Kevin Czinger, founder of Czinger Vehicles, spoke to CarBuzz at the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed last week, outlining ambitious plans to challenge the established hypercar elite. This comes just after the American automaker’s 21C hypercar snatched the production record on the Goodwood hillclimb, achieving a time of 48.83 seconds to beat last year’s record holder, the all-electric Rimac Nevera (49.32 seconds).
We asked Mr. Czinger if this was just the beginning of an all-out global assault on the record books, and his response was exactly what we had hoped to hear. “Yeah, absolutely. There’ll be a little international trip next year,” Czinger told us while not divulging where exactly this assault would be initiated. But we suspect we’ll see the 21C take on tracks like the Nürburgring and Spa-Francorchamps.
What About Top Speed Records?
Three variants of the 21C are available. The regular model is more track-oriented and offers maximum downforce, which is why it was the ideal choice for the hill climb. With a 2.88-liter twin-turbo V8 spinning to 11,000 rpm, as well as two front-axle electric motors, the total output is 1,250 horsepower, and the top speed is 219 mph. However, there’s also the 21C V Max, and its slippery body is claimed to be capable of 253 mph. Combined with the extra 100 horsepower you get in the 21C Blackbird, could the American hypercar take on the world’s best and win? Does Czinger have an interest in top speed records?
“I’d say we do. Both of these [21C and 21C V Max] are street cars, [but] there might be a car where we change the gearbox to do that.”
– Kevin Czinger, Founder of Czinger Vehicles Inc.
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Czinger wouldn’t be the first to attempt a record with modified prototypes that don’t match the roadgoing specification. McLaren’s famous top speed record with the F1 used a car with a raised rev limiter, and the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+ special edition was only a visual homage to a modified prototype that broke 300 mph. Building a hypercar capable of breaking today’s top speed records is immensely difficult, and even once completed, it can be an immense challenge to find a stretch of road long enough to verify what science and math say is possible.
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With that in mind, we suspect that Czinger will focus mainly on track lap records, of which it already has several. Mr. Czinger tells us that the production lap record set at the Circuit of the Americas with driver Phil Miller saw 5,600 lbs of downforce generated at 200 mph, so we’d love to see if it can steal the AMG ONE’s Nürburgring crown. For the record, the 21C has the fastest time at Laguna Seca raceway, and by some distance, too.
The Sky Is Not The Limit
Czinger’s goals are highly ambitious, including a Lamborghini fighter, but there’s no reason the company won’t succeed. Czinger has developed and delivered aerodynamically optimized 3D-printed suspension components for the exquisite Bugatti Tourbillon, and its 3D printing technology is incredibly efficient. Kevin Czinger says the system only needs the user’s use case inputs, and everything else is handled automatically in a fraction of traditional timeframes. To even label it 3D printing is a gross oversimplification.
“[The system] is running the full engineering constraints, full manufacturing process simulation optimization, [and] full assembly process optimization, generating in 15-20 hours – instead of a year plus – a perfect structure, which you couldn’t do in a year anyways, and then it has the instructions, sends to a printer, prints, and assembles. That is
not
like somebody saying, ‘Oh, can you 3D print this?'”
With this technology, Czinger can offer other automakers and even other industries all the tools they need to accelerate design, development, and manufacturing of components. This sounds like a lucrative avenue, so we asked Czinger if he would diverge from cars to focus on maximizing profits. His answer brought a swell of pride: “It’s cool creating tools and enabling other people with tools, but like doing your own thing, man? Yeah, if you’re a human, the most cool thing is to express yourself in this way.”
How might he and his company express themselves in the future? In every way possible, says Kevin: “We’ll do air, land, sea, and space vehicles over time.” We can’t wait.
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#Californian #Hypercar #Bugatti #Koenigsegg #Hennesseys #Records
