The Czinger 21C – the world’s first 3D-printed hypercar
Standing in the bright London sunshine, we’re very used to seeing the delights of the capital’s Savile Row, the veritable home of world-class tailoring. However, what we’re perhaps not so used to seeing is the world’s first 3D-printed hypercar – the Czinger 21C.
Making its public debut at Concours On Savile Row, amongst some of the world’s most historic and classic cars, the Czinger 21C is a unique and futuristic car created by a AI-human hybrid process. Only 80 of these futuristic models will be made – but, as we discovered when we spoke to co-founder and SVP of Operations, Lukas Czinger, the car is just the beginning of some big plans this enterprising young man has for shaking up the industry. “I always grew up thinking I could do anything, and genuinely believing that,” laughs Lukas.
Having already set two all-time lap records around the Circuit of the Americas and Laguna Seca, the Czinger 21C is clearly more than capable of holding its own. Few companies try to build their own cars to quite the same extent as Czinger, who are pioneering a new era in the automative space. They are breaking the mould by employing artificial intelligence to work hand-in-hand alongside their engineers to find the best possible solutions to problems, whilst creating a car that can run on synthetic carbon neutral fuels, to satisfy the increasing market demand for more eco-friendly fuel power. And all this is before you consider the fact that the majority of the car is 3D-printed!
“With 3D, you create a more efficient structure, using computer power to actually reach the pre-optimisation point where you’re perfectly meeting the crash requirement, the durability requirement and the mass target. You’re making the lightest possible structure that meets all the performance requirements you need,” Lukas told us. “We spent four years building the software with a team of 30 engineers. Now we can design a part that is more efficient than any other automaker or engineering company in the world. That’s really the base first building block – making that design software so that you can make the part. If you cut one of our parts open, it looks like the inside of a bone, like lattice. You could never cast that; you could never construct it out of sheet metal. So, we turned to 3D-printing, and that technology, to construct the geometry.”
In the long term, Lukas believes that Czinger’s approach to auto manufacture will revolutionise the way that car companies construct their vehicles. “So how I see it is that car companies in the future are going to use our manufacturing method instead of theirs,” he says. “You’re going to see big car companies use us as their outside manufacturing partner, and they’re going to become much more design and performance driven.” That having been said, Lukas is not dismissive of those who value the craft of a hand-built car. “I think there’s always going to be a vintage car scene, and there’s always going to be a coach-built scene,” he says.
For Czinger, the long-term future certainly looks bright. “We want to create designs and cars that stick out, and matter,” Lukas implores. “I want us to make the most advanced cars on the market. I want to see a company that is loved by enthusiasts, loved by customers, and becomes a true American performance brand and a household name for design.”
In the immediate future, however, there are more cars on the horizon. “We already have plans for our next vehicle, and our next vehicle after that. We’re actually going to reveal our next model at Pebble Beach Concours this year,” Lukas says excitedly. “It’s going to be a four-seat car – a two plus two – and have a single door on each side, but be able to fit four people in it. It’s going to be, I’ll just say, the highest performing GT coupe ever created, and we’re going do two body variances of it. We’re going to do 500 that are very sleek with a kind of high-performance appearance. Then we’re going to do 500 which are quite interesting, in a safari-type style – off-road, lifted tyres, that sort of thing.”
Lukas was inspired to set up the business having watched his father from a young age. “My dad’s been a mentor to me my whole life,” he explains. “He’s now a business partner, which is a whole different dimension to the usual father and son relationship. I don’t think he was expecting that we would work together. I certainly wasn’t, but it just happened organically. And now I don’t think I can really think about the business without him, and he can’t think about the business without me at this point. We’ve got a unique relationship.”
Given his evident passion for his subject, it’s not surprising that Lukas ended up in the auto business. “I have a passion for cars. I love cars,” he enthuses. “I’ve been building cars for a long time. I think I built my first car before I even had my driver’s licence! So yeah, I’m a petrolhead. I was definitely car-obsessed growing up, and I still am,” he laughs, “that’s for sure!”
With the future of this exciting car manufacturer in highly capable hands, we can’t wait to see the new era of automotive performance and technology that Czinger is set to bring to the global car market.
