The Czinger 21C Spyder Is a 3D-Printed Open-Top Rocket Ship

A hypercar with no roof and no traditional parts

Czinger's 21C has always been an outlier. The Los Angeles builder uses 3D-printed metal structures, a central driving position, and a hybrid powertrain to make a car that looks like nothing else on the road. Now there is a new version: the 21C Spyder, an open-top variant that starts at $2.75 million and pushes the company's additive manufacturing story even further.

The Spyder uses the same 1,250-hp hybrid system as the hardtop 21C. A 2.9-liter twin-turbo V-8 revs to 11,000 rpm and makes 750 hp on its own, while electric motors add another 500 hp at the front axle. Czinger claims 0-60 mph in 1.9 seconds. That is supercar pace, not grand-tourer pace, and the Spyder does it with the wind in your hair.

Removing the roof added only 22 pounds to the car, which says something about how rigid the chassis already is. The carbon fiber tub and 3D-printed metal subframes are so stiff that Czinger did not need a major redesign to keep the car safe. Downforce actually stays almost identical: 3,267 pounds with the roof off, 3,307 pounds with it on. That makes the Spyder the highest-downforce open-top car