The Czinger 21C VMax: A Symphony of Madness and Innovation on the Open Road
The allure of the Czinger 21C VMax isn’t about its speed—though that’s certainly part of the appeal. It’s about the sheer audacity of it. It represents the future of automotive engineering and a level of hypercar lunacy that pushes the boundaries of what we thought was possible. We took this machine on a three-day rally across the stunning landscapes of Southern California, and the experience left us speechless.
The Forge of the Future: Inside Divergent Technologies
For years, the automotive world has been fascinated by Czinger. The company, founded by father-and-son duo Kevin and Lukas Czinger, has been quietly revolutionizing the hypercar industry with their revolutionary manufacturing processes. We recently had the opportunity to visit the Czinger headquarters, and it felt like stepping into the future.
The parent company, Divergent Technologies, utilizes iterative artificial intelligence and 3D printing to design and produce incredibly light and strong mechanical components. This advanced technology allows Czinger to push the boundaries of performance without compromising on weight or structural integrity.
Lukas Czinger explained that Divergent’s technology reaches the “Pareto optimal,” the point after which a single gram, either added or subtracted, becomes a negative. The software iterates hundreds of thousands of designs until it finds the strongest, lightest shape, a process that resembles evolutionary development on fast-forward.
Aside from the DOD, nine automotive OEMs use Divergent as a supplier of 3D-printed parts. While the company has a strict policy against revealing clients, it has been confirmed that Aston Martin, Bugatti, and McLaren are among the manufacturers utilizing this cutting-edge technology. Ferrari’s F80 is also suspected of featuring control arms produced by Divergent.
Under the Hood: Power and Precision
Czinger produces two distinct versions of the 21C: the high-downforce, track-focused 21C and the wingless, long-tailed VMax. The VMax is technically still the 21C VMax, but the name 21C is nowhere to be found on the car. For the inaugural Velocity Tour, a 500-mile road rally through Central and Northern California’s wine country, we were behind the wheel of a silver VMax.
The cabin feels less like a typical interior and more like a jet fighter cockpit. With glass just inches from either side of your head, the visibility is exceptional, even though the process of entering and exiting the car is a bit awkward. You have to sit with your legs facing outward on the massive sill, pull your knees up, and tuck your feet into the footwell, then slide your head under the roof.
One reason the sills are so large is because they house the batteries. The 21C VMax is a hybrid hypercar, with each sill containing 2.2 kWh of battery power for a total of 4.4 kWh. The car isn’t a plug-in hybrid, so a motor powered by the mid-mounted V-8 engine 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 Czinger-designed 2.9-liter twin-turbo V-8 that produces 750 horsepower on California’s 91-octane premium unleaded fuel. Pour in 100-octane race fuel, and the horsepower increases to 850. The small but mighty engine can also run on ethanol, potentially delivering even more power, although Czinger has not released those figures.
The gas engine powers the rear wheels via an Xtrac single-clutch automated semi-sequential gearbox. Similar to the Xtrac seven-speed found in the Pagani Utopia, Czinger not only 3D prints the transmission case but also uses small 48-volt electric motors to execute shifts more quickly at lower speeds. This eliminates the lurching feeling common in other automated single-clutch gearboxes, and as we discovered during the Velocity Tour, it works remarkably well. Pulling into gas stations, restaurants, and hotel parking lots felt almost normal.
Track Day: A Symphony of Speed and Precision
What didn’t feel normal was having a professional driver in the rear seat for the entire day. As is common with big-dollar hypercars, Czinger included driver Evan Jacobs to ensure we didn’t drive the $2.5 million vehicle off a cliff. Thankfully, Jacobs later assured the Czinger team that he deemed us a safe driver, and we were permitted to drive solo for the rest of the rally.
We made a stop at Laguna Seca for some parade laps, but non-Czinger employees are not permitted to drive the VMax on racetracks, even at the slow pace the rally participants were restricted to. Even so, we were able to experience the thrill of a ride in the rear seat. It’s important to note that if you have big calves or feet, the rear seat experience might not be the most comfortable. My calves were wedged between the carbon fiber tub and the carbon fiber seat, and my feet didn’t fit well either.
Despite the tight quarters, the visibility through the side glass is incredible. It reminded me of being in a stunt plane and was a unique way to experience a racetrack, something I’ve done more than a thousand times.
Jacobs and I managed to convince the Skip Barber Racing School staff to let him take the VMax for a couple of “6/10ths” hot laps. The most impressive hot lap I’ve ever experienced was riding shotgun in an Aston Martin Valkyrie LMH race car, during which I could feel the blood pooling in my extremities under braking. The Czinger VMax is now second on that list, and remember, Jacobs didn’t go full throttle.
Even at less than the limit and without the large downforce rear wing, it was easy to understand how a Czinger 21C achieved what the brand calls the California Gold Rush. This means it set five production car track records in five days at Thunder Hill, Sonoma Raceway, Laguna Seca, Willow Springs, and the Thermal Club, driving between each track along the way. Czinger later returned to Laguna Seca to not only beat its own record but to reclaim the throne from a track-special Koenigsegg Jesko Sadair’s Spear. That lap time, a ridiculous 1 minute, 22.30 seconds, is quicker than the fastest MotoAmerica Superbike lap ever recorded at Laguna, a 1:22.56.
Czinger claims a vehicle weight of approximately 3,600 pounds, which is remarkably light for a 1,250 hp hybrid. For context, the Ferrari SF90 Stradale Asseto Fiorano—the highest-performance version of a three-motor twin-turbo V-8 PHEV that makes only 986 hp—weighs 3,839 pounds. The new Lamborghini Temerario is another three-motor, twin-turbo V-8 (that again makes less power, but you get the comparison) that pushes past the two-ton mark, coming in at 4,185 chunky pounds.
Now’s a good time to mention that the SF90 and Temerario are the two quickest-accelerating gasoline-powered cars MotorTrend has ever tested. If Czinger’s weight claim holds true, the unorthodox California startup has managed to beat two Italian legends with their first product. That’s remarkable on its own, but even more so considering that Southern California isn’t exactly a hub for supercar manufacturing expertise. In other words, L.A. isn’t Modena.
The Open Road: A Journey of Surprises
The route chosen for the rally consisted mostly of true back roads. Tight, winding, lousy, weather-beaten pavement—not the type of asphalt hypercar dream trips are made of. Plus, there was a lot of following the pack, navigating to lunch and coffee stops, and hanging with the camera car. I was perhaps a bit disappointed at the time, but in retrospect, what I experienced is akin to what most owners will experience while living with a Czinger.
To my surprise, 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 aren’t any cupholders, and numb yourself to the fact that almost everyone else on the road, especially males between the ages of 16 and 24, will be looking at you, following you, waving at you, and revving at you, all while (probably) screaming friendly obscenities. Regardless, the Czinger rides much better than I figured it would; the team deserves applause for not making it overly stiff. Even the air conditioning works well.
If I have any complaint about the “just driving around doing normal stuff” aspect of the VMax, it’s simply how loud the cabin is. I’m not talking about the unique sound of the V-8, but rather there seems to be a complete lack of sound deadening. That’s great on a dedicated track car like the other version of the 21C but an annoying oversight on a road car like the VMax. It becomes especially apparent when you’re inside the car for hours at a time. Yes, weight is the enemy of performance, but really, how much does sound-deadening foam weigh? Twenty pounds? Twenty-five? Google AI says between 10 and 50 pounds. How about just 10 pounds of the stuff, then? It
