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Czinger 21C VMax Review: Is This The Future of Performance Driving, Or Just Pure Madness? For years, automotive enthusiasts have wondered what it would be like to drive a Czinger. The Southern California-based company’s hypercar is more than just a vehicle; it’s a statement about the future of performance engineering and, perhaps, a touch of automotive madness. When the opportunity arose to embark on a three-day road rally in the Czinger 21C VMax, the decision was easy. Yes, the 21C has been tracked, and rumors of its insane track capabilities have been circulating, but the real question was: what is a center-steer, tandem two-seater like on a 500-mile road trip? Factory Fresh: The Dawn of Additive Manufacturing One of the first things you realize when visiting the Czinger factory is that this is no ordinary automotive manufacturing plant. As a writer for MotorTrend, I’ve been to countless factories, but I had never needed a U.S. passport to enter one before. Czinger, the parent company of Divergent Technologies, uses iterative artificial intelligence and massive 3D printers to create incredibly lightweight yet strong mechanical components. I was given a tour by Lukas Czinger, the young and visionary CEO of both companies. What I saw was deeply impressive. Peeking inside one of the colossal 3D printers was like getting a glimpse into the future of automotive manufacturing. More than a dozen lasers were zapping powdered aluminum into automotive parts that looked like the intricate bones of a bird. It’s a truly wild and captivating sight. Lukas explained that Divergent’s technology is “Pareto optimal,” meaning they have reached a point where any gram added or subtracted would be a negative for performance. For instance, an engineer might need a part to hold the remote reservoir for the car’s rear suspension. Using the specified space and the forces the part needs to withstand, the software iterates through hundreds of thousands of designs until it finds the strongest and lightest shape. It’s akin to the evolutionary process, but on hyper-speed. Beyond the Department of Defense, nine automotive OEMs utilize Divergent as a supplier for 3D-printed parts. While Aston Martin (DBR22 Roadster), Bugatti (Tourbillon), and McLaren (W1) publicly acknowledge this partnership, there are rumors that the Ferrari F80’s control arms might also be products of this revolutionary technology. Under the Carbon Fiber: A Technological Tour de Force Czinger builds two versions of what is essentially the same car. The Czinger 21C, named after the 21st century, is the high-downforce track monster. The other is the VMax, a wingless, long-tailed version that represents the pinnacle of road-going performance. For the inaugural Velocity Tour—a 500-mile road rally through Central and Northern California’s wine country—I had the privilege of piloting the silver VMax. I chose the word “piloting” deliberately because the cabin feels more like a jet fighter canopy than a traditional car’s greenhouse. While I haven’t had the opportunity to fly a jet fighter myself, I have experienced a ride in an Extra 330LT stunt plane, and the similarities are striking. Essentially, the glass is less than a foot away from both sides of your head, offering incredible visibility. However, the process of getting in and out of the car is, to put it mildly, ridiculous: 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 for the massive sills is the batteries. The 21C VMax is a hybrid hypercar, and each sill contains 2.2-kWh of battery power, totaling 4.4 kWh. The car is not a plug-in hybrid; instead, a motor powered by the mid-mounted V-8 engine keeps the pack charged. These batteries can deliver 500 horsepower to the front axle, which has one motor per wheel. The combustion engine is a Czinger-designed 2.9-liter twin-turbo V-8 that produces 750 horsepower on California’s 91-octane premium unleaded fuel. When filled with 100-octane race fuel, the horsepower jumps to 850. The small but powerful engine can also run on ethanol, potentially yielding even more power, though Czinger has yet to release those figures (we predict a 10% increase). 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 not only 3D-prints the transmission case but also uses small 48-volt electric motors to execute faster shifts at lower speeds. This eliminates the “drunken” surging feeling that plagues most automated single-clutch transmissions at low speeds. The twin-barrel actuators performed exactly as advertised in low-speed situations, a fact I was thankful to discover while maneuvering the car into gas stations, restaurants, and hotel parking lots. It felt almost normal. Seriously, bravo to the Czinger team for this innovation. Track Time: Reclaiming the Crown While the drive was incredible, there was always the looming question of what this machine could do on the track. For most of the rally, a professional driver, Evan Jacobs, was in the passenger seat, ensuring I didn’t drive the $2.5 million machine off a cliff. Thankfully, later that evening, Jacobs assured the Czinger team that I was no threat and that I could drive solo for the rest of the rally. We made a stop at Laguna Seca for some parade laps, but non-Czinger employees were not allowed to drive the VMax on the track, even at the brutally slow pace limited to rally participants. However, even if you can’t drive, riding along is a privilege. I scrambled into the bizarre rear seat, and 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 carbon-fiber seat, and my feet didn’t fit well, either. But the visibility through the side glass is incredible. Again, it reminded me of a stunt plane and offered a novel way to experience a racetrack—something I’ve done more than 1,000 times. This experience was particularly remarkable 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 feel the blood pooling in my extremities under braking. The Czinger VMax is now a close second, and remember, Jacobs didn’t go full throttle. Even at less than the limit and without the big-downforce rear wing, it was easy to understand how a Czinger 21C achieved what the brand calls the California Gold Rush. This means the car set five production car track records—at Thunder Hill, Sonoma Raceway, Laguna Seca, Willow Springs, and the Thermal Club—in five days, driving from each track to the next. Later, Czinger returned to Laguna Seca not only to 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, which is pretty light for a 1,250-hp hybrid vehicle. To put that in perspective, the Ferrari SF90 Stradale Asseto Fiorano—the highest-performance version of a three-motor twin-turbo V-8 PHEV that only produces 986 hp—weighs 3,839 pounds. The new Lamborghini Temerario is another three-motor, twin-turbo V-8 (also producing less power, but for comparison’s sake) that pushes past the two-ton mark, coming in at a substantial 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 Lamborghini for the quarter mile). If Czinger’s weight claim holds true, this unorthodox California startup has managed to outperform two Italian legends with its first vehicle. This is remarkable on its own but especially noteworthy given that Southern California, while known for many things, doesn’t exactly boast a large pool of supercar-building expertise. In other words, Los Angeles is not exactly Modena. On the Road: The Real World The route chosen for the rally consisted mostly of true back roads—tight, winding, and poorly maintained pavement. This is not the kind of asphalt that 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. At the time, I might have been a bit disappointed, but in retrospect, I gained a perspective similar to what most owners will experience while living with a Czinger. To my surprise, the VMax was mostly like any other hyper-exotic. Take