The Praga Bohema has become the fastest car with a pure combustion (ICE) powertrain to lap the famous Top Gear test track.
Setting a time of 1min 9.8sec, the Bohema is also the second-quickest car overall around the Dunsfold Aerodrome circuit.
Fittingly, the Czech-made hypercar was driven by Ben Collins, who served as the first ‘White Stig’ on Top Gear between 2003 and 2010.
Praga will soon be handing over three newly completed Bohema customer cars to their lucky owners, as part of the 2025 Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Although aimed at track day use, the Praga Bohema is fully road-legal, and was equipped with standard road tyres for the Dunsfold Aerodrome lap time.
Made from a carbon fibre monocoque clothed in angular carbon bodywork, the mid-engined Bohema tips the scales at less than 1,000kg.
With a 710hp Litchfield-enhanced version of the 3.8-litre twin-turbocharged V6 from the Nissan GT-R, its power-to-weight ratio is truly in the realm of hypercars.
Accelerating from 0-62mph takes less than 3.0 seconds, while top speed is nearly 200mph. The Bohema also boasts aerodynamics honed in a Formula One wind tunnel, generating 900kg of downforce at 155mph.
Ben Collins, ex-Stig and now Praga’s test driver, drove the Bohema to the Dunsfold Aerodrome circuit, carrying his race suit and helmet in the car’s side luggage pods.
After his record run, Collins said: “Setting such a fast time at Dunsfold on regular road tyres was such a thrill. I knew the Bohema would be fast, but Dunsfold’s tight turns and short straights are not ideal for a car that lives and breathes downforce.
“It shows how potent the mix of lightweight engineering, great aerodynamics and pure combustion can be – even up against hybrid hypercars from established brands with more than 1,000 horsepower. The owners taking delivery of their Bohema at Goodwood are in for the time of their lives as their new cars take to the hill.”
The next challenge for Ben Collins and the Bohema will be the Goodwood Festival of Speed, which takes place between 10 and 13 July 2025. New owners of the Czech hypercar will be treated to thrilling rides up the challenging Goodwood hill course.
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An exhibition celebrating the challenge cars of Top Gear TV has closed – and some of the cars have been scrapped. World of Top Gear at the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu, Hampshire, brought together many of the wackiest challenge cars built by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May – plus other presenters such as Matt LeBlanc and Chris Harris.
However, following Freddie Flintoff’s accident, which led to the BBC cancelling the show, World of Top Gear has now been closed. And while some of the cars were saved, others were deemed uneconomical to restore and sold as scrap, including Jeremy Clarkson’s stretched Fiat Panda limousine. A rocket-powered Mini used to tackle a ski jump in the Winter Olympics special was another casualty of the closure.
We visited the World of Top Gear exhibition in Beaulieu before it closed. Join us for a guided tour.
James May’s ‘Lotus Escape to the Country’ was a motorhome based on the Excel Type 89. Featured in series 15, episode four, its sleek roof box contained a sleeping area, a barbeque grill and a potty. Telescopic poles elevated the roof box lid so May had enough space to sit on the loo.
‘Hammerhead Eagle i-Thrust’ sounds like a good name for a supercar, but the reality is anything but. The TG team’s riposte to the – equally rubbish – G-Wiz, this home-made electric car starred in series 14, episode two.
The HEiT was subsequently road-tested by Autocar magazine, causing the generator to come off its mountings and slide around the cabin. ‘We failed to crack 60mph,’ said the review. ‘In the end, it reached 50mph in 16.6sec and ran out of juice at 55mph, making it the slowest car we have tested this century.’
It was 2006, and the world’s top athletes were heading to Turin for the Winter Olympics. Meanwhile, the TG team staged their own version of the winter games in Norway, with events including Suzuki Swift ice hockey, speed skating versus a Jaguar XK and – the showstopper – a Mini ski-jump.
With the help of some rockets, the intrepid British saloon made the jump – as did the Stig on a snowmobile. Sadly, the Mini was one of the cars scrapped when the World of Top Gear exhibition was closed.
