The Czinger 21C VMax: Hypercar Madness on California Backroads
For years, the automotive world has been talking about Czinger, the Southern California startup that’s taking hypercar manufacturing to a whole new level. We’ve followed their journey, featuring interviews with the father-and-son founders, Kevin and Lukas Czinger, and always wondered about the true driving experience. Now, after getting behind the wheel of the 21C VMax on a three-day road rally, we can confirm one thing: this car is something else. It’s a blend of cutting-edge 3D-printing technology, race-car engineering, and pure, unadulterated madness. And we loved every minute of it.
Factory Fresh: Where 3D Printing Meets the Military Industrial Complex
The journey began with a visit to Czinger’s headquarters in Los Angeles, which is actually the facility for the parent company, Divergent Technologies. If you’re expecting a standard car factory, you’re in for a shock. Divergent isn’t just about building hypercars; it’s about rethinking how components are designed and manufactured. They use iterative artificial intelligence and massive 3D printers to create lightweight yet incredibly strong mechanical parts that are used in everything from high-end sports cars to Department of Defense projects.
Yes, you read that right. To enter the factory, I had to show my U.S. passport. While all the military equipment was covered during my visit, I got a glimpse of what looked suspiciously like a rocket. It’s wild to think that the same technology that builds a $2.5 million hypercar also supports national defense.
Lukas Czinger, the young and visionary CEO of both companies, explained the core philosophy of Divergent’s tech. They strive to reach “Pareto optimality”—the point where any change to a component, whether adding or removing weight, becomes detrimental to performance. Imagine designing a suspension component: the software iterates hundreds of thousands of designs until it finds the perfect shape that can handle the required forces without adding unnecessary weight. It’s like evolution in fast-forward.
While Czinger builds these hypercars in-house, they also supply 3D-printed parts to nine other automotive OEMs. Only three—Aston Martin, Bugatti, and McLaren—are willing to publicly admit it, but there are strong suspicions that Ferrari’s F80 utilizes their components as well. This tech isn’t some niche concept; it’s a proven methodology being adopted by some of the biggest names in the industry.
Under the Carbon Fiber: A Jet Fighter for the Road
Czinger builds two versions of what is essentially the same car. The 21C is the high-downforce, track-focused version named after the 21st century. The 21C VMax is the wingless, long-tailed grand tourer. For the inaugural Velocity Tour—a 500-mile road rally through California’s wine country—I found myself behind the wheel of a silver VMax.
The driving experience is unlike anything else on the market. Czinger describes the cabin as feeling more like a jet fighter than a car, and they aren’t exaggerating. The side windows are barely a foot away from your head, offering incredible visibility. Getting in and out is a workout: you sit with your legs facing out on the massive sill, pull your knees up, spin on your butt, and then tuck your feet into the footwell, finally sliding your head under the roof. It’s bizarre, but after a few tries, it becomes almost second nature.
One of the reasons the sills are so large is because they’re packed with batteries. The 21C VMax is a hybrid hypercar, with 2.2-kWh of battery power in each sill, for a total of 4.4-kWh. The car isn’t a plug-in hybrid; a motor powered by the mid-mounted V-8 keeps the pack charged. Those batteries can deliver 500 horsepower to the front axle, which has one motor per wheel.
The combustion engine is a custom-designed 2.9-liter twin-turbo V-8 that produces 750 horsepower on California’s 91-octane premium fuel. If you fill it with 100-octane race fuel, that number jumps to 850 horsepower. Czinger has also developed ethanol-based fuels that could generate even more power, but those figures are still being finalized.
Power is delivered to the rear wheels through an Xtrac single-clutch automated sequential gearbox. While this sounds similar to the gearbox used in the Pagani Utopia, Czinger takes it a step further by 3D printing the transmission case and using small 48-volt electric motors to execute shifts at lower speeds. This eliminates the lurching and surging that plague most automated single-clutch gearboxes. In low-speed driving, like pulling into gas stations or parking lots, the actuators work flawlessly, making the experience almost normal for a hypercar.
