Ex-Stig Ben Collins just set a lap record around Dunsfold Park with the Praga Bohema

Ex-Stig Ben Collins just set an incredible lap record around Dunsfold Park at the wheel of the Praga Bohema.

The Bohema lapped the track in just 1:09.8, just a hair off the time set by the Aston Martin Valkyrie.

That’s impressive, and it’s also a new record.

And the reason why it’s a record will certainly make gearheads smile.

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Ex-Stig Ben Collins set a 1:09.8 time around Dunsfold Park, the former Top Gear race track, at the wheel of the Praga Bohema, a track-focused (but still street-legal) supercar.

Even though the Valkyrie was 0.2 of a second faster than the Bohema, this is still a record.

And this is because the Bohema uses a 700-horsepower 3.8-liter twin-turbo V6 with no electric aid, which means this is now the fastest pure combustion car around the track.

The Bohema only weighs less than 1,000 kilograms, so that definitely played a part, but Ben Collins also said a large portion of the credit should go to brakes.

“This car probably has the best brakes and best ABS of any car I’ve driven. They really give you that granular feeling when you’re braking,” Collins told Supercar Blondie.

We should also point out that the record was set on regular road tires and, according to to the ex-Stig, the Bohema could potentially have more to give.

When we asked him, he said this was basically a first attempt, with only half a dozen hot laps in the time slot available at Dunsfold Park.

“Even when you set a great time, you’re still always thinking you could still tweak a few things be even faster. With the perfect lap, we would have been at the top of the list,” he said.

Collins will also take the car to Goodwood for the upcoming Goodwood Festival of Speed in July.

This is partly because Praga wants to showcase the car at the event, but also because it’s going to be the perfect occasion to hand over three new customer cars.

It took the company only two years to develop the first production car starting from the prototype, and that’s pretty good for a relatively small company.

The first customer car was delivered back in December, and three more lucky soon-to-be Praga Bohema owners will take delivery of their supercar at Goodwood.

The Praga Bohema will be limited in terms of production, chiefly because each car is hand-built in the Czech Republic to meet the owner’s exacting specifications, but there’s no hard cap.

And the reason why the company avoids setting a strict limit on annual production was perfectly explained by Praga’s Marketing Director Mark Harrison when we spoke with him in December last year.

“We want to make sure we give each car the time and attention it needs,” Harrison said.

In other words, they’d rather make sure each car is built well, rather than accelerating production just to add numbers.

Quality over quantity.