Why the world’s luxury car industry is going wild for Czinger’s ‘rule-breaking, record-hunting’ debut hypercar

By Michelle Johnson | 8 April 2020 | Cars & Yachts

The Czinger 21C hypercar is challenging the limits of modern manufacture

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This year has seen the biggest luxury events of the season suffer an enormous blow, as annual fairs – such as the Geneva International Motor Show and neighbouring Baselworld Watch and Jewellery Show – cancel en masse in an attempt to help curtail the spread of the pandemic COVID-19 virus.

Among the many illustrious marques set to make an entrance at the famed Geneva car show was Czinger, a new US performance car manufacturer intending to debut its first hypercar, the Czinger 21C – which experts claim is ready to go head-to-head with the Aston Martin Valkyrie.

Many marques may have delayed their debut in the wake of these changes but, instead, technology-driven brand Czinger saw an opportunity to create a more intimate global launch. CEO, founder and lead inventor Kevin Czinger and his team created an exclusive media event in London to showcase two of the first hypercars created using the brand’s ground-breaking proprietary technology, followed by a second sales-focused event at the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall. After all, with a product as dramatic as the Czinger 21C, the show must go on.

And these cars are pure, modern theatre. Made in a limited run of just 80 cars and priced at $1.7m (£1.4m) a piece, the 21C is powered by a twin-turbo 2.88 litre flat-crank V8 engine – developed in house, of course – which revs to 11,000rpm and outputs 950hp, making it the world’s most power dense production engine. The front wheels are supplemented by two electric motors, bringing total output of 1,250hp. In terms of sheer speed, the Czinger 21C boasts rapid acceleration of 0-62 mph in 1.9 seconds, 0-186 mph in 15 seconds, and 0-248 mph in just 29 seconds. >>

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Kevin Czinger created his eponymous company along with Divergent Technologies, which was behind the Divergent Blade supercar in 2015. Czinger Vehicles, a wholly owned subsidiary of Divergent Technologies, utilises a revolutionary manufacturing system, pushing forward 3D printing technology (the Czinger 21C is the first production vehicle to utilise additive manufacturing in this way and volume), was developed under the direction of former Koenigsegg technical director Jon Gunner, Czinger’s chief technical officer, with the goal of marrying class-dominating performance with standout design.

Czinger describes the manufacture of the brand’s first hypercar as a “paradigm shift in the way vehicles are designed, developed, engineered and manufactured”, and it’s easy to see why. The 21C was designed and manufactured entirely in-house, using innovative – and proprietary – 3D printing and automation, which allows for dramatic flexibility and reduction in build times. The car’s mind-blowing propulsion system was also developed and engineered in the brand’s Los Angeles base, where each model will be hand-finished and hand-assembled, taking over 3,000 manhours to create, depending on final specification. The 21C is also stunningly attractive, featuring an aerodynamic alloy and carbon fibre chassis, and jetfighter-style layout – where driver and passenger are seated in the middle of the car – as well as a full-width LED light strip across the rear.

“Czinger Vehicles will remain the cutting-edge expression of this technology,” the founder said during the media event. “With our existing resources, I can build a diverse variety of vehicles that are completely off the hook.”

Excitingly, the 21C is just the first in a series of planned exclusive vehicles: Czinger says he aims to push forward the brand’s cutting-edge technologies and unique design elements to “explore the limits of creativity and performance”.

And with the Czinger 21C, all that’s left is to put the car’s extraordinary road performance to test – and to find out what this technologically astute, dramatically creative marque comes up with next.