Czinger 21C comes with 1,250 hp and Tesla Roadster-rivaling acceleration
Straight out of California with serious specs from a hybrid powertrain.
What in the world is a Czinger? It sounds an awful lot like the Hostess treat on store shelves all over the US, but this Czinger isn't in the baked goods business. This is a California startup hell-bent on building a supercar from scratch that goes like a bat out of some hybrid-infused hell.
And that it's done in the 21C, which made its debut on Friday ahead of a formal reveal at the 2020 Geneva Motor Show. Let's get the big things out of the way first: The Czinger 21C packs an in-house-designed, twin-turbo 2.88-liter flat-plane crank V8, makes 1,250 horsepower and revs to the stratosphere with a redline of 11,000 rpm. Check the video, it sounds mad in the best of ways.
The power figure is pretty lofty for just a turbocharged V8, but that's because this supercar is a hybrid. There are also two electric motors onboard -- one for each front wheel -- that contribute to the power figure. How much power is unclear, but a lithium-titanate battery feeds the e-motors their go-fast juice. Keep the pedal to the floor and the seven-speed sequential transmission will shift the car to 268 mph, according to the company, with 551 pounds of downforce available at high speeds.
All right, I'm into it, Czinger.
Between the twin-turbo V8 and the electric motors, the 21C is all-wheel drive and will rocket from 0-62 mph in a seriously quick 1.9 seconds.
Where, oh where have we heard about a sub-2-second acceleration time before? Oh, yes: the next Tesla Roadster. The electric carmaker thinks its next electric sports car will go from 0-60 in just 1.9 seconds. If Czinger quotes a 0-62 mph time of 1.9 seconds, it could seriously give the Tesla a run for its money.
This machine will be totally road legal, too, so it's not like it can't encounter other high-performance machines on the street. Further working in the car's favor is a curb weight of 2,755 pounds, which is far less than a battery-powered supercar. The Rimac C_Two, for example, weighs a whopping 4,299 pounds.
If it sounds like it can't get much wilder, it does. Czinger plans for a second, track-only version that doubles down on this gnarly performance figures. While the track-only car won't go as fast (top speed is 236 mph), it will have plenty of extra downforce to help it stick to the surface like velcro. Czinger says there's 1,742 pounds of downforce available for the track car and it weighs 70 pounds less.
One model will be for the street, one for the track.
When it comes to these kinds of performance figures, function often follows form, and I'd say that's the case now. The 21C isn't the most gorgeous thing in the world, but it's not unsightly. There's a bit of Le Mans Prototype design in the front, while big wheel arches make for big hips. At the rear, a long thin taillight strip reminds me of a Koenigsegg, or even the Bugatti Chiron. The company designed the car to connect every opening with a graphical or functional feature. Like I said, function over form.
Perhaps the most intriguing element is the in-line seat position, which Czinger says is essential to help the car pierce the air. The driver sits neatly in a little cockpit, while the car's body basically hugs the area with very slim front and rear overhangs.
While it's not clear how much it'll cost to put a 21C in the garage, the company only plans to build 80 of them, but never fret. We'll learn even more about this startup supercar from the Golden State in just about a week.
