Buried Secret Is Revealed, Anna & Dante Confront Each Other On A Fateful Day. GH Spoilers

The Future Is Now: Driving the Czinger 21C VMax and Questioning Everything For years, we at MotorTrend had a singular, burning desire: to pilot a Czinger. We were captivated by the audacity of Kevin and Lukas Czinger, the father-and-son duo who founded the company, especially after their compelling appearance on The InEVitable podcast in October 2022. When the opportunity arose to participate in a three-day road rally behind the wheel of the Czinger 21C VMax, I jumped at the chance. The objective wasn’t just to provide another track-focused review—though a few laps on the hallowed ground of Laguna Seca were inevitable and necessary. Instead, the real mission was to explore the heart and soul of this 3D-printed, futuristic hypercar. Can a seven-figure, 1,250-horsepower machine, built in the heart of Southern California, transcend the track and deliver a genuine, road-worthy experience? The answer, as you will discover, is more complicated than a simple yes or no. Factory Fresh: Entering a World of 3D-Printed Precision I have driven many exotic cars in my career, but never have I needed to present my U.S. passport to enter a manufacturing facility. Yet, as I quickly learned, Czinger is unlike any automotive company I have ever encountered. The parent company, Divergent Technologies, operates at the absolute cutting edge of additive manufacturing, leveraging iterative artificial intelligence and colossal 3D printers to engineer extraordinarily light and resilient mechanical components. The need for identification stemmed from Divergent’s role as a supplier to the Department of Defense—or, more accurately, Tier 1 contractors serving the DOD. While all military hardware was carefully concealed during my visit, one piece of equipment bore a striking resemblance to a rocket. I was given an exclusive tour by Lukas Czinger, the dynamic young CEO of both Divergent and Czinger. The experience was, in a word, surreal. Peering inside one of the gargantuan printers felt like stepping into a time machine; more than a dozen high-powered lasers were fusing powdered aluminum into intricate automotive parts that resembled the delicate structures of bird bones. It’s a spectacle that defies easy description, a visceral reminder of how rapidly technology is reshaping the automotive landscape. Lukas explained that Divergent’s technology strives to achieve “Pareto optimality.” This is the theoretical point after which any incremental addition or subtraction of weight transforms a positive into a negative. To illustrate, consider the design of a mounting bracket for the rear suspension damper’s remote reservoir. Engineers are presented with a specific spatial constraint (X amount of space) and a target strength requirement (Y forces). Using this framework, the software generates hundreds of thousands of design variations until it converges on the structurally perfect shape—the pinnacle of lightness and rigidity. It’s essentially the evolutionary process of natural selection accelerated to a supercharged pace. Beyond the military sector, Divergent’s 3D-printed components are utilized by nine major automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Among these, Aston Martin, Bugatti, and McLaren have publicly acknowledged their partnerships. However, there is strong speculation that the control arms on the upcoming Ferrari F80 are also products of Divergent’s revolutionary process. Under the Carbon Fiber: The Genius of the Hybrid Drivetrain Czinger engineers and manufactures two distinct but fundamentally related versions of what is essentially the same vehicle. The Czinger 21C, named in homage to the 21st century, is the high-downforce, track-focused beast. Complementing it is the Czinger 21C VMax, a wingless, long-tailed variant engineered for ultimate straight-line speed. For the inaugural Velocity Tour—a 500-mile road rally weaving through the rolling hills of Central and Northern California’s wine country—I had the privilege of piloting a silver VMax. I use the word “piloting” intentionally. The cabin experience feels far more akin to being inside a fighter jet cockpit than a traditional automotive greenhouse. Czinger itself describes the feeling as analogous to being in a jet fighter. While I haven’t had the fortune of riding in a modern jet, I have experienced the exhilarating, seat-of-your-pants thrill of riding shotgun in an Extra 330LT stunt plane. The similarity is striking. Imagine glass less than a foot away from both sides of your head; the visibility is staggering. However, the process of ingress and egress is, frankly, ridiculous. You must first place your legs facing outward onto the massive sill. Then, pull your