Praga Grand History

Introduced in 1912, the Praga Grand was the marque's flagship — a large, multi-cylinder car that proved itself almost immediately when three prototypes finished first, second, and third in an alpine race that year. The Austro-Hungarian Army took notice and ordered the Grand as a staff car and ambulance for World War I, with 335 built before the armistice.

After Czechoslovakia gained independence, the Grand became the preferred vehicle of the new country's first president, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk — a remarkable endorsement for a domestic brand. A total of 1,196 Grands were built across the run, with later cars gaining an eight-cylinder engine alongside the original four. Production wound down in the early 1930s as the Great Depression made large luxury cars commercially unviable; the Praga Golden was conceived as its spiritual successor.