Following its unveiling in London in March 2020, the Czinger 21C, a product of Czinger Vehicles and Kevin Czinger has created a storm due to its awesome list of features and futuristic-yet-functional design.
From 3D printing to AI design and a fighter-jet-inspired cabin the car is as forward-thinking as you can be, as the company looks to push boundaries in sustainability and efficiency just as much as in performance, handling, and top speed.
Since then, it has broken records and shown the major established brands that you don’t need motorsports heritage or a history of making iconic cars to reinvent the metaphorical wheel and break records both on the track and with new innovations. So, let's look at some of the highlights of this car which, despite its fairly conservative design, is a supercar that just won’t follow the herd.
8 It's Designed By Computers And Built Using Printers
To some extent, every modern car is probably ultimately designed by computers, but Czinger uses AI to help design many of the car’s parts. The AI-based software carefully optimizes each part for strength and lightness – meaning the parts are no heavier than they need to be and as strong as possible.
This also results in shapes and designs that are unusual and difficult to produce using conventional methods: enter the 3D printing method. It sprays the alloys or compounds layer by layer into the crazy shapes needed to make the parts as light and robust as they are – the outside is also highly optimized with function over style.
7 The Czinger 21C's Home-Grown Powertrain: Made In-House
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A lot of supercars and hypercars borrow power plants from other manufacturers instead of building their own but the Czinger is not one of them. To create the lightweight and super-powerful 2.88-liter V8 it uses the same 3D printing process for its in-house engine. This is a home-grown American engine, which can put other expensively-engineered performance engines to shame with its high specific output per liter, high performance, and light weight.
The fact that the engine got built from the ground up also means it can become customized and engineered in exactly the way that Czinger wants in order to extract optimum performance from the unit.
6 A Small Bespoke V8 Produces Insane Power Figures
As we already saw, the Czinger 21C’s engine gets made in-house and constructed with lightweight materials.
It’s a 175 CI flat plane V8 with twin-turbochargers to make 950 hp: an incredible figure for a sub-3-liter (187 CI) engine and world-leading in its circa-300 hp-per-liter output.
With an 11,000-rpm limit and around 950 hp, it gets supplemented by a hybrid system with two electric motors (one for each front wheel) for a total nearing 1250: all this is enough for a supposed 253 mph top speed and around 2 seconds to 60 mph.
The gearbox is a seven-speed manual too which will keep the purists happy and even boasts AWD thanks to the electric motors up front.
5 The Czinger 21C Has Performance Numbers That Rival The Best
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Performance is the Czinger’s raison d’etre – with that 253-mph top speed and the lightning-fast acceleration it is world-class in how it performs. It can beat one of the fastest cars ever made – the Koenigsegg Regera from 0-248-0 mph as it only takes around 29 seconds compared to 31 seconds for the fast Swede.
Czinger’s 21C is also responsible for beating a record time on the American WeatherTech Laguna Seca Raceway in California, beating a McLaren Senna by more than 2 seconds with a time of 1:25.44. Lamborghini’s Veneno has a top speed of circa-221 mph and a 0-60 mph time of around 2.8 seconds making this home-grown car from a startup faster than the fastest Lamborghini.
4 A Hypercar With A Fighter Jet-Inspired Seating Position
Many supercars and hypercars have used interesting design flourishes to maximize speed and handling.
McLaren’s F1 had 3 seats up front, but this car uses a fighter-jet design inspired by the SR-71 Blackbird to lower drag and increase its aerodynamic performance – plus it looks cool.
With a narrow canopy like a jet fighter and the passenger directly behind the driver, it boasts a cabin that looks every bit as futuristic as you might imagine. It must generate a fair amount of discomfort for the passenger though, being thrown around bends at crazy speeds without being able to see forwards.
3 The High-Speed Version Of The 21C Looks Like A McLaren Speedtail
This year during Monterey Car Week Czinger revealed the 21 C V Max to the world in all its low-drag splendor – a wing-less and extended version of the 21C, designed to push its acceleration and top speed numbers even further toward the limit of engineering. It is a similar design to the McLaren Speedtail – another hypercar with a world-class top speed.
Both the 21C and 21C V Max will get produced together and will share the same 80-unit production run.
If the regular Czinger isn’t fast enough this should be, although top speed and 0-60 mph times won’t differ by much according to Czinger.
2 One Of The Coolest-Looking Hypercar Designs
Style is subjective, but it’s easy to see why the Czinger has made a big splash in the car world, aside from its engine and performance. A lot of hypercars look similar and this also has hints of other cars in its design, but the single canopy in the middle creates the biggest first impression and looks like almost nothing else as a result.
Huge air ducts with a futuristic pattern adorn the vents and the headlamps look just as sharp too; one of the coolest features on the outside must be the rear wing which gets connected further forward via an interesting set-up supports and the rear’s black mesh design with light bar is nothing short of fresh and captivating.
1 The Czinger 21C Is A Lightweight Hybrid Hypercar
One of the key features of the Czinger is its relatively low weight – indeed, at 2755 lbs, its weight almost matches its exact total horsepower figure: 1,233 hp. This gets achieved from an in-house bespoke alloy that is 90% aluminum and 10% a secret additive; this combines with the AI-assisted design that calculates the precise shape, thickness, and diameter of each part of the car to reduce weight further.
All of that results in a number of odd-looking parts and structural pieces that get hollowed out, shaped, and engineered to be as strong and light as possible at the same time – giving the 21C a light enough mass to out-accelerate and out-handle most cars.