Designed by artificial intelligence and 3D-printed by robots, the Czinger 21C has the potential to transform the car industry, according to those behind it. Felix Page heads to their US base
D‘oing the bare minimum’ as a phrase has pejorative connotations. It implies an element of coasting, refusing to surpass expectations and settling for mediocrity – even, perhaps, giving up. But here we are in 2024, when manufacturers (not just of cars) are confronted with soaring production costs and are rigidly committed to reducing their impact on the environment. Products mustn’t just be cheaper to make: they must also be lighter than ever before, use minimal materials in their make-up and be fabricated rapidly, using as few resources as possible. Doing the bare minimum, it is clear, is now nothing less than an overarching objective for the industry.
Nowhere is that felt keener than at 19601 Hamilton Avenue, Torrance, California, otherwise known as the headquarters of manufacturing masterminds Divergent – or, as it will no doubt soon come to be known, the epicentre of a bold new era for the automotive industry.
Divergent is best known for being the parent firm of Czinger, creator of the ludicrously powerful and fascinatingly engineered 21C hypercar – a 1233bhp V8-powered showcase of what can be achieved with the firm’s new-school approach to vehicle manufacturing.
When it was revealed back in 2020, the 21C quickly came to be known as the ‘3D-printed hypercar’, which is a description that is at once both vaguely accurate and something of an undersell. Because there’s surely no car, road-going or otherwise, being built right now, anywhere in the world, that can lay claim to such beauty in its engineering.
Its rear subframe twists and wraps hypnotically around its masterfully presented engine, free of unsightly welds and clearly as light as it could possibly be without sacrificing a mite of structural integrity. Its intimidating, ground-sucking aerodynamic addenda – generating 2000kg of downforce at 190mph – speaks of its track-honed performance potential. And its cockpit would seem to have been lifted straight from a Le Mans Hypercar were it not for a centrally positioned driver’s seat and another behind for a lucky passenger.
President and chief operating officer Lukas Czinger tells me that Czinger is “a business in its own right” and lays bare his ambition for it to become “the most successful American performance car company”. But more importantly, the 21C serves as a “laboratory
