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Czinger 21C VMax: The Future Arrives—And It’s Gloriously Mad For years, the automotive world has been buzzing about Czinger, the audacious startup from Southern California determined to revolutionize the hypercar. We’ve followed their journey, featured founders Kevin and Lukas Czinger on podcasts, and finally, the moment arrived. I spent three days embedded with the Czinger 21C VMax on a demanding road rally. While a track-focused story is certainly on the docket, the real question burning in my mind was: What is it like to live with a center-steer, tandem two-seater that packs 1,250 horsepower? The answer, dear reader, is both spectacular and slightly insane. Factory Fresh: Where AI Meets Automotive Engineering I’ve never needed a U.S. passport to enter a car factory before, but Czinger is anything but ordinary. The parent company, Divergent Technologies, leverages iterative artificial intelligence and massive 3D printers to engineer impossibly light and strong mechanical components. My government ID was required because Divergent’s technology is utilized by the Department of Defense (or at least, defense suppliers). While all military hardware was off-limits, one prototype bore a striking resemblance to a rocket. Touring the facility with Lukas Czinger, the youthful CEO of both companies, was a deeply compelling experience. Glimpsing inside one of the gargantuan printers felt like peering into the future—dozens of lasers zapped powdered aluminum into structural elements that looked like organic bird bones. It’s a truly wild sight to behold. Lukas explained that Divergent’s tech targets the “Pareto optimal”, the theoretical efficiency limit where any gram added or subtracted becomes a net negative. Take, for example, a suspension damper remote reservoir. The software takes into account the precise space constraints and load requirements and iterates hundreds of thousands of designs to find the strongest, lightest possible configuration. It’s essentially evolutionary biology on fast-forward. Beyond the DOD, nine automotive OEMs utilize Divergent’s 3D printing technology, including Aston Martin (DBR22 Roadster), Bugatti (Tourbillon), and McLaren (W1). While the latter three publicly acknowledge the partnership, the Ferrari F80’s control arms look suspiciously like product from the same factory. Under the Carbon Fiber Hood Czinger produces two versions of what is essentially the same platform. The Czinger 21C is the high-downforce, track-focused variant (named after the 21st century), while the wingless, long-tailed VMax is designed for road use. For the inaugural Velocity Tour, a 500-mile rally across Northern California’s wine country, I was assigned the silver VMax. I use the term “piloting” intentionally, as the cabin feels far more like a fighter jet canopy than a traditional vehicular greenhouse. Czinger themselves compares it to being in an Extra 330LT stunt plane—and I’ve experienced that. Visibility is exceptional, but the ingress and egress process is, shall we say, ridiculous: You sit with your legs extended out on the wide sill, pull your knees up, pivot on your backside, and tuck your feet into the footwell before sliding your head under the roofline. One reason the sills are so massive is that they are stuffed with batteries. The 21C VMax is a hybrid hypercar, with each sill containing 2.2 kWh of power (totaling 4.4 kWh). It’s not a plug-in hybrid; a motor powered by the mid-mounted V-8 keeps the pack charged. These batteries provide a staggering 500 horsepower to the front axle, each driven by a dedicated electric motor. The combustion engine is a Czinger-designed 2.9-liter twin-turbo V-8, rated at 750 hp on California’s subpar 91-octane premium. However, switch to 100-octane race fuel, and the horsepower jumps to 850. The small but mighty engine is also compatible with ethanol, which Czinger predicts will yield an additional 10% power increase, although official figures are not yet public. The gas engine powers the rear wheels through an Xtrac single-clutch automated semi-sequential gearbox. Similar to the Xtrac unit found in Pagani’s Utopia, Czinger not only 3D prints the transmission casing but also incorporates small 48-volt electric motors to execute shifts at low speeds. This innovation eliminates the awkward, surging “drunken” feeling characteristic of other single-clutch automated gearboxes in stop-and-go traffic. The twin-barrel actuators perform as advertised in low-speed scenarios, a fact I was extremely grateful to discover. Navigating gas stations, restaurants, and hotel parking lots felt nearly normal—a genuine feat of engineering. Seriously, bravo to Czinger. Track Time: From Parade Laps to Record-Shattering Speed What never felt normal was the professional driver sitting behind me for the entire first day. As is standard practice with high-end hypercars like Bugatti and Pagani, Czinger assigned a professional driver (Evan Jacobs) to ensure I didn’t drive the $2.5 million car off a cliff. Thankfully, later that night, Jacobs reassured the Czinger team that I was no threat to the vehicle and granted me permission to drive solo for the remainder of the rally. We stopped by Laguna Seca for some parade laps, but for reasons unknown, non-Czinger employees are prohibited from driving the VMax on racetracks, even at the painfully slow pace dictated by the rally participants. As I have learned the hard way, even if you can’t drive, you can still ride, and I squeezed into the bizarre rear seat. The first critical piece of information: large calves or feet make the rear-seat experience miserable. My XXL calves were literally wedged between the carbon-fiber tub and the carbon-fiber seat, and my feet didn’t fit comfortably either. However, the visibility through the side glass is incredible. It truly felt like being in a stunt plane and offered a remarkably novel perspective on track driving—something I’ve done well over a thousand times. This novelty was especially apparent 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 awe-inspiring hot lap I’ve ever experienced was riding shotgun in an Aston Martin Valkyrie LMH race car, where I could literally feel blood pooling in my extremities under heavy braking. The Czinger 21C VMax now holds the second spot on that list. And remember, Jacobs wasn’t pushing at full throttle. Even at less than the limit and without the big-downforce rear wing, it was easy to understand how the standard Czinger 21C achieved what the brand calls the California Gold Rush. That means it set five production car track records—at Thunder Hill, Sonoma Raceway, Laguna Seca, Willow Springs, and The Thermal Club—in just five days, driving from each track to the next. Later, Czinger returned to Laguna Seca not only to beat its own previous 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 (1:22.56). Czinger claims a curb weight of approximately 3,600 pounds, which is remarkably light for a 1,250-horsepower hybrid hypercar. For context, the Ferrari SF90 Stradale Asseto Fiorano—the highest-performance version of a three-motor twin-turbo V-8 PHEV with “only” 986 hp—weighs 3,839 pounds. The new Lamborghini Temerario is another three-motor, twin-turbo V-8 (making even less power) that pushes well past the two-ton mark, coming in at a hefty 4,185 pounds. This is a good time to note that the SF90 and Temerario are the two quickest-accelerating gasoline-powered cars MotorTrend has ever tested (the Ferrari for 0-60 mph, the Lamborghini for the quarter mile). If Czinger’s weight claim holds true, this unorthodox Southern California startup has managed to beat two Italian titans right out of the gate. That is remarkable on its own, especially considering that while Los Angeles is known for many things, there isn’t a deep pool of supercar engineering expertise to draw from. In other words, L.A. isn’t exactly Modena. On the Road: A Normal Day in an Abnormal Car The rally route was chosen mostly for true back roads. Tight, winding, rough pavement—not exactly the stuff hypercar dream trips are made of. Plus, there was a lot of following the pack, navigating to lunch stops, and hanging with the camera car. I was perhaps a bit disappointed at the time, but in retrospect, what I experienced is essentially what most owners will encounter when living with a Czinger. To my surprise, the VMax felt mostly like any other hyper-exotic. Take everything out of your pockets before getting in as the seats are tight, drink your water as there are no cupholders, and prepare to