In an industry where endurance and precision matter just as much as raw speed, Czinger Vehicles has achieved something few would dare to attempt. Its flagship hypercar, the 21C, not only conquered 1,000 miles of public road in California but also set five official production car lap records in five consecutive days. Known as the California Gold Rush, the campaign is already being hailed as a milestone in modern hypercar engineering.
The 21C’s record-breaking journey paid tribute to California’s legendary racing culture by taking on five of the state’s most prestigious circuits: Thunderhill Raceway, Sonoma Raceway, Laguna Seca, Willow Springs Raceway, and The Thermal Club. At each track, the car lowered the standing records with a combined margin of over sixteen seconds, a feat independently verified by RaceLogic’s VBox GNSS system and third-party observers.
Lukas Czinger, CEO and founder of the company, described the challenge with characteristic ambition: “With the California Gold Rush campaign, we set out to redefine hypercar performance. Taking into equal consideration lap records and road endurance.” He later emphasized that “the car, now being proven to be as good as it is, shows the true breadth of capability that we have at Czinger.”
The campaign was orchestrated by Chief Engineer Ewan Baldry and a close-knit team of eight engineers, with longtime Czinger development driver Joel Miller at the wheel. Miller piloted the car through every mile of public road and every scorching lap. Reflecting on the challenge, he remarked, “When the Czinger team called me and said five lap records in five days, I knew it would be intense. Taking the car straight from the street to five circuits with varying temperatures and configurations is an amazing feat — one I’ve never heard of another manufacturer being bold enough to attempt.”
What makes the achievement even more striking is the fact that the 21C ran in its standard road-legal configuration. Powered by an in-house 2.9-liter twin-turbo V8 engine paired with a 4.4-kWh battery pack, the tandem-seating hypercar delivers an extraordinary 1,350 horsepower and reaches speeds up to 253 mph (407 km/h). With its 3D-printed and machine-designed components, the 21C embodies a philosophy of reduced weight, maximized strength, and streamlined production. No special modifications were made for the records, the same car driven across California’s highways was the one setting lap times.
The human story behind the effort is captured in Gold Rush, a 25-minute documentary directed by Luca Brinciotti. It chronicles the perseverance, setbacks, and triumphs that defined this bold campaign, offering an intimate glimpse into how a six-year-old company managed to challenge decades-old giants of the hypercar industry.