Company type | Společnost s ručením omezeným |
---|---|
Industry | Automotive |
Founded | 1907 |
Headquarters | , Czech Republic |
Products | cars, trucks, karts, planes |
Parent | PRAGA-Export s.r.o. |
Website | pragaglobal.com |
Praga is a manufacturing company based in Prague, Czech Republic. The company produced automobiles, trucks and airplanes. The Praga V3S 5-ton truck was used by the Czechoslovak Army for more than half a century. [1] The current company produces karts, racing and road supersports and is involved in car racing. It produces up to 7,000 kart chassis every year, making it one of the most successful kart manufacturers in the world. [2]
Praga was founded in 1907 to build motor cars as a venture between entrepreneur František Ringhoffer and the company 1. českomoravská továrna na stroje ("First Bohemian-Moravian Machine Works", later a founding part of the ČKD factories). Ringhoffer only stayed for one year and in 1909 the trade name Praga ("Prague" in Latin) was adopted. One of its early models was built under licence from the Italian company of Isotta Fraschini.
Besides building its own vehicles Praga later also supplied engines and gearboxes for other vehicles, like aircraft and tanks.
In 1929 Praga merged with ČKD, one of Czechoslovakia's largest engineering companies.
In 1929 ČKD's BD motorcycle was re-branded under the Praga marque. This was an advanced four-stroke single-cylinder unit construction double overhead camshaft model of 500cc designed in 1927 by JF Koch. The "BD" designation was retained as its model name.
In 1932 Praga added a second motorcycle model, the BC. This had a single overhead camshaft engine of 350cc, shaft drive and a pressed steel frame. Praga ended production of both motorcycle models in 1933.
The factory was largely destroyed by air raids in 1945. After the Second World War it was rebuilt and resumed truck and bus construction. The firm was nationalized in October 1945. Passenger cars (only the mid-sized Lady) were also manufactured in small numbers until 1947, for use by government officials.
The M53/59 Praga was a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun developed in the late 1950s. It consists of a heavily modified Praga V3S 6 wheel drive truck chassis and twin 30 mm AA autocannon.
In June 2011 the company unveiled their new race car Praga R4 at the Dutch Supercar Challenge in Belgium. It has an eight-cylinder engine of 520 hp, and has not yet been homologated for normal road traffic. According to its owner Petr Ptáček, the company is taking gradual steps, so that Praga cars will not only be seen on racetracks, but also made road-legal. [3]
The Praga R1 from 2012 is a race car which competed in the Dutch Supercar Challenge and Britcar sports car racing. In 2016, the company delivered the first limited edition of the supersport road car Praga R1R, a derivative of the R1 race-car. This marks the first road-legal car under the Praga brand since 1947. [4]
All Praga automobile production stopped by 1947, but was restarted in 2011 when Praga constructed the R4S. It utilized a 3.2 liter V8 based on the Suzuki Hayabusa engine and produces 530 BHP, with a total weight of only 880 kilograms. A feature on the R4S are the markings for camber and toe, which eliminates the need of advanced tools, with a specific amount of "clicks" representing a certain degree of camber or toe.
During the 2013 and 2014 season the Praga R1 was part of the Supercar Challenge. Praga R1 cars participated in the Dutch GT & Prototype Challenge in 2017 and 2018. Praga R1 participated in the Britcar Endurance Championships in 2019-2021. The first-ever running of a dedicated Praga class took at the Silverstone Circuit in April 2021 in the Britcar Endurance Championship, with seven Praga R1 racing cars. [12]
Team Fórmula de Campeones – Praga F4 compete at the F4 Spanish Championship, a FIA Formula 4 racing championship.
Year | Car | Drivers | Races | Wins | Poles | F/Laps | Points | D.C. | T.C. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2018 | Tatuus F4-T014 | Petr Ptáček | 9 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 85 | 7th | 4th |
Kilian Meyer | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 68 | 8th | |||
Rafael Villanueva Jr. | 17 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 91 | 6th | |||
2019 | Tatuus F4-T014 | Nerea Martí | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 35 | 16th | 3rd |
Carles Martinez | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 111 | 5th | |||
Kilian Meyer | 21 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 227 | 2nd | |||
2020 | Tatuus F4-T014 | Carles Martinez | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 56 | 9th | 3rd |
Quique Bordas | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 82 | 8th |
Tatra is a Czech vehicle manufacturer from Kopřivnice. It is owned by the TATRA TRUCKS a.s. company, and it is the third oldest company in the world producing motor vehicles with an unbroken history. The company was founded in 1850 as Ignatz Schustala & Cie. In 1890 the company became a joint-stock company and was renamed the Nesselsdorfer Wagenbau-Fabriksgesellschaft. In 1897, the Nesselsdorfer Wagenbau-Fabriksgesellschaft produced the Präsident, which was the first factory-produced automobile with a petrol engine to be made in Central and Eastern Europe. The First Truck was made a year later, in 1898. In 1918, the company was renamed Kopřivnická vozovka a.s., and in 1919 it changed from the Nesselsdorfer marque to the Tatra badge, named after the nearby Tatra Mountains on the Czechoslovak-Polish border.
