PRINTING QUEST

A CALIFORNIA COMPANY IS LOOKING TO ADVANCE THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY, ONE 3-D-PRINTED PART AT A TIME. ALSO, WITH A HYPERCAR OR TWO.

- DAVE VANDERWERP

PLENTY OF AUTOMAKERS have claimed to draw inspiration from fighter jets, but no vehicle has gone as far as the Czinger 21C. Here, you climb under a canopy and tuck yourself into a central driver's seat. Which is just one aspect that makes this California-built hypercar unique.

Parent company Divergent Technologies specializes in additive manufacturing, a.k.a. 3-D printing [see “CTRL + P,” page 51], and has been toying with the idea of producing a car for at least a decade. Founder Kevin Czinger built a running proof of concept called the Divergent Blade that debuted in 2015 and showcased many of the company’s 3-D-printed parts, an inline seating arrangement, and similar looks to the 21C that were inspired by the curves of Lola T70 racers from the 1960s. (Before founding Divergent in 2014, Kevin was a co-founder at short-lived EV maker Coda.) Divergent has raised close to a billion dollars in capital, has amassed 750 patents, and employs 450 people, roughly 120 of whom work full time on the carmaking side of the business at Czinger (pronounced “zinger”).

The 21C—short for 21st century—is a hybrid. A 268-hp electric motor powers each of the car's front wheels, and a 750-hp twin-turbo 2.9-liter V-8 that revs to 11,000 rpm powers the rears. Combined output is a staggering 1250 horses. There's no plug, so the electric energy stored in the 4.2-kWh battery pack is primarily harvested from the gas engine by way of a 201-hp third motor that's also used to start the engine.