FULL – The Bold and the Beautiful 6/23/2026 | B&B Spoilers Tuesday, June 23

Czinger 21C VMax: 1,250 HP, 3D-Printed Madness, and a Dazed Driver The future has arrived—and it’s absolutely insane. For years, we’ve heard the rumors, watched the footage, and read the reports about Czinger. This isn’t just another boutique hypercar startup; it’s a radical rethinking of what’s possible. By fusing 3D printing technology with artificial intelligence and advanced hybrid powertrains, the Southern California company has created something that feels less like a car and more like a piece of experimental aerospace equipment you can actually drive. We finally got the chance to experience this automotive anomaly firsthand during the inaugural Velocity Tour—a 500-mile road rally through California’s legendary wine country. While the headlines are all about track records and 1,250 horsepower, the real story is about the VMax experience: What is it like to drive a carbon-fiber jet fighter on public roads with a pro racer riding shotgun? Buckle up, because this is not your typical car review. Factory Tour: A Glimpse of the Future The journey began not on a tarmac, but behind the walls of Divergent Technologies, the parent company of Czinger. To enter the facility, I needed a U.S. passport—a jarring prerequisite for a car factory. This isn’t because Czinger builds the world’s most exotic hypercars, but because Divergent is also a critical supplier of cutting-edge components to the U.S. Department of Defense. Inside, the atmosphere felt more like a NASA mission control than a car plant. The star of the show is undoubtedly the massive 3D printers. Witnessing aluminum powder being zapped into incredibly lightweight yet strong components felt like looking into the future of manufacturing. The resulting parts, almost skeletal in their complexity, resembled the intricate structures of bird bones—a visual testament to the power of AI-driven design. Lukas Czinger, the young CEO of both companies, explained their design philosophy using the term “Pareto optimal.” This concept represents the absolute peak of engineering efficiency, where adding or removing even a single gram becomes a detriment. In practice, this means an engineer assigns a specific space and force requirement for a component—say, a rear suspension damper mount. Using advanced AI software, the system iterates through hundreds of thousands of structural designs until it finds the optimal shape: the strongest possible structure at the lowest possible weight. It’s evolution accelerated. Beyond the military sector, nine major automotive OEMs are adopting Divergent’s 3D-printed technology. While the official list includes Aston Martin, Bugatti, and McLaren, whispers suggest even Ferrari may be using their components in the new F80. This isn’t just a novelty; it’s a fundamental shift in how cars are designed and built. Under the Carbon Fiber: Meet the 21C VMax Czinger produces two versions of this architectural marvel. The 21C is the high-downforce track monster, but for our road rally, we had the 21C VMax. Removed of its rear wing and featuring an extended tail for enhanced aerodynamics, the VMax is the road-legal interpretation of this extreme concept. The name itself is a tribute to the 21st century, and after spending three days with it, I’ve never felt so completely out of my element. The Jet Fighter Cockpit Driving a Czinger 21C VMax feels less like operating a car and more like piloting an aircraft. The cabin is designed as a canopy, with glass positioned just inches from both sides of your head. Czinger explicitly markets this as a fighter-jet experience, and while I can only extrapolate from my ride in an Extra 330LT stunt plane, the sensation of being enclosed in a transparent bubble, separated from the world by less than a foot of laminated glass, is profound. The visibility is breathtaking, offering an uninterrupted panorama of the surrounding landscape. However, accessing this cockpit is a feat in itself. The entry and exit process is absurdly dramatic: you sit on the massive side sill (more on that later), pull your knees up to your chest, rotate on your rear end, and then tuck your feet into the narrow footwell. It requires the agility of a gymnast, but once you’re in, the view makes the contortions worthwhile. The Hybrid Heartbeat One reason for the substantial side sills is the necessity to house the battery packs. The 21C VMax is a hybrid hypercar, with each sill containing 2.2 kWh of power, totaling 