The Circle of Supercar Life: A Birth (Praga) & a Death (Brabham)
While the new year is still young, in the supercar world there has already been a birth and a death notice. The Praga Bohema has entered production and Brabham Automotive has been laid to rest. Neither of these developments is a major surprise, Praga has been making consistent progress on the Bohema’s develop for quite some time and Brabham Automotive never seemed to get much traction.
Praga
Background
Praga has been making good, consistent progress on delivering its first hypercar, the Praga Bohema. Praga is a Czech brand that dates back to 1907. Under Communism it was forced into truck manufacturing, and then later reconstructed in the late 1990s as a commercial vehicle and motorcycle manufacturer. In 2012 Praga re-entered the car business with the single-seat carbon Praga R1 race car. The $250k R1 is now on its 5thgeneration and is available in the US via a dealer in Atlanta. Following an ownership change in 2015, a prototype road version of the R1 race car was developed, the Praga R1R. Based on the positive reception to the Praga R1R, Praga decided to get into the hypercar business and started development of the much larger Praga Bohema. The Bohema is based on an all new carbon fiber tub and will be powered by a Litchfield modified Nissan 3.8-liter twin-turbo V-6 producing 700 bhp. Dry weight is 2164 lbs which makes a few of its competitors look quite tubby. The production run is limited to 89 units over a four year period and is currently priced at €1.36 million each.
Production Start Up
Per Praga’s recent announcement, production of customer Bohema’s has just begun. From what I understand, Praga’s goal is to build up to 10 cars this year. Deliveries will be a mix of both public and private depending on the customers’ preference. Pending final EU homologation approval, initial deliveries in 2024 will be in the EU with the US (under pending Show & Display approval) & UAE likely following later in the year. If Praga has just started the builds, my guess is we will see the first Bohema on the road in Europe in May/June. In addition, I would not at all be surprised to see a Bohema at Monterey car week in August as this would generate an enormous amount of publicity for the brand.
I’ve heard that the 2024 build slots are all taken but there are slots still available for 2025-2027 production, although a number of specific chassis numbers have already been reserved. While early deliveries will lean towards the UK/Europe and UAE, the later production will tilt towards the US and Asian markets. Of the 89 cars, it’s expected that 24 cars will go to UK/Europe; 26 to The Americas; 24 to Asia/Pacific and 15 to Middle East/Africa.
The interest in the Bohema is quite impressive considering that to date, no-one outside UK, UAE, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Germany has even seen the car. A few prospective customers did drive a pre-production prototype Bohema on the road in Germany last summer in +30C heat and came away impressed. There have also been a select number of press drives (Top Gear, EVO, Robb Report, Car Magazine) in the pre-production prototypes that took place in early 2023. Car Magazine called the Bohema ”brilliant”. The common theme in the press reviews is praise for the Bohema’s huge amounts of grip, stability, and grunt.
I believe Praga is planning another set of road and track test drive for prospective customers in the now “production spec” Bohemas in the late spring/early summer. I would expect that once these are completed a number of the remaining build slots will be spoken for.
If all goes well with the production start up and Praga is able to fill its order book for 2025 onwards, I would not be surprised to see a limited edition “track only” speciallycreated for the last several cars at the very end of the Bohema production run.
I give a ton of credit to Praga for allowing both the press and customer test drives in 2023, I am sure it has helped them sell cars. It also shows a huge amount of confidence in what they are doing. To date Praga has both delivered against promises and been very open about their challenges. I continue to be impressed with Praga’s approach and look forward to seeing (and perhaps even test driving) a Bohema soon.
Brabham Automotive
On January 11th, David Brabham announced the end of the agreement between the Brabham Group and Fusion Capital, which operated Brabham Automotive, builders of the Brabham BT62 & BT63. The Brabham BT62 was a mid-engine track-day car introduced in 2018. The BT62 had a planned production run of 70 cars at a retail price of around US$1.4 million. In 2021 a detuned evolution of the BT62 was announced as the BT63 to meet GT2 regulations. A road legal conversion, the BT62-R, was also offered in the UK. How many BT62s & BT63s were actually produced is not publicly known but likely far less than the original target of 70.
Launching with a track-day only car was always going to be a tough sell. Doing so at a US$1.4 million price point without a carbon fiber tub and using a modified Ford V8 delivering only 691 bhp certainly didn’t make it any easier. At this price point today, a CF tub and 700+ bhp is simply table stakes. While the Brabham name is certainly F1 royalty, it’s more like the current French variety rather than the English version. The reality is a car carrying the Brabham name hasn’t raced in F1 since 1992. While the Brabham name certainly has awareness, it just isn’t current. It might have benefited the endeavor if Brabham Automotive had first started with a works racing program and then after a year or two, leveraged its success on the track, to then build a road car.
Conclusion
The supercar business is an incredibly tough one to succeed in. For every Koenigsegg or Pagani that lives to see its 21st birthday, there are scores more such as Mosler, Cizeta, Ascari, Spyker, and now Brabham that die tragically in infancy. It would appear that Praga has been doing all the right things and has a fighting chance to make it adolescence.
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January 2024