Czinger to follow up 21C hypercar "sooner than you expect"

In the track-spec launch car, which Sverdrup said will be delivered to customers towards the end of 2021, the total output is put at 1,174bhp. But in 2022 the fully homologated road-going examples will be delivered, with 1233bhp. Both cars are very light, even the less stripped-out road-going car weighs just 1,250kg. A 1+1 tandem seating layout is featured, and the price is around £1.4 million, depending on market.

Both Sverdrup and Czinger’s chief technical officer, Jon Gunner, sat down with Autocar to explain the company and car in more detail.

You’re both formerly of rival Koenigsegg. What made you switch to Czinger?

Gunner: "I was at Koenigsegg for 12 years. I felt like we’d done everything we could. I wanted to work somewhere where we can start from a clean sheet, and when I saw Czinger was really doing that I was enticed.

“I believe in small, agile teams to get things done quickly - back to my days working on the 2005 Ford GT with a tiny team and quick development, all through my years at Koenigsegg. I brought that ethos here.”

What is it about Czinger that makes it different from the myriad hypercar startups?

Sverdrup: “First of all, most of these cars kind of look the same lately - when you have a curtain over them they look the same. I think if you put one over this it looks completely different.

"Every now and then a genuine company comes along with genuine technology that will benefit mankind. I must have seen 200 brands come and go - only the ones that really have something special survive. We have our own technology, our own design, our own methods, and that’s unique.

“Our financial backing is paid up front - we don’t need to wait to sell a car to pay our backers. It’s not a mock-up waiting for finance - these cars you see here are fully driveable”.

Why not go electric, as is the fashion nowadays?

Sverdrup: “If it was better, we would have done it!”

Gunner: “With the requirements and targets we had it wasn’t achievable with electric propulsion. Our ethos is light-weighting and power density, and this is the best way to do it."

Your founder, Kevin Czinger, describes your additive manufacturing process as something that could revolutionise the industry. How does it benefit you?

Gunner: “You put the material where you need it, but from an architectural point of view it gives us a lot of freedom to create architectures we wouldn’t otherwise have been able to with traditional manufacturing techniques. We also have an advantage because lead times are much shorter - it gives us the flexibility to adapt and make continual improvements.”

How is this car related to parent company Divergent’s original 3D printed car, the Blade?

Gunner: "The two cars don’t share a single component. That car was done to advertise out manufacturing process - it wasn’t an end product. When I designed this car I started from scratch - we used some design inspiration from the Blade - it was Kevin’s design - but it’s completely redesigned for proper packaging, aero performance, crash safety. "

So this car isn’t just a showcase of your manufacturing tech?

Sverdrup: "We’re not a technology company, we’re a car company. A lot of people are comparing us to Rimac: Rimac is a company in the business of licensing technology. That doesn’t mean we won’t do licensing, but that’s the business for our parent company, Divergent."