4.4 kWh. Crucially, this is not a plug-in hybrid. Instead, the mid-mounted V-8 engine acts as a generator, perpetually charging the batteries. This setup allows the VMax to deliver a staggering 500 horsepower to the front wheels via two independent motors—one for each wheel. The combustion heart of the machine is a Czinger-designed 2.9-liter twin-turbo V-8, producing a conservative 750 hp on 91-octane California premium. However, when fed 100-octane racing fuel, the output jumps to 850 hp. Czinger hints that further power gains are achievable with ethanol fuel, but these figures remain under wraps for now. Gearbox Genius Power is channeled to the rear wheels through an Xtrac seven-speed, single-clutch automated sequential gearbox. This is similar to the unit found in the Pagani Utopia, but Czinger implements two revolutionary modifications. First, the transmission casing is additively 3D printed, a process that significantly reduces weight. Second, and perhaps more importantly, they use tiny 48-volt electric motors to actuate the gear changes at low speeds. This small addition completely transforms the driving experience at parking lot speeds. Typically, automated single-clutch transmissions exhibit a noticeable lurch or “drunken” feeling during low-speed maneuvers. The Czinger’s actuator system eliminates this, providing smooth, controlled transitions that make pulling into gas stations and navigating tight parking lots feel almost normal. This engineering feat deserves significant applause. Track Time: The Shadow in the Rear Seat For the first day of the rally, I wasn’t alone. Following the Bugatti and Pagani tradition, Czinger assigned a professional driver, Evan Jacobs, to ride shotgun. This ensures the priceless prototype doesn’t end up wrapped around a redwood tree. Thankfully, Jacobs later confirmed I wasn’t a threat, allowing me to drive solo for the rest of the tour. We stopped at Laguna Seca for some parade laps, but non-Czinger personnel are prohibited from driving the VMax on the track, even at the slow pace of the rally. Jacobs and I convinced the Skip Barber Racing School staff to let him take a couple of “6/10ths” hot laps to get a feel for the car’s potential. The Aston Martin Valkyrie Moment The most intense passenger experience I’ve ever had was riding shotgun in an Aston Martin Valkyrie LMH race car, where I genuinely felt my blood draining to my extremities under heavy braking. The Czinger 21C VMax has now taken that top spot, and this is important: Jacobs was holding back. Even without pushing to the limit and without the massive downforce of the standard 21C wing, the VMax provides a visceral sense of speed that few road cars can match. It’s easy to understand how the 21C managed the legendary California Gold Rush—setting five production car track records across the state in five days, while driving between each track. Czinger later returned to Laguna Seca not only to beat their own record but to reclaim the crown from a track-special Koenigsegg Jesko. The lap time: a ridiculous 1 minute, 22.30 seconds. To put that into perspective, that’s faster than the fastest MotoAmerica Superbike lap ever recorded at Laguna Seca (a 1:22.56). When you consider that the VMax does this without its rear wing and at less than full throttle, the performance potential of the full 21C is almost unimaginable. Lightweight Champion Czinger claims a vehicle weight of around 3,600 pounds. This is astonishingly light for a 1,250-horsepower hybrid. To compare, the Ferrari SF90 Stradale Asseto Fiorano—a high-performance, three-motor V-8 PHEV that makes nearly 100 hp less—weighs 3,839 pounds. The new Lamborghini Temerario, another three-motor twin-turbo V-8, pushes past the two-ton mark at 4,185 pounds. The SF90 and Temerario are two of the quickest gasoline-powered cars MotorTrend has ever tested (Ferrari holds the 0-60 mph record, Lambo the quarter-mile). If Czinger’s weight claims hold true, they have managed to beat two titans of Italian engineering on their home turf. Considering that Southern California is more famous for film sets than supercar manufacturing, the achievement is even more remarkable. L.A. is certainly not Modena. On the Road: Mostly Normal, Except for the Noise The Velocity Tour route was a deliberate choice to showcase the VMax in real-world scenarios. Instead of perfectly manicured racetracks or smooth Pacific Coast Highway stretches, we navigated tight, winding, and often poorly maintained back roads. There was a lot of