knees high toward your chest and rotate your body on your posterior while tucking your feet into the narrow footwell. Finally, you slide your head under the roof. It’s an acrobatic maneuver that feels more appropriate for a professional gymnast than a driver. One reason for the prominence of the sills is their functional purpose: they are crammed with batteries. The 21C VMax is a hybrid hypercar, and each sill houses a 2.2 kWh battery module, resulting in a total capacity of 4.4 kWh. This is not a plug-in hybrid, meaning the batteries are recharged solely by the mid-mounted V-8 engine. These batteries provide a substantial 500 horsepower to the front axle, which utilizes individual motors for each wheel. The combustion engine is a Czinger-designed 2.9-liter twin-turbo V-8 producing a remarkable 750 horsepower on the premium 91-octane fuel prevalent in California. However, when fueled with 100-octane race fuel, the power output surges to an astonishing 850 horsepower. The compact yet potent engine is also capable of running on ethanol, which further increases power—though Czinger has yet to release those specific figures. Our prediction is a gain of approximately 10 percent. The gasoline engine drives the rear wheels through an Xtrac single-clutch automated semi-sequential gearbox. This transmission shares its heritage with the seven-speed Xtrac unit found in the Pagani Utopia. However, Czinger takes this advanced design a step further. Not only is the transmission casing 3D-printed additively, but it also incorporates small 48-volt electric motors to facilitate smoother, quicker shifts at lower speeds. This innovation eliminates the “drunken,” lurching sensation that plagues conventional automated single-clutch gearboxes during low-speed maneuvering. The twin-barrel actuators perform as advertised, a fact I was profoundly grateful to discover during the rally. Navigating gas stations, restaurants, and hotel parking lots felt almost normal. Seriously, Czinger deserves a standing ovation for this feat. Track Time: A Ride with a Ghost What never felt normal, however, was the passenger sitting directly behind me for the entire day. As is common practice with many ultra-exclusive hypercars, such as those from Bugatti and Pagani, Czinger assigned a professional driver, Evan Jacobs, to accompany me and ensure I didn’t drive the $2,500,000 machine off a cliff. Thankfully, later that evening, Jacobs assured the Czinger team that I was not a threat to the vehicle and was subsequently allowed to drive solo for the remainder of the rally. We made a stop at Laguna Seca for some controlled parade laps, but for reasons still unclear, non-Czinger employees are prohibited from driving the VMax on racetracks, even at the excruciatingly slow pace dictated by the rally participants. As I have learned through hard experience, even if you can’t drive the car, you must seize the opportunity for a ride. I scrambled into the bizarre rear seat. The first thing to understand is that if you have large calves or feet, the rear-seat experience is far from comfortable. My XXL calves were practically wedged between the carbon-fiber tub and the carbon-fiber seat, and my feet struggled to find adequate purchase in the footwell. However, the visibility through the side glass is breathtaking. Again, it reminded me of a stunt plane and provided a uniquely novel perspective for a track experience—something I have done hundreds of times before. This was especially true when Jacobs and I convinced the Skip Barber Racing School staff (whose track day we inadvertently crashed) to allow him to take the VMax for a couple of “6/10ths” hot laps. The most intense hot lap I have ever experienced was riding shotgun in an Aston Martin Valkyrie LMH race car, where I could distinctly feel the blood pooling in my extremities during heavy braking. The Czinger 21C VMax has now claimed second place on that exclusive list, and remember, Jacobs did not push the car to its absolute limit. Even at less than full throttle and without the aerodynamic advantage of the large rear wing, it was easy to comprehend how the Czinger 21C achieved what the brand calls the California Gold Rush. This feat involved setting five production car track records—at Thunder Hill, Sonoma Raceway, Laguna Seca, Willow Springs, and the Thermal Club—in a span of five days, while also driving from each track to the next. Subsequently, Czinger returned to Laguna Seca to not only break its own record but to reclaim the title from a track-specific 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 Seca, a 1:22.56. Czinger claims a vehicle weight of approximately 3,600 pounds, which is remarkably light for a 1,250-horsepower hybrid hypercar. For context, the Ferrari SF90 Stradale Asseto