General Hospital Monday, May 18, 2026 | General Hospital Spoilers

Czinger 21C VMax Review: The Hypercar of the Future Is Here, and It’s Insane For years, the automotive world has buzzed about Czinger, the ambitious Southern California startup aiming to rewrite the rulebook on performance engineering. Now, after years of anticipation, the company has put its money where its mouth is. Czinger has unleashed the 21C VMax, a car that feels less like a product of traditional automotive engineering and more like a piece of cutting-edge aerospace technology that somehow found its way onto the highway. We recently got behind the wheel of this extraordinary machine for a three-day road rally, and the experience left us in a state of total awe. While there’s certainly a track story to tell, we were more interested in understanding what it’s like to live with a center-steer, tandem two-seater hybrid hypercar that can top 1,250 horsepower. What we found was a testament to human ingenuity, a glimpse into the future of transportation, and quite possibly, the most bonkers automotive experience you can have today. Factory Fresh: A Peek Inside a Sci-Fi Garage Getting inside the Czinger factory is unlike any other automotive tour you’ve ever taken. You need to show your U.S. passport because the parent company, Divergent Technologies, supplies parts to the Department of Defense. While all military hardware was covered during our visit, we did catch a glimpse of something that resembled a rocket—a sure sign that this isn’t your average car manufacturer. We were given a tour by Lukas Czinger, the visionary CEO of both companies, and what we witnessed was a profound experience. Stepping into one of their massive 3D printers felt like stepping into a scene from a sci-fi film. More than a dozen lasers fused powdered aluminum into intricate automotive parts that resemble delicate bird bones. This isn’t just a technological marvel; it’s a paradigm shift in how vehicles are built. Lukas explained that Divergent’s technology reaches “Pareto optimal,” the point where any gram added or subtracted detracts from performance. Imagine engineers calling for a part that must withstand immense forces. Traditional engineering would lead to a bulkier, heavier design. But Divergent’s AI software generates hundreds of thousands of iterations, creating the most efficient, lightest shape possible. It’s like evolutionary biology accelerated on fast-forward. Aside from their defense contracts, nine automotive OEMs use Divergent as a supplier of 3D-printed parts. Aston Martin, Bugatti, and McLaren publicly admit to using the technology, and while Ferrari hasn’t confirmed, the control arms on the F80 certainly look suspiciously alien. Under the Carbon Fiber: A Masterpiece of Engineering Czinger produces two versions of the same remarkable platform. The 21C, named after the 21st century, is a track monster with aggressive aerodynamics. The VMax is the long-tailed, wingless version designed for road use. We piloted the silver VMax on the inaugural Velocity Tour, a 500-mile road rally through the wine country of Central and Northern California. The term “piloting” is intentional. The cabin feels more like a jet fighter canopy than a traditional car interior. While we’ve never sat in a jet fighter, we’ve had the opportunity to ride shotgun in an Extra 330LT stunt plane, and the similarity is striking. There is glass less than a foot from both sides of your head, providing incredible visibility. Getting in and out of the car is, admittedly, ridiculous: you sit with your legs facing out on the massive sill, pull your knees up and spin on your butt as you tuck your feet into the footwell, then slide your head under the roof. One reason the sills are so massive is because they’re packed with batteries. The 21C VMax is a hybrid hypercar, and each sill houses a 2.2-kWh battery for a total of 4.4 kWh. The car isn’t a plug-in hybrid; a motor powered by the mid-mounted V-8 keeps the pack charged. These batteries can deliver 500 horsepower to the front axle, with one motor per wheel. The combustion engine is a Czinger-designed 2.9-liter twin-turbo V-8 rated at 750 hp on California’s 91-octane premium fuel. Upgrade to 100-octane race fuel, and the horsepower increases to 850. The tiny engine can also run on ethanol, potentially offering even more power, although Czinger hasn’t released official figures. The gas engine powers the rear wheels via an Xtrac single-clutch automated semi-sequential gearbox. This is similar to the Xtrac seven-speed transmission used in the Pagani Utopia, but Czinger goes a step further. They not only 3D-print the transmission case but also use small 48-volt electric motors to execute shifts more quickly at lower speeds. This eliminates the drunken, surging feeling common in other automated single-clutch transmissions. The twin-barrel actuators work flawlessly, making low-speed maneuvers feel almost normal. Bravo. Track Time: Racing Against Time and Physics What never felt normal was the professional driver sitting behind me for the entire day. As is often the case with high-dollar hypercars like Bugatti and Pagani, Czinger included a professional driver to ensure I didn’t drive their $2.5 million creation off a cliff. Thankfully, later that night, he assured the Czinger team I was no threat to the car and that I could drive solo for the rest of the rally. We stopped by Laguna Seca for some parade laps, but for whatever reason, non-Czinger employees aren’t allowed to drive the VMax on racetracks, even at the brutally slow pace the rally participants were limited to. As I’ve learned the hard way, even if you can’t drive, you can still enjoy the ride. I scrambled into the bizarre rear seat. The first thing to note is that if you have large calves or feet, the rear-seat experience isn’t ideal. My XXL calves were literally wedged between the carbon-fiber tub and the carbon-fiber seat, and my feet didn’t fit well either. However, the visibility through the side glass is incredible. It reminded me of a stunt plane and was a remarkably novel way to experience a track—something I’ve done more than 1,000 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, during which I could feel the blood pooling in my extremities under braking. The Czinger VMax is now second, and remember, Jacobs didn’t go full tilt. Even at something less than the limit and without the big-downforce rear wing, it was easy to understand how a Czinger 21C pulled off 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 five days and drove from each track to the next. Later on, 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-hp hybrid vehicle. To give you a bit of context, the Ferrari SF90 Stradale Asseto Fiorano—the highest-performance version of a three-motor twin-turbo V-8 PHEV that only makes 986 hp—weighs 3,839 pounds. The new Lamborghini Temerario is another three-motor, twin-turbo V-8 (that again makes less power, but you get the comparison) that pushes past the two-ton mark, coming in at 4,185 chunky pounds. Now’s a good time to mention the SF90 and Temerario are the two quickest-accelerating gasoline-powered cars MotorTrend has ever tested (the Ferrari for 0–60 mph and the Lambo for the quarter mile). If Czinger’s weight claim turns out to be true, the unorthodox California startup has managed to beat two Italian legends with job one. That’s remarkable on its own but especially noteworthy considering that while Southern California is known for many things, there isn’t a huge pool of supercar building expertise to draw from. In other words, L.A. isn’t exactly Modena. On the Road: The Reality of Hypercar Ownership The route chosen for the rally consisted mostly of true back roads. Tight, winding, lousy, weather-beaten pavement—not the type of asphalt hypercar dream trips are made of. Plus, there was a lot of following the pack, navigating to lunch and coffee stops, and hanging with the camera car. I was perhaps a bit disappointed at the time, but in retrospect what I got out of the experience is something akin to what most owners will experience while living with a Czinger. To my surprise, the VMax was mostly like driving any other hyper-exotic. Take everything out of your pockets