Update GH Wednesday, 5/13/2026 Episode (May 13, 2026) | General Hospital Spoilers

Driving the Czinger 21C VMax: A Test of Madness and the Future of Hypercars For years, the automotive community has been watching Czinger with a mix of intrigue and fascination. The brainchild of Kevin and Lukas Czinger, this Southern California-based company is attempting to revolutionize hypercar production through the fusion of additive manufacturing and artificial intelligence. When the opportunity arose to drive the Czinger 21C VMax on a three-day road rally, I seized the chance to explore more than just the raw performance statistics—though those are undeniably staggering. The true question was: what is it like to pilot a 1,250-horsepower, 3D-printed marvel on the open road? The Factory of the Future One cannot simply waltz into a Czinger facility. The parent company, Divergent Technologies, operates under strict government contracts, necessitating a U.S. passport for entry, a rarity in the automotive world. This immediately signals that Czinger is operating in a sphere far removed from traditional manufacturing. Divergent produces incredibly lightweight and strong components for military applications, and while most hardware was obscured during my visit, one piece bore a striking resemblance to a rocket component. Lukas Czinger, the young and dynamic CEO of both companies, led the tour. Standing before one of the massive 3D printers was akin to witnessing the future unfold. Lasers sintered powdered aluminum into automotive parts that resembled delicate avian bone structures. Lukas explained that Divergent’s technology reaches what he calls the “Pareto optimal”—the point where a single gram added or removed results in a net negative. Consider the development of a simple component like a remote reservoir mount for the suspension. The engineer specifies the space constraints and the required load capacity. The software then iterates hundreds of thousands of designs, each one a unique evolutionary leap, until it arrives at the strongest and lightest possible shape. This isn’t just manufacturing; it’s hyper-accelerated biological evolution applied to engineering. Beyond military applications, nine automotive OEMs utilize Divergent’s 3D-printed parts. While Aston Martin, Bugatti, and McLaren have publicly acknowledged their use of these components, whispers suggest that the Ferrari F80’s control arms may also hail from the Divergent workshop. A Cabin Built for Flight Czinger produces two variants of essentially the same car: the Czinger 21C, a high-downforce track monster named after the 21st century, and the 21C VMax, a wingless, long-tail version. For the inaugural Velocity Tour, a 500-mile rally through Northern California’s wine country, I was entrusted with a silver VMax. The term “piloting” is deliberate here. The cockpit feels less like a traditional car interior and more like a jet fighter canopy. Czinger itself draws this comparison, and while I haven’t flown a fighter jet, I have experienced the claustrophobic exhilaration of riding shotgun in an Extra 330LT stunt plane. The similarity is uncanny: glass is positioned less than a foot from either side of your head, providing breathtaking visibility. However, the ingress and egress are equally ridiculous. You must sit with your legs extended out over the massive sill, pull your knees upward, pivot on your buttocks, and tuck your feet into the footwell before sliding your head under the roofline. It’s a ballet of contortion, but the view makes it worthwhile. The enormous sills are no mere aesthetic choice; they are packed with batteries. The 21C VMax is a hybrid hypercar, with each sill housing 2.2 kWh of battery capacity, totaling 4.4 kWh. This is not a plug-in hybrid; instead, a motor powered by the mid-mounted V-8 engine charges the pack. These batteries can deliver a staggering 500 horsepower to the front axle, which features individual motors for each wheel. The combustion engine is a bespoke 2.9-liter twin-turbo V-8, rated at 750 horsepower on California’s standard 91-octane premium unleaded fuel. However, if the tank is filled with 100-octane race fuel, the output escalates to 850 horsepower. Furthermore, Czinger has indicated that the engine can run on ethanol, producing even more power, though these figures remain under wraps; we speculate a roughly 10% increase. The 48-Volt Intervention The gasoline engine sends its power to the rear wheels through an Xtrac seven-speed, single-clutch automated semi-sequential gearbox. This unit shares conceptual roots with the Xtrac transmission found in Pagani’s Utopia, but Czinger takes it a step further. They not only 3D