, the first Praga car Praga was founded in 1907 to build
motor cars, the first being the
Charon, 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. 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. ==Products==