Driven by Paddy McGuiness, this modified Nissan Leaf features scissor doors, a wide-arched bodykit, a rear wing and a custom wrap. It was part of an entire episode of Top Gear dedicated to electric cars in 2019.
Top Gear’s response to widespread UK flooding was the Hovervan: a Ford Transit that is also – you guessed it – a hovercraft. Featured in series 20, episode four, this is actually the second-generation Hovervan. The first sank on its maiden voyage.
A 600hp Radical track-car engine helped keep the three amigos afloat on the River Avon, although the van proved noisy and difficult to steer. Flood-afflicted local people didn’t seem overly impressed…
It’s tempting to say the TVG12 is half-car, half-train. But really it’s just a Jaguar XJS convertible with a set of cast iron wheels. Nonetheless, Clarkson gamely connected the Jag to a ‘carriage’ (OK, a caravan with the roof sawn off) and completed a rail journey from Leicester to Loughborough.
With that huge makeshift wing on the back, we suspect this track car (sorry) will corner like it’s on rails (sorry again).
Calling this modified 1996 Nissan D21 pick-up the ‘Nissank’ was misleading. In fact, it was the only one of three TG amphibious vehicles to successfully cross the English Channel. Captained by Clarkson, it sailed from Dover to Sangatte, near Calais.
In addition to empty barrels used as flotation devices, Jeremy installed a couple of fishing rods to pass time while he waited for James ‘Captain Slow’ May. The Nissank stars in series 10, episode two.
Stretched limos are always a bit rubbish, but Top Gear’s homemade effort goes further. This elongated Fiat Panda actually broke in half while ferrying DJ Chris Moyles across London to the Brit Awards.
The Q-plated Panda lived on as a bench for visitors to the World of Top Gear exhibition… but unfortunately, it has now been scrapped.
This Fiat Multipla was thoughtfully converted into a car for old people (such as James) by Jeremy and Richard. Note its hearing-aid-beige paintwork, safety-conscious front bumper and Rover badges. Because oldies prefer to buy British, obviously.
Step inside and you’ll notice the large-print speedo, waterproof front seat and Shackletons easy chairs for passengers. There’s also a supplementary boot: a shopping trolley hooked onto the rear bumper.
If you ask us, this looks like a sad waste of a Mk2 Volkswagen Golf GTI and a W124 Mercedes-Benz E-Class. Still, who are we to stand in the way of family entertainment?
The double-decker cars challenge (series two, episode six) saw the TG team take on their counterparts from a German TV show. Unfortunately, while their rivals had the tank-like Merc and solidly-built VW, the Brits had to make do with Jaguar XJs carrying Rover Metros.
Now, this really was ambitious. With eight tonnes of thrust, the Reliant Robin space shuttle (seen in series nine, episode four) was Europe’s largest non-commercial rocket launch ever. And it worked… sort of.
The shuttle achieved lift-off, but failed to detach from the fuel tank, causing it to spin out of control and crash. Nonetheless, of all the Reliant Robins wrecked by Top Gear, this one went out with the biggest bang.
Top Gear giving something back? The surprisingly sensible Snowbine was a converted combine harvester, designed to remove snow from Norwegian roads.
OK, so the flamethrower on the roof was perhaps slightly ill-advised, but there’s no question the Snowbine worked. Clarkson, Hammond and May helped clear an entire road – and all without a single arson charge.
Series 12, episode eight introduced one of Top Gear’s famous challenges – a journey across Vietnam on motorcycles. Displayed here are Clarkson’s Vespa scooter and the back-up motorcycle used by the TG production team. Note the stars-and-stripes stickers: controversial in a country that was once the target of US military might.
Clarkson, Hammond and May didn’t enjoy all of their Vietnam journey, but this remains one of the toughest and most memorable Top Gear road-trips.
