Top 5 Autofluence Articles of the Week: April 8, 2016

Czinger 21C First Drive: A Technological Tour de Force

Climbing into the groundbreaking Czinger 21C hypercar requires a quick lesson in contortionism. After opening the long dihedral door, spin around and sit on the sill logo, then spin again and slide your legs into the pedal box, scooch your tailbone down into the carbon-backed seat, and bring your head in last. Oh, and don’t forget: your passenger needs to get in first, because they’ll straddle the driver in a 1+1 layout most similar to a full-on fighter jet. Cockpit is the only way to accurately describe the 21C’s interior, but I adjusted to the central seating surprisingly quickly – then again, I do regularly drive a right-hand-drive Japanese car on the streets of Los Angeles and once spent a full day slinging a Formula 4 racecar around a track. But the Czinger is far more exotic than a JDM import and even more radical to drive than that open-wheeled racer because this hybrid pumps out up to 1,250 horsepower from a tiny 2.88-liter twin-turbocharged V8, which is derived from motorcycle engines to unlock a screaming 11,000-rpm redline, and then paired with two front electric motors rated for 268 horsepower each to create all-wheel drive traction. I needed every ounce of that traction while effectively time-warping my way up canyons in Malibu, even on roads I know, as they say, like the back of my hands. Luckily, once inside, the 21C offers excellent visibility over the dramatic fenders. And the switchgear never seems as complex as an airplane’s despite the crazy AI-designed and 3D-printed components visible everywhere, from the gauge cluster surround to the suspension and even the textural pedals. Push the stop-start button on the right, select drive modes to the left, and dial in climate controls to the right. Then, I spent most of the drive using the paddle shifters – which also shift down into reverse below neutral in similar fashion as a motorbike. I needed front axle lift, accessible via a knob on the teensy tiny racecar steering wheel, quite regularly because this, the low-drag V Max car, rides low enough to reach a top speed of 253 miles an hour. And I never even went into Track Plus mode to drop the chassis down another 30 millimeters, other than to pose for pictures. I never came close to that top speed, but my tailbone felt about six inches off the ground the whole time. The suspension obviously prioritizes performance, but in Street mode, the dampers still stay compliant enough to absorb bumps and ruts without sending any jolts through the rigid chassis. Street mode also prioritizes the electric motors, then kicks on the internal-combustion engine whenever the driver dips deeply enough into the throttle or if the EV range from just 4.2-kilowatt-hours of lithium-ion batteries gets too low. Switch into Sport, and the engine runs all the time, with a deep and lumping idle. Throttle modulation at first felt fairly normal, but as soon as I nudged my right toe a little extra, the 21C combines the immediate punch of an EV with the screaming wail of a superbike and absolutely launches down the road, almost quickly enough to snatch the air out of lungs, with so much power available at any rev that the ECU cues traction control intervention almost on all but the smoothest roads. Traction control makes this whole exercise in technological innovation possible, simply because there’s so much potential in the chassis, which Czinger designed as an early showcase of the iterative design algorithms pioneered by sister company Divergent. Lightweight and rigid, the components from the engine cradle to the subframes, and even the wheel hubs that integrate brake calipers and fluid lines into one solid unit, all resemble H.R. Giger’s haunting set designs in Alien. I’ve known about the potentially world-changing tech for years now, and truly wondered how a startup hypercar manufacturer might prioritize driveability while demonstrating such obviously avant-garde innovation. The brake pedal, just as one example, brought me straight back to that day in the F4 car, because the solid fluid routing relies less on hosing that typically swells under pressure – so instead, the firmness greeting my left foot (this car seems ripe for two-foot driving) truly approached a racecar level of responsiveness. But the pedal also required serious muscular exertion when hauling down speed. And the 21C wants to rip off at breakneck speed all the time, only settling down and becoming happier once I started to crest 50, 60, and 70 miles per hour. After braking later and later, cutting the steering wheel deep into corners reveals the incredible spiderweb effect of centralized mass, the 1+1 layout, and 3D-printed engineering and all-wheel-drive grip, creating a planted sensation that my most aggressive driving simply could not faze. The 21C does appreciate gentler inputs, though, especially while trail braking, as I learned by the end of my drive. If only so the front-axle regen can help to regulate traction, too. And other than the heavy steering requiring a hefty effort, I’d never guess this hypercar weighs 3,668 pounds. I did notice some low-speed shuddering from the steering wheel, something I’ve experienced in a few other high-power EVs previously. I suspect the electro-hydraulic steering system effectively needs to fight the EV motors a little while creeping along—now add so much more mechanical grip from the 21C’s gargantuan 265-mm front and 325-mm rear Michelin tires. Those tires sit under the exaggerated fenders that further contribute to the aerodynamics of a 252-mph tactical missile. The design alone turns more heads than anything – bar none – I’ve ever driven, just an unfamiliar vision of a future almost inconceivable to the ordinary mind. I’d take my 21C in the gorgeous exposed blue-weave carbon, and also prefer black leather everywhere on the inside rather than my test car’s blue Alcantara? If only to enhance the curb appeal and impression of quality to match the high-tech chassis and powertrain of this $2.7 million hypercar. Where most supercar and hypercar manufacturers these days aim to leverage modern tech to broaden the scope between performance and daily driveability, Czinger entertains no such fantasies about the 21C because nothing comes anywhere near comparing to this car. Even if the ride quality never crosses the border into discomfort, at least in Street and Sport mode, this car simply demands attention in any driving scenario, whether tooling around in traffic, highway cruising, ripping through the canyons, or carving up a racetrack. I never felt quite natural driving with one hand, for example, because I never forgot that I was sitting behind the wheel of a technological tour de force. Short of prototype racecars and the world’s greatest superbikes, this is simply the most hardcore vehicle I’ve ever driven. The mind simply balks at imagining the raw G-forces this car might exert on the human body when pushed to the limit on a racetrack, where the 21C continuously sets production car lap records all over America. Yet if you’re flexible enough to climb in – and I did sit in the backseat, where at six-foot-one I fit just fine – the Czinger is also surprisingly livable, even if lacking refinement in some areas, including the hilarious startup music and an incongruously outdated gauge cluster configuration. Living with some quirks always comes along with bleeding-edge tech, though, and should be expected in such an utterly unique supercar,truly unlike anything else on the road. View All Supercars & Exotic Cars For Sale Images: Michael Van Runkle