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Czinger 21C VMax Review: When 1,250-Horsepower Hybrid Hypercars Hit the Road The road rally turned into a test of survival rather than a casual drive. After spending a long weekend with the Czinger 21C VMax, one thing became abundantly clear: this isn’t just a car—it’s a mechanical declaration that the future of ultra-performance will likely resemble utter madness. We’ve been eager to sample Czinger’s production hypercars for years. After hosting founders Kevin and Lukas Czinger on The InEVitable podcast back in October 2022, the opportunity to drive a 21C VMax on a three-day road rally became irresistible. The goal was to look beyond the usual track-only reports. Yes, a 3D-printed, alien-tech, $2.5 million hypercar with 1,250 horsepower pushing the bleeding edge of performance is a story that must be told. But what’s it like to drive a center-steer, tandem two-seater on a 500-mile tour of California? The answer, as we discovered, is simultaneously breathtaking, terrifying, and deeply cool. Factory Fresh: A Glimpse of the Future Before we even get behind the wheel, experiencing the Czinger factory is a journey into the future of automotive manufacturing. Divergent Technologies, the parent company, uses iterative artificial intelligence and massive 3D printing to engineer incredibly light and strong mechanical components. Entering the facility required a U.S. passport, not because it’s a secret, but because Divergent supplies parts to the U.S. Department of Defense (and its suppliers). While the military hardware was off-limits, one glimpse inside a printer made the experience feel like a secret tour of tomorrow. Imagine dozens of lasers fusing powdered aluminum into automotive parts that mimic the organic lightness of bird bones—it’s an awe-inspiring spectacle. Lukas Czinger explained that Divergent’s technology achieves “Pareto optimality”—the point where adding or subtracting a single gram becomes a net negative for the entire system. Consider a suspension component: the software iterates through hundreds of thousands of designs until it finds the shape that is both the strongest and the lightest possible for the intended load. It’s essentially evolution accelerated by AI. Besides the DOD, nine automotive OEMs utilize Divergent 3D printing technology. The only names that will openly admit it are Aston Martin (DBR22), Bugatti (Tourbillon), and McLaren (W1). But if you look closely at the control arms of the Ferrari F80, they look like obvious suspects. Under the Carbon Fiber Hood Czinger produces two versions of the 21C. The high-downforce, track-focused model is the 21C (named for the 21st century), while the wingless, long-tailed version is the 21C VMax. For the inaugural Velocity Tour, a 500-mile road rally through Central and Northern California’s wine country, I was fortunate enough to pilot a silver VMax. I use the word “pilot” intentionally. The cabin feels less like a car and more like a fighter jet canopy. Czinger claims it’s akin to being in a jet, and while I haven’t flown one, I did get a ride in an Extra 330LT stunt plane, and the resemblance is uncanny. There is glass less than a foot from either side of your head. The visibility is astounding, but the process of entering and exiting is frankly ridiculous. You sit with your legs facing outward on the massive sill, pull your knees up, spin on your butt as you tuck your feet into the footwell, and then slide your head under the roof. One reason the sills are so substantial is the battery pack they contain. The 21C VMax is a hybrid hypercar, with 2.2 kWh of battery power in each sill (4.4 kWh total). It’s not a plug-in hybrid; a motor powered by the mid-mounted V8 keeps the pack charged. These batteries provide 500 horsepower to the front axle, with one motor per wheel. The internal combustion engine is a Czinger-designed 2.9-liter twin-turbo V8 producing 750 hp on California’s 91-octane premium fuel. But if you feed it 100-octane race fuel, the horsepower jumps to 850. The engine can also run on ethanol, likely pushing performance even higher, though Czinger hasn’t released those figures yet—our prediction is a 10% increase. The gas engine powers the rear wheels through an Xtrac seven-speed single-clutch automated semi-sequential gearbox. This is similar to the transmission used in the Pagani Utopia, but Czinger has 3D-printed the transmission case and uses small 48-volt electric motors to smooth out shifts at lower speeds. This eliminates the jerky, lurching behavior of other automated single-clutch transmissions at low revs. The twin-barrel actuators work exactly as advertised during low-speed maneuvers. Navigating gas stations, restaurants, and hotel parking lots felt surprisingly normal—truly impressive engineering. Track Time and Record-Breaking Performance What never felt normal was the passenger seated behind me for the entire day. As is common practice with certain high-dollar hypercars like Bugatti and Pagani, Czinger included a professional driver, Evan Jacobs, to ensure I didn’t drive the $2.5 million machine off a cliff. Thankfully, Jacobs later assured the Czinger team I wasn’t a threat and I was cleared to drive solo for the rest of the rally. We stopped by Laguna Seca for some parade laps. However, for reasons that remain unclear, non-Czinger employees are not permitted to drive the VMax on the track, even at the brutally slow pace permitted during the rally. As I’ve learned the hard way: even if you can’t drive, ride along, and I squeezed into the bizarre rear seat. The first thing to note is that if you have large calves or feet, the back seat experience isn’t ideal. My XXL calves were literally wedged between the carbon fiber tub and the seat, and my feet didn’t fit well, either. However, the visibility through the side glass is incredible. Again, it reminded me of a stunt plane and was a remarkably novel way to experience riding around a track—something I’ve done thousands of times. This experience became even more profound 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, where I could literally feel the blood pooling in my extremities under braking. The Czinger VMax is now second on that list, and remember, Jacobs didn’t drive at full speed. Even at less than the limit and without the high-downforce rear wing, it was easy to understand how a Czinger 21C achieved what the brand calls the “California Gold Rush.” The Gold Rush: A Production Car Sweep This is where the story gets surreal. The Czinger 21C set five production car track records—at Thunder Hill, Sonoma Raceway, Laguna Seca, Willow Springs, and The Thermal Club—in a single week. It then drove from each track to the next, all with street-legal tires and in street-legal trim. But Czinger wasn’t finished. They returned to Laguna Seca to not only beat their own record but to reclaim the throne from a track-special Koenigsegg Jesko Sadair’s Spear. That lap time was a ridiculous 1 minute, 22.30 seconds—quicker than the fastest MotoAmerica Superbike lap ever recorded at Laguna (1:22.56). Comparing the Speed King Czinger claims a vehicle weight of approximately 3,600 pounds, which is astonishingly light for a 1,250-horsepower hybrid vehicle. To provide context, the Ferrari SF90 Stradale Asseto Fiorano—the highest-performance version of a three-motor, twin-turbo V8 hybrid that only makes 986 hp—weighs 3,839 pounds. The new Lamborghini Temerario is another three-motor, twin-turbo V8 (with less power, but the comparison stands) that pushes past the two-ton mark, weighing in at 4,185 pounds. Now is a good time to mention that 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 holds true, this unconventional Southern California startup has managed to beat two Italian legends on its first attempt. That alone is remarkable, especially considering that while Los Angeles is famous for many things, there isn’t a deep well of supercar manufacturing expertise to draw from. In other words, L.A. is not exactly Modena. On the Road: A Normal Morning at 1,250 HP The route chosen for the rally consisted mostly of true back roads. Tight, winding, rough, and poorly maintained asphalt—not the kind of scenery hyper