Czinger 21C VMax: A Glimpse into the Hypercar Future
For years, the automotive world has watched Czinger with bated breath, wondering when this audacious Southern California startup would finally deliver on its promise of 3D-printed, alien-tech hypercars. The answer is here, and it arrives in the form of the Czinger 21C VMax, a machine that is as much a marvel of engineering as it is a testament to technological madness. Having spent three days with this radical vehicle on a road rally through Northern California’s wine country, I can attest that the 21C VMax is more than just a car; it’s a statement about where automotive performance is headed.
Factory Fresh: Beyond the Carbon Fiber
My journey into the heart of Czinger began at their facility, a place that felt less like a car factory and more like a glimpse into a dystopian future where cars are grown in vats rather than assembled on lines. To enter the Divergent Technologies building, the parent company of Czinger, I had to present my U.S. passport. While this might sound unusual, Divergent is not just an automotive manufacturer; it’s a supplier of lightweight, high-strength components to the Department of Defense. My tour, led by CEO Lukas Czinger, was a deeply impressive experience. Inside one of the massive 3D printers, I witnessed lasers fusing powdered aluminum into automotive parts that looked like something out of a sci-fi movie—perfectly engineered, skeletal structures that seemed to defy gravity.
Lukas explained that Divergent’s technology is pushed to the absolute limit, seeking the “Pareto optimal,” where any single gram added or subtracted becomes a negative rather than a positive. For example, designing a small suspension component requires it to withstand forces beyond imagination while fitting into an impossibly tight space. Instead of a traditional engineer sketching a solution, the software iterates through hundreds of thousands of designs, finding the strongest and lightest shape in a process that mimics evolution at warp speed. Beyond their military contracts, nine automotive OEMs utilize Divergent’s 3D-printing technology. While companies like Aston Martin (DBR22 Roadster), Bugatti (Tourbillon), and McLaren (W1) publicly admit to using the tech, the Ferrari F80’s control arms certainly look like suspect candidates.
The VMax: Center-Steer, No Wings, All Speed
Czinger builds two versions of the same hypercar: the track-focused 21C and the wingless, long-tailed VMax. The latter technically remains the 21C VMax, but the 21C badge is nowhere to be found on the car itself. For the inaugural Velocity Tour, a 500-mile road rally through Northern California, I had the privilege of piloting a silver VMax.
The term “piloting” is used deliberately here because the interior feels more like a fighter jet cockpit than a car cabin. Czinger claims the sensation is similar to being in an Extra 330LT stunt plane—a comparison I can attest to after a ride in one myself. With glass inches from your head on either side, the visibility is exceptional, though the process of getting in and out is nothing short of ridiculous. You sit with your legs stretched out on the massive sill, pull your knees up and swivel on your backside as you tuck your feet into the low footwell, and then ease your head under the roofline.
The reason for the massive sills is simple: they’re stuffed with 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. This isn’t a plug-in hybrid; instead, a motor powered by the mid-mounted V-8 keeps the pack topped off. Those batteries power a motor at each front wheel, providing 500 horsepower to the front axle. The combustion engine is a Czinger-designed 2.9-liter twin-turbo V-8 that churns out a respectable 750 horsepower on 91-octane premium fuel. However, if you fill the tank with 100-octane race gas, the output jumps to a staggering 850 horsepower. The engine is also capable of running on ethanol, which promises even more power, though Czinger has yet to release those specific figures; however, we anticipate a 10 percent increase.
The V-8 sends power to the rear wheels through an Xtrac single-clutch automated semi-sequential transmission. This gearbox is similar to the Xtrac seven-speed Pagani uses on the Utopia, but Czinger takes it a step further. Not only is the transmission casing 3D-printed, but the car also utilizes small 48-volt electric motors to execute shifts more rapidly at lower speeds. This ingenious solution eliminates the nauseating surge that plagues all other automated single-clutch gearboxes at low speeds. The twin-barrel actuators work exactly as advertised in low-speed situations, a feature I was thankful to discover. Pulling into gas stations, restaurants, and hotel parking lots felt almost normal. Seriously, bravo.
Track Time: Extreme Performance, Extreme Measures
While the low-speed drivability was surprisingly civilized, the man sitting behind me for an entire day was anything but normal. As is common practice with high-end hypercars like Bugatti and Pagani, Czinger installed a professional driver (Evan Jacobs) to ensure I didn’t drive the $2.5 million machine off a cliff. Thankfully, Jacobs later assured the Czinger team that I posed no threat to the car and was able to drive solo for the rest of the rally. We stopped by Laguna Seca for a few parade laps, but Czinger prohibits non-employees from driving the VMax on racetracks, even at the painfully slow pace the rally participants were limited to.
As I have learned the hard way, even if you can’t drive, go for the ride, and I scrambled into the bizarre rear seat. The first thing to know is that if you have large calves or feet, the rear-seat experience is not comfortable. My XXL calves were literally wedged between the carbon-fiber tub and the seat, and my feet didn’t fit well, either. However, the visibility through the side glass is incredible. Again, it reminded me of a stunt plane and offered a surprisingly novel way to experience riding around a track—something I’ve done thousands of times.
This was especially true when Jacobs and I convinced the Skip Barber Racing School staff (whose track day we crashed) 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, where I could feel blood pooling in my extremities under braking. The Czinger 21C VMax is now a close second, and remember, Jacobs was far from pushing the limits. Even at something less than full throttle and without the massive rear wing, it was easy to understand how the Czinger 21C achieved what the brand calls the “California Gold Rush.” This means it set five production car track records—at Thunder Hill, Sonoma Raceway, Laguna Seca, Willow Springs, and the Thermal Club—in five days and drove from each track to the next. Later, Czinger 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—pretty light for a 1,250-horsepower hybrid. To put that in perspective, the Ferrari SF90 Stradale Asseto Fiorano, the highest-performance version of a three-motor twin-turbo V-8 PHEV with “only” 986 horsepower, weighs 3,839 pounds. The new Lamborghini Temerario, another three-motor, twin-turbo V-8 (that also makes less power, but you get the comparison), pushes past the two-ton mark, coming in at a hefty 4,185 pounds.
Now’s a good time to mention that the SF90 and Temerario are the two quickest-accelerating gasoline-powered cars we’ve ever tested (the Ferrari for 0–60 mph and the Lambo for the quarter mile). If Czinger’s weight claim holds true, the unorthodox Southern California startup has managed to beat two Italian legends right out of the gate. That’s remarkable on its own but especially noteworthy considering that while Southern California is known for many things, there isn’t a deep pool of supercar building expertise to draw from. In other words, Los Angeles is not exactly Modena.
On the Road: Living with a Hypercar
The route chosen for the rally consisted mostly of true back roads. Tight, winding, lousy, weather-beaten pavement—not exactly the stuff hypercar dream trips are made of. Plus, there was a lot of following the pack, navigating to lunch and coffee stops, and keeping up with the camera car. I might have been slightly disappointed at the time, but in retrospect, what I experienced is similar to what most owners will experience while living with a Czinger.
To my surprise, the VMax was mostly like driving any other high-end hyper-exotic. Take everything out of your pockets as the seats are tight, drink your water before you get
