spoke about the racing-inspired nature of the car, saying, ”It’s going to be a very limited car. I know some of them are going into collections, but I hope that many of them are going to go on the race track because that’s where a car belongs.”

“As a race car driver, I believe the car should be on track. I can tell you that, if that car is on track, you know that the driver that’s driving it is a guy that’s a top driver.”