Latest news with #Czinger
Auto Car
21 hours ago
- Automotive
- Auto Car
Czinger plots MORE variants of its radical 1233bhp hypercar
American firm Czinger, renowned for its radical 3D-printing approach to car manufacturing, has scrapped plans for a multi-model strategy and will focus on increasing the life of its 1233bhp 21C hypercar. Speaking to Autocar, new CCO George Biggs said previously announced plans for a striking grand tourer – previewed in 2022 by the Hyper GT concept – and a Lamborghini Urus-inspired SUV were no longer in the timeline. Both new models would have been mechanically related to the 21C and used the same twin-turbocharged 2.88-litre hybridised V8. Biggs said: 'If you look at the portfolio, the Czinger brand needs to be something which is very high-end that has a sustainability to it. And I think if you want to chase the market trends [such as the current demand for SUVs], you're going to find it tricky over the long term. 'If you look at brands over the past 15 years, certainly in the luxury space, who've had a very clear vision and execute against that vision, they really have had success. And I think from a hypercar perspective, we can bring a very, very different philosophy and concept that should appeal, and then you build upon that in a way that makes sense to that customer base.' Instead, the California-based company will update the tandem-seat 21C with new iterations 'into and beyond 2035'. This could for example include, Biggs said, variants with a 'more traditional seating arrangement' or an even more radical performance positioning that build on the track-honed 21C V-Max (below) – production of which will begin next year following the conclusion of the standard car's 88-car run. How different could these variants become? Bigg said: 'Occasionally I'll wander around and go and pester an engineer and ask 'if you had no constraints, where would you go?'. And they come out with these fantastic ideas, and they all sit on our technology roadmap. So a greater application of the technology that we use.
Top Gear
04-08-2025
- Automotive
- Top Gear
Czinger 21C review: flat out in America's £1.6m, 3D-printed hypercar Reviews 2025
Hopefully finished this time. Top Gear drove a very early prototype of the Czinger 21C a few years ago, but this is it. The real deal. The Californian-born tandem-seat hybrid hypercar with 1,250bhp, Rimac-level performance and engineering solutions straight out of Stark Industries. What sort of tech are we talking? A closed loop, AI-driven approach that eliminates expensive tooling costs, allows rapid iteration and creates perfectly optimised, lightweight components through 3D printing. Over the past five years I've visited several times and watched this bold project turn from sci-fi into reality. Advertisement - Page continues below In 2024, sister company Divergent's facility was simultaneously producing parts for Bugatti, Aston Martin, McLaren, SpaceX and the military. Next door at Czinger the 21C was entering the final phase of development, too. Divergent has invested around $1 billion in its visionary Divergent Adaptive Production System and the Czinger 21C is intended as a lap record destroyer to showcase the full extent of its powers. Today, it's time to drive. Does it look as exotic in the metal as in pictures? On a cool, hazy morning at Sonoma Raceway, the 21C looks almost as alien as the sprawling weblike structures beneath its carbon fibre bodywork. It's wide and incredibly low but with an SR-71 Blackbird inspired '1+1' seating arrangement, the passenger cell is slim and has an organic, teardrop shape. Of course, aside from Top Gun vibes and the perfection of a central driving position, the configuration is also fantastic for aero optimisation. Is it a downforce monster? Czinger claims 1,200kg of downforce at 100mph and 2,552kg at 200mph. Open up the rear deck lid with the gorgeous and vast swan neck rear wing (which balances out the massive front splitter and dive planes), and beyond the distractingly beautiful suspension rockers and subframe you'll find the engine. How complicated is the powertrain? At its heart lies a 2.9-litre twin-turbocharged V8 producing 750bhp and 397lb ft. It revs to 11,000rpm and drives through a seven-speed single clutch, but twin-barrel gearbox. The internals are by XTrac and the casing is 3D printed in house. The engine is supplemented by an 800V electric drive system consisting of a crank-driven MGU that can deliver up to 200bhp into the battery and two further electric motors for the front axle, powered by a small but power dense 4kWh battery split and located in each sill. Advertisement - Page continues below Total output is 1,250bhp and 692lb ft. Czinger claims 0–60mph in 1.9 seconds and 0–124mph in 4.8 seconds. About a second quicker than the Ferrari F80. What's it like to sit inside? Press a little rubber button located at the very rear of the double length door in the gaping side intake and the journey into a whole new world begins. The billionaire door rises up and the driver's seat feels a very long way away. Czinger's support team suggest sitting on the wide carbon fibre sill, then swinging legs across and down into the footwell. It's not the most elegant process but access is considerably easier than the Aston Martin Valkyrie, for example. And the view is worth the effort. You sit so far forward that the wheelarches don't frame the view ahead. Instead they're just in your peripheral vision. So, it's just the small lozenge shaped wheel, the simple, clear screen beyond it mounted on a 3D printed structure and the road ahead. Fittingly, you feel right at the front of a very fast projectile. The jet concept seems like something a seven year old might come up with, but aren't supercars and hypercars meant to bring out the kid in all of us? Job done. Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Look out for your regular round-up of news, reviews and offers in your inbox. Get all the latest news, reviews and exclusives, direct to your inbox.