The Dampervan was another vehicle designed to cross the English Channel – this time in the hands of Richard Hammond. Essentially a Volkswagen camper inside a boat hull, it offers tea-making facilities for up to four people, plus a top speed of seven knots.
Hammond made it onto the high seas, but had to resort to an outboard motor after the Dampervan’s engine failed. It eventually sank
Ever-ambitious, the Top Gear production team built an enormous ‘Wall of Death’ inside London’s Alexandra Palace. The sheer G-forces involved meant this Maserati Quattroporte was made as light as possible – to the point of being almost unrecognisable. By the end of the challenge, the car’s steering system had totally collapsed.
Another epic road trip, this time in the hands of Top Gear’s new presenters: Matt LeBlanc, Chris Harris (seen here at the official launch of World of Top Gear) and Rory Reid. The team drove three high-mileage cars into the mountains of Kazakhstan.
Chris’s Volvo V70 had covered an epic 670,000 miles, but still wasn’t the leggiest car of the trio. That honour went to Matt’s Mercedes-Benz E-Class, which had more than 800,000 miles under its wheels.
Improving emergency response times? A Porsche 944 Turbo ‘sports ambulance’ is the obvious solution – provided your patient doesn’t need a stretcher, of course. Jeremy built this Gulf-liveried lifesaver in series 22, episode three.
James and Richard had rather different solutions to the problem. They chose a Ford Scorpio Cardinal hearse and an American Chevrolet G20 van respectively.
It was 2006, and the world’s top athletes were heading to Turin for the Winter Olympics. Meanwhile, the TG team staged their own version of the winter games in Norway, with events including Suzuki Swift ice hockey, speed skating versus a Jaguar XK and – the showstopper – a Mini ski-jump.
With the help of some rockets, the intrepid Mini-on-skis made the jump – as did the Stig on a snowmobile.
Described by Eddie Jordan as “the worst thing to happen to boating since the iceberg”, this project showed what happens when a SsangYong Rodius MPV meets a luxury yacht. Notable features include a fish tank and a keyboard for entertaining guests.
The SsangYacht’s finest moment was in glamorous Monte Carlo, where it traversed the harbour towing a water-skiing Chris Harris.
Series 10, episode two saw the second outing for James’s Triumph Herald amphibious car. And this time, it too would attempt a Channel crossing.
James kept it simple (and slow) by relying on wind power alone. Unfortunately, he was unable to sail beyond Dover harbour and the Herald soon sank. A sorry end for this hapless hero.
Top Gear isn’t known for its love of caravans. So James came up with an innovative idea: a hot-air balloon caravan that could eliminate traffic hold-ups – and enraged drivers – by flying from one campsite to the next. What could possibly go wrong?
Quite a lot, actually. James drifted into restricted airspace and eventually crashed through a bush. The flying caravan thus ends its days at Beaulieu – minus the balloon itself.
Chris Harris and Rory Reid headed to Cuba in series 24, episode six – Harris driving a ropey Maserati Biturbo and Reid in the £5,000 Chevrolet Camaro seen here. Their road-trip took them from the Bay of Pigs to Havana, with several races along the way.
Cuba has been starved of new cars for decades, so the highlights of this episode for us were the many classic American cars Chris and Rory spotted.
And here’s the Maserati Biturbo driven by Chris Harris in Cuba. A fine example of a car being very cool and also not very good. Most people bought a BMW instead.
The episode featuring this Renault 4 TL caused controversy when the car’s handbrake failed, causing it to crash into a Peugeot 106 Rallye driven by Paddy McGuinness. We didn’t mind so much when TG dropped pianos onto Morris Marinas, but cool French hatchbacks? Non merci.
We finish with a car that isn’t part of the World of Top Gear. However, this (deep breath) Mercedes-AMG C 63 S Edition 1 was driven by Chris Harris at the launch of the exhibition. And when we say ‘driven’, we mean power-oversteered until its rear tyres were squealing for mercy.
The World of Top Gear exhibition has now closed, but the National Motor Museum in Hampshire is open daily from 10am.
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