print the transmission case but also employ small 48-volt electric motors to execute shifts more rapidly, particularly at low speeds. This ingenious solution mitigates the characteristic lurching and surging that plagues most automated single-clutch gearboxes at low revs. The twin-barrel actuators performed flawlessly during my drive, a welcome discovery when navigating gas stations, restaurants, and hotel parking lots. The experience was almost normal, and for that, Czinger deserves profound applause. On the Track and Under Pressure A peculiar aspect of the rally was the necessity of having a co-pilot. As is often the case with ultra-high-end hypercars, Czinger assigned professional driver Evan Jacobs to ensure I didn’t inadvertently destroy the $2.5 million machine. Thankfully, Jacobs assured the Czinger team later that night that I posed no existential threat to the vehicle, and I was permitted to drive solo for the remainder of the rally. We made a brief stop at Laguna Seca for some parade laps. However, even for non-Czinger employees, driving the VMax on the track is restricted, even at the severely limited pace allowed during the rally. As I’ve learned through hard-earned experience, even if you can’t drive, you can certainly ride, so I scrambled into the bizarre rear seat. The first thing to note is that if you have large calves or feet, the rear seat is a tight fit. My XXL calves were literally compressed between the carbon-fiber tub and the seat, and my feet struggled for purchase. However, the visibility through the side glass is extraordinary. It’s a novel way to experience a racetrack—a place I’ve circled well over a thousand times—and it instantly reminded me of the stunt plane ride. This was especially true when Jacobs and I convinced the Skip Barber Racing School staff, whose track day we had infiltrated, to let him take the VMax for a couple of “6/10ths” hot laps. The most impressive ride-along I have ever experienced was in an Aston Martin Valkyrie LMH race car, where I could physically feel the blood pooling in my extremities under heavy braking. The Czinger 21C VMax now holds second place on that list, and remember, Jacobs was holding back significantly. Even at less than full throttle and without the massive rear wing, it was easy to understand how the Czinger 21C accomplished what the brand calls the California Gold Rush. The California Gold Rush refers to the 21C setting five production car track records across five different California circuits—Thunder Hill, Sonoma Raceway, Laguna Seca, Willow Springs, and the Thermal Club—all in a span of five days. Not only that, Czinger returned to Laguna Seca to not only break its own record but to reclaim the throne from the track-special Koenigsegg Jesko Sadair’s Spear. That lap time, a mind-bending 1 minute, 22.30 seconds, is quicker than the fastest MotoAmerica Superbike lap ever recorded at Laguna, which stands at 1:22.56. A Statistical Marvel Czinger claims a vehicle weight of approximately 3,600 pounds, which is remarkably light for a 1,250-horsepower hybrid. To provide context, the Ferrari SF90 Stradale Assetto Fiorano, the highest-performance iteration of a three-motor, twin-turbo V-8 PHEV producing 986 horsepower, weighs 3,839 pounds. The new Lamborghini Temerario, another three-motor, twin-turbo V-8 that produces less power but serves as a useful comparison, tips the scales at over two tons, coming in at 4,185 chunky pounds. It is worth noting that the Ferrari SF90 and the Lamborghini Temerario are the two fastest gasoline-powered cars MotorTrend has ever tested, with the Ferrari holding the 0–60 mph record and the Lambo holding the quarter-mile record. If Czinger’s weight claims prove accurate, this unorthodox California startup has managed to outperform two Italian legends straight out of the gate. This achievement alone is remarkable, but it is especially noteworthy given that while Southern California is renowned for many things, it doesn’t exactly boast a deep well of supercar manufacturing expertise. In other words, Los Angeles is not exactly Modena. The Reality of the Road The chosen route for the rally consisted primarily of real back roads: tight, winding, and rough pavement—not exactly the stuff hypercar dream trips are made of. Moreover, there was considerable time spent following the pack, navigating to lunch and coffee stops, and hanging with the camera car. While I may have been slightly disappointed at the time, in retrospect, the experience provided insights remarkably similar to what most owners will encounter while living with a Czinger. To my surprise, the VMax was largely comparable to driving any other hyper-exotic. Pack