Track Time: Riding Shotgun in a Speed Demon
As is tradition with many high-end hypercars, Czinger had a professional driver, Evan Jacobs, ride along for the first day to ensure I didn’t crash the $2.5 million machine. Thankfully, Jacobs later assured the team that I was capable of driving solo, and I spent the rest of the rally without a co-pilot.
We stopped by Laguna Seca for some parade laps, but Czinger limits track driving to employees only, even at a casual pace. However, even a ride along is an experience in itself. If you can’t drive, try to get a ride, and I scrambled into the bizarre rear seat.
My XXL calves were wedged between the carbon-fiber tub and the seat, and my feet didn’t fit well, either. But the visibility through the side glass was incredible, reminding me of a stunt plane. It was a novel way to experience a racetrack, something I’ve done hundreds of times.
Jacobs managed to convince the Skip Barber Racing School staff to let him take the VMax for a few “6/10ths” hot laps. The most impressive lap I’ve ever experienced was riding shotgun in an Aston Martin Valkyrie LMH race car, where I could feel the blood pooling in my extremities during braking. The Czinger VMax now holds the number two spot on that list, and remember, Jacobs wasn’t pushing the car to its limits.
Even without the massive rear wing and at less than full throttle, it’s easy to understand how the Czinger 21C achieved what the company calls the California Gold Rush. They set five production car track records—at Thunder Hill, Sonoma Raceway, Laguna Seca, Willow Springs, and the Thermal Club—in five days, driving from each track to the next. Later, Czinger returned to Laguna Seca to reclaim the track record from a Koenigsegg Jesko Sadair’s Spear, clocking a ridiculous 1 minute, 22.30 seconds. That’s faster than the fastest MotoAmerica Superbike lap ever recorded at Laguna (1:22.56).
Czinger claims a vehicle weight of approximately 3,600 pounds, which is light for a 1,250-horsepower hybrid. For comparison, the Ferrari SF90 Stradale Assetto Fiorano—the highest-performance version of a three-motor twin-turbo V-8 PHEV that only makes 986 hp—weighs 3,839 pounds. The new Lamborghini Temerario, another three-motor twin-turbo V-8 with less power, clocks in at 4,185 pounds.
This is remarkable, especially considering that Los Angeles isn’t exactly Modena. But Czinger is proving that a new generation of car builders, armed with advanced technology, can compete with the established Italian giants.
On the Road: Normal Driving in an Abnormal Machine
The route chosen for the rally consisted mostly of true back roads—tight, winding, and often poorly maintained. It wasn’t the kind of asphalt that hypercar enthusiasts dream of. Plus, there was a lot of following the pack, navigating to stops, and hanging with the camera car.
At the time, I was a bit disappointed, but in retrospect, what I experienced is probably what most owners will experience while living with a Czinger. Surprisingly, the VMax was mostly like driving any other hyper-exotic. Take everything out of your pockets as the seats are tight, drink your water before you get in as there are no cupholders, and accept the fact that everyone on the road will be looking at you.
The Czinger rides much better than I expected. The team deserves applause for not making it overly stiff, and the air conditioning works well. However, the cabin is surprisingly loud. I’m not talking about the sound of the unique V-8—that’s amazing—but there seems to be a complete lack of sound deadening. That’s fine for a track-focused car like the standard 21C, but it’s an annoying oversight on a road car like the VMax. It becomes especially apparent when you’re inside the car for hours. Yes, weight is the enemy of performance, but how much does sound-deadening foam weigh? Twenty pounds? Maybe even fifty? Google AI says between 10 and 50 pounds. Couldn’t they have added just 10 pounds of the stuff? It would have made a huge difference.
Get to the Good Part: Too Much Power for the Road?
We finally hit some proper
