Czinger says it’s putting the Hyper GT into production
We know Czinger has yet to prove itself. Four years of fanfare around the tandem-seater C21 with its twin-turbo 2.88-liter V8 hybrid making a combined 1,250 horsepower has, as far as we can tell, resulted in three rendered body styles, several dealer agreements, and a Time magazine accolade for being among the best inventions of 2023, but not a single C21 delivery to a retail buyer as of yet. With that caveat covered, we still believe in the chances of this remarkable possibility: Czinger could be a U.S. version of Koenigsegg — a small, massively innovative maker of supremely cool products that, while out of reach of almost all car buyers, enthusiasts respect as equally impressive and aspirational. Is that a big ask with long odds? Sure. But so was Koenigsegg in 1994. Anyway, the real news we’re here about is Czinger telling Top Gear it’s putting the Hyper GT into production.
The Hyper GT was the family fastback with gullwing doors that Czinger announced at Monterey Car Week in 2022. Powered by the same hybrid setup as the 21C but with the gas V8 up and two e-motors arranged differently, we assume. Czinger said at the time the Hyper GT will be “the most powerful grand tourer ever produced” and “by far, the top performing GT ever built and ever put out on the street” that also happens to have room for four adults and their luggage.
Those boasts bring us, coincidentally, back to Koenigsegg and the Swedish company’s Gemera. The last bout of engineering jujitsu in Angelholm resulted in a Gemera Client Specification trim powered by a TT 5.0-liter V8 hybrid making 2,300 horsepower and 2,028 pound-feet of torque. Leaving Czinger to find 1,100 horsepower or so for the Hyper GT. Game on.
The U.S. company says it plans up to six small-run vehicles to launch through the end of the decade. Our first question after such comments is always, “Where’s the money coming from?” Sounds like Czinger’s is coming from the usual funding rounds as well as other automakers and the defense industry, the latter an especially fertile source of ducats for those who can tap into a line. Founder and CEO Kevin Czinger told TG, “[We] have companies like Aston Martin and Mercedes as customers now and half a dozen major aerospace and defense customers too.”
We’ve read over the past few years about OEMs getting into 3D-printed parts and mega- and gigacasting. Combining these innovations is already Czinger’s specialty with a process called Divergent Adaptive Production System (DAPS), handled by a division called Divergent. Said Kevin, “The only one of those that has been announced publicly is General Atomics. We’re their manufacturing partner for some F16 fighter jet-sized drones. We took a drone that had 184 fuselage components and we reduced that to four. We reduced production time from 12 days to 12 hours. They released all of this information, and very rapidly all of the big aerospace companies came to us to ask how we were doing it.”
As for the C21, Kevin also explained, “We wanted to deliver fully crash-certified, fully emissions-compliant 21Cs in 2023, so that was 100 percent my focus.” If that’s happened, then, yes, as the old meme goes, we’d like to know more.