New York Post
10-05-2025
- Automotive
- New York Post
Divergent Czinger car is 3-D printed, goes 0-60 in 2 secs
Two months ago, a car of the future rolled out of a Los Angeles factory and onto the street. Called the Czinger 21C, it is mostly made with a gigantic 3-D printer. However, this electric hypercar is anything but a toy. With a starting price of $2 million, the two-seat rocket ship of a vehicle (one seat in front and one seat in back) has a top speed of 253 miles per hour and goes from zero to 62 in 1.9 seconds. 11 Yale grad Lukas Czinger (right), 'rolled the dice' and joined his father Kevin to revolutionize manufacturing. Courtesy of Divergent 'Right now, it's the fastest hypercar in the world,' Lukas Czinger, COO of Divergent, the company that produced the Czinger, told The Post. 'And it is fully road legal.' Cool as the car may be, it is also the template for a whole new kind of manufacturing. Just as a computer can send information to a printer anywhere in the world to make a hard copy of a document, Divergent can do the same with the parts to build a car. And it would not be limited only to automobiles. Can the technology be used to construct, say, a house? 'Yes,' said Los Angeles-based Czinger, 29. 'We can build virtually any metal structure.' Divergent says it will completely transform the way in which cars and other items are produced. 11 A rocket-ship of a car, the Czinger is a two-seater, with one up front and the other in the back. Divergent 11 The recently released Czinger 21C ranks as the world's fastest hypercar — and much of it is made on a 3-D printer. Courtesy of Divergent 'We're ripping apart the supply chain,' said Czinger (the C is silent, so it's pronounced as 'zinger'). 'The printer is where the end product is manufactured, so you don't have to worry about a supply chain.' But it doesn't come cheap. Development of the printer ran to $500 million before a single thing was actually produced. 'It wasn't easy to raise money,' Czinger admitted. 'It was a capital-intensive development [but] the fundamental idea is to create a new kind of manufacturing.' Weighing in at around two tons and dimensioned like a pair of shipping containers stacked on top of each other, the printer uses metallic powders and lasers (which melt the powder) to build parts layer by layer. 11 Wherever possible, the Czinger automobile is assembled robotically. Divergent3D/YouTube 11 Parts such as this one may be built with 5,000 metallic layers that begin as a powder. courtesy of Divergent 'A single part,' said Czinger, 'could have 5,000 layers. One day, each printer will be its own factory. This is what we call digital manufacturing.' Czinger thinks of it as 'one factory that can make any product as opposed to one factory that makes only one product. We'll have instant manufacturing, in which the printer can make a Ferrari rear frame for one of its automobiles and then, in the next second, it can print a cruise missile for Lockheed Martin.' Divergent is the brainchild of Lukas and his father, Kevin Czinger. Kevin, from Ohio, founded the company in 2014 following careers in law and investment banking. 11 Divergent is using technology to upend the way that manufacturing is done. Divergent3D/YouTube As things got off the ground, Lukas, who has an engineering degree from Yale University, 'quit my banking job and rolled the dice, betting on Kevin, betting on myself, betting on the vision of Divergent.' Currently, said Czinger, creating one of his company's cars from design to the finished product takes about 1,000 hours. Done the old-fashioned way, 'with a manual chassis [building] process,' he added, 'you can probably add another 600 hours.' Although Divergent is at the forefront of the new auto revolution – and road-worthy proof that it works – they are not the only ones changing the game. 11 Kevin Czinger behind the wheel of his hypercar. Mel Lindstrom/Divergent/Shutterstock 11 Modern in every way, the Czinger hypercars run on battery power. Courtesy of Divergent In fact, changing batteries in electric cars, which lose charging power over time, is another growth area. 'There's a player in China that allows for battery swapping,' Phillip Kampshoff, a McKinsey & Company senior partner who focuses on the automotive industry, told The Post. Tesla, at one point, is said to have also considered battery swapping but did not follow through. More intriguing, Kampshoff said, 'At a later stage in time, if there is a new generation of batteries or a better version of the one you have, you'll be able to upgrade.' Right now, however, the upgrade 'is not possible.' 11 The Nio cars from China offer batteries that can be swapped out when they run low on power, according to reports. Bloomberg via Getty Images What is possible – and something that could happen as soon as Divergent has more 3D printers – is the instant printing of hard-to-find auto parts. 'If you're a supplier for a certain part,' said Kampshoff, 'you eventually sunset the production line,' of parts for models you no longer make, as it is not financially worthwhile to produce them. But, with a 3D printer and a software copy of each part's design, they can be produced instantly and, as Kampshoff put it, 'not take up space in a warehouse for 10 years.' Cars may become cheap enough that maintaining a clunker won't be worth it. One offering that may bring that to reality could be the Slate, bankrolled in part by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. 11 The Slate, bankrolled in part by Jeff Bezos, promises to bring customization to the masses. Slate Auto According to the Slate website, consumers will be able to design the car to their specifications – whether they want, say, a pick-up truck or an SUV – and have the ability to tweak the vehicle even after it is purchased, with prices expected to start at $20,000. 'Slate is exciting because it brings mass customization, which may sound like a contradiction, but it is not,' James Meigs, a senior fellow focused on technology with the Manhattan Institute, told The Post. 'If they do everything they say, it will be practical and utilitarian and reasonably priced.' And you might not need to be one of the richest men in the world to take a shot at pulling off your own car company. 11 Kevin Czinger has created a paradigm-shifting system for building super-fast cars like this one. Mel Lindstrom/Divergent/Shutterstock 'I think we will see more people taking gambles in EV startups that satisfy niches,' predicted Meigs. 'In China, we've seen micro city-cars that are good for buzzing around and slipping into tiny spaces. 'Thirty or 40 years ago, nobody in their right mind would have started a car company. But with the battery-operated vehicles, it's a little easier today, and people are willing to try different things. Maybe we'll see things we can't even predict and don't expect' – Kampshoff goes so far as to imagine self-driving campers that can function as mobile hotel rooms. 'I think the future will be exciting,' Meigs added.
