FULL – The Bold and the Beautiful 6/29/2026 | B&B Spoilers Monday, June 29

The $2.5 Million Mind Bender: Inside the Czinger 21C VMax For years, the automotive world has buzzed about Czinger, the Southern California startup that promises to redefine hypercars through radical innovation. When the opportunity arose to join a three-day road rally in the 21C VMax, I knew this was about more than just raw speed; it was about experiencing the bleeding edge of what’s possible. While there’s no question the track-focused 21C can deliver lap times that rewrite record books, the real question was: what is this center-steer, tandem-seat, seven-figure machine like when pushed to its limits on real-world roads? The answer, I discovered, is a potent cocktail of jaw-dropping performance and sheer, unfiltered madness. Factory Fresh: Entering the Future My journey began not at a traditional dealership, but at the headquarters of Divergent Technologies, the parent company of Czinger. This wasn’t just a factory visit; it felt like a portal into the future of manufacturing. I needed a U.S. passport, not for security, but because Divergent serves the Department of Defense. Inside, CEO Lukas Czinger gave me a tour that blurred the lines between aerospace engineering and automotive design. The highlight was witnessing one of the massive 3D printers in action. Lasers fused powdered aluminum into complex, organic shapes that resembled skeletal bird wings—components so light and strong that a single gram of excess material is considered a failure. This is the “Pareto optimal,” as Lukas explained, where the design is perfected to the point of maximum efficiency. Beyond the military applications, Divergent supplies parts to nine automotive OEMs, including industry giants like Aston Martin, Bugatti, and McLaren. While these manufacturers are often tight-lipped, the suspicion around Ferrari’s F80 control arms grows stronger with every 3D-printed suspension component that emerges from the Divergent labs. The Birth of a Beast: Understanding the 21C VMax Czinger produces two distinct versions of what is essentially the same carbon fiber marvel. The Czinger 21C is the high-downforce track monster, aptly named for the 21st century. The 21C VMax, however, ditches the massive wing for a long-tailed, road-legal profile. For the inaugural Velocity Tour—a 500-mile rally through the rolling vineyards of Northern California—I was handed the keys to a sleek silver VMax. To call the cabin an “interior” is a gross understatement. It feels more like a fighter jet cockpit than a luxury car cabin. Czinger insists on this comparison, and I can attest to its validity. Imagine glass less than a foot from both sides of your head. The visibility is extraordinary, providing an intimate connection to the road ahead. However, the process of actually entering and exiting is deliberately ridiculous. You perch on the massive carbon fiber sill, pull your knees up to your chest, spin on your butt, and tuck your feet into the narrow footwell, all while carefully navigating under the roof. It’s a ballet of contortion that quickly reminds you this is not your everyday sports car. One reason for the immense sills is pure physics: they house the batteries. The 21C VMax is a hybrid, with each sill containing 2.2 kWh of power, for a total of 4.4 kWh. This isn’t a plug-in hybrid; the battery is charged by the mid-mounted V8. These batteries drive the front axle, with one motor per wheel, delivering a massive 500 horsepower to the front axle. The heart of the beast is a Czinger-designed 2.9-liter twin-turbo V8, rated at 750 horsepower on standard California 91-octane fuel. But you can pump in 100-octane race fuel, and the engine responds with a surge to 850 horsepower. Czinger also claims the engine can run on ethanol for even more power, though they haven’t released those figures. Based on industry trends, expect a 10-15% bump. Power is sent to the rear wheels via an Xtrac single-clutch automated semi-sequential gearbox. This is similar to the Pagani Utopia’s Xtrac setup, but Czinger takes it a step further. Not only is the transmission case 3D-printed, but they’ve integrated small 48-volt electric motors to quicken the shifts at low speeds. This completely eliminates the lurching, drunken feel that plagues most automated single-clutch transmissions. Watching the VMax navigate tight parking lots, hotel entrances, and gas stations without the traditional automated surge was genuinely impressive. Track Day: Riding with the Pro As is standard practice with multi-million dollar hypercars (Bugatti and Pagani), a professional driver was assigned to me for the first day. Evan Jacobs joined me in the cockpit, ensuring I didn’t accidentally send the $2.5 million machine off a cliff. Thankfully, Jacobs later assured the Czinger team I was a safe pair of hands, and I was allowed to drive solo for the rest of the rally. We stopped by Laguna Seca for some parade laps, but Czinger maintains a strict rule: non-employees cannot drive the VMax on the track, even at the slow pace set by the rally participants. But as I learned the hard way, you don’t need to drive to experience a hypercar. I scrambled into the bizarre rear seat—a position that is less than ideal for anyone with large calves or feet. My XXL calves were literally wedged between the carbon fiber tub and the seat, and my feet had little room to maneuver. However, the visibility through the side glass was incredible, offering a unique, stunt-plane-like perspective that I’d never experienced in over a thousand track laps. Jacobs convinced the Skip Barber Racing School staff to let him take the VMax for a couple of “6/10ths” hot laps. The most impressive hot lap I’ve ever witnessed was riding shotgun in an Aston Martin Valkyrie LMH race car, where the braking forces felt like they were draining the blood from my extremities. The Czinger 21C VMax now holds the second spot on that list, and remember, Jacobs wasn’t even trying to push the car to its limit. Even without the aggressive rear wing, it was easy to understand how the Czinger 21C achieved the California Gold Rush. This legendary performance involved setting five production car track records in five days—at Thunder Hill, Sonoma Raceway, Laguna Seca, Willow Springs, and the Thermal Club—while driving between each track. Later, Czinger returned to Laguna Seca to beat its own record and reclaim the throne from the Koenigsegg Jesko Sadair’s Spear. The time? A mind-bending 1 minute, 22.30 seconds, faster than the fastest MotoAmerica Superbike lap ever recorded at Laguna. Czinger claims a weight of approximately 3,600 pounds, which is remarkably light for a 1,250-horsepower hybrid. For context, the Ferrari SF90 Stradale Assetto Fiorano—the highest-performance version of a three-motor, twin-turbo V8 PHEV making less power—weighs 3,839 pounds. The Lamborghini Temerario, another three-motor twin-turbo V8 (with less power than the Czinger), pushes past the two-ton mark at 4,185 pounds. Considering the Ferrari SF90 and Lamborghini Temerario are the two quickest accelerating gasoline-powered cars MotorTrend has ever tested (the Ferrari for 0-60 mph and the Lamborghini for the quarter mile), Czinger’s weight claim is astounding. If accurate, the unorthodox California startup has managed to beat two Italian legends in its very first production car. This is remarkable on its own, but even more so considering that Southern California isn’t known for its supercar engineering talent. L.A. is hardly Modena. On the Road: Navigating the VMax The rally route favored winding back roads—tight, inconsistent, and far from the smooth asphalt of a hypercar dream trip. Plus, I spent a significant amount of time navigating traffic, following the pack, and coordinating with the camera car. At the time, I felt a bit disappointed, but in retrospect, this experience mirrors what most owners will actually encounter while living with a Czinger. To my surprise, the VMax was mostly like any other high-end exotic. You empty your pockets because the seats are tight, drink your water before getting in because there are no cupholders, and brace yourself for the reality that almost everyone on the road—especially males between 16 and 24—will be staring, following, waving, and revving. Despite the attention, the Czinger rides much better than I anticipated. The team deserves applause for not making it overly stiff. Even the air conditioning works well. My only real complaint about the “normal driving” experience is the cabin noise. This isn’t the beautiful rumble of the V8; it’s a lack of sound deadening. While that might be acceptable in a track-focused car, it’s an annoying oversight in a road car like the VMax. It becomes particularly noticeable after hours in the car. I understand the obsession with weight, but how much does sound-deadening foam weigh? Twenty pounds? Twenty-five? Google AI suggests between 10 and 50 pounds. Let’s just add 10 pounds, shall we? It would make a world