CAR magazine's track-test review of the Czech racing car
Tested on track at SilverstoneSpeed building like a missile on Hangar Straight, the turbocharged racing engine buzzes through the carbon chassis and the moulded race seat mounted straight to it.
But the R1 is a pure racing and track car. It first appeared in 2012, and it’s been refined and evolved ever since. Originally conceived without a specific set of regulations in mind, as a showcase for what Praga’s engineers can do, the R1 has an extremely small footprint – not least because it’s a single-seater, with bodywork shrink-wrapped around the safety cell – but with extremely high downforce.
Despite every surface being shaped with downforce and aerodynamics in mind, it’s still a decidedly attractive looking car. And never more striking than with a livery by famed car designer Frank Stephenson . He designed the white-on-blue speed-striped scheme on the car pictured below, which has been nicknamed ‘Frank’ in return – and is up for grabs as a prize in 2022.The ‘Frank’ car will be given as a prize to the winner of the 2022 Praga Cup.
The R1 has 0.57bhp for every kilogram, and with such high downforce, it’s capable of formidable laptimes. The engine is closely related to that used in Formula Renault, but tuned with tolerances for longer endurance racing and fewer services. Praga claims the R1 is significantly more cost-effective to run than a heavier, more powerful GT3 car.Out of the pits, heavy-ish clutch pedal offset to the left.
Speed building on Hangar Straight, the vibration is intense, almost to the point that it affects your breathing at certain frequencies – a function of the integrated rollover bar required for BritCar regulations , which transmits some extra vibration into the cockpit. Praga’s already engineered a revised version, which does away with extra vibration and will be rolled out to 2022 cars.
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