Avia Motors s.r.o. is a Czech automotive manufacturer. Founded in 1919 as an aircraft maker, it diversified into trucks after 1945. As an aircraft maker it was notable for producing biplane fighter aircraft, especially the B-534. Avia ceased aircraft production in 1963.
ČKD was one of the largest engineering companies in the former Czechoslovakia and today's Czech Republic. It is famous for the Tatra T3, a tramcar that sold 13,991 units worldwide.
Tanks were initially deployed in World War I, engineered to overcome the deadlock of trench warfare. Between the two world wars, tanks were further developed. Although they had demonstrated their battlefield effectiveness, only a few nations had the industrial resources to design and build them. During and after World War I, Britain and France pioneered tank technology, with their models generally serving as a blueprint for other countries. However, this initial advantage would slowly diminish during the 1930s, shifting in favor of the Soviet Union and, to a lesser degree, Nazi Germany.
Britcar is an endurance sports car racing and touring car racing series in the United Kingdom.
ČKD-Praga was a Czechoslovakian aircraft manufacturer. The company was founded in 1915 as an engine manufacturing company, under the designation Praga. The company started designing aircraft in 1930–31 when the designers Pavel Beneš and Miroslav Hajn came to ČKD-Praga from Avia. Their first aircraft was the Praga E-39 from 1931. It was a military trainer, with a production run of 139 aircraft. ČKD-Praga developed several aircraft over the following years, but none exceeded prototype stage.
The AH-IV was a Czechoslovak-designed export armored fighting vehicle, classed as either a tankette or light tank, used by Romania during World War II, but having also been acquired by neutral Sweden and Iran. Modified AH-IV versions were built under license by Romania (R-1) and Sweden. The Romanian vehicles saw action on the Eastern Front from Operation Barbarossa to the Vienna offensive. Twenty vehicles were sold after the war to Ethiopia, who used them until the 1980s.
The Tatra T 810 (Tactic) is a medium truck made by Czech company Tatra; it replaced the popular Praga V3S which was introduced in the 1950s and served in the Army of the Czech Republic until 2008. Unlike other Tatra trucks, it does not use classic Tatra air-cooled engine and the traditional Tatra conception of backbone chassis and swinging half-axles, but the customary truck architecture with conventional frame. It is mainly intended for difficult terrain conditions. The civilian version T 810-C was introduced in 2010.
The Praga BH-44 was a prototype Czechoslovak fighter biplane of the early 1930s. Only two were built, the rival Avia B-34 being ordered instead.
The Praga R1 is a racing and sports car made by Czech car manufacturer Praga. The cars raced on the Supercar Challenge and the Britcar Endurance Championship.
This article deals with the history of tanks employed by military forces in Czechoslovakia from the interwar period, and the more conventional tanks designed for the Czechoslovak Army before World War II, and the tanks that ended up as Panzers of the German Wehrmacht during World War II, or in the use of other countries who purchased them before the war began.
The Praga V3S is an all-terrain multi-purpose truck, produced between 1953 and 1990 in Czechoslovakia. It was designed for the armed forces and was also exported to 72 countries. Praga produced the truck until 1964, then the Avia company until around 1986, after which the Bratislava company BAZ rolled out these vehicles until 1990. Around 130,000 units were manufactured. The truck was among the best off-road cargo vehicles of its time and the Czechoslovak Army used it for more than half a century. It was the longest produced Czechoslovak truck and it still serves in Czech Army for more than 70 years, despite being slowly replaced by Tatra 810 and Tatra 815.
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The Praga R1R is a mid-engined sports car produced by Praga. The R1R represents the first road car made by Praga in 68 years. Because of the 68-year long term hiatus, Praga decided to only make 68 units of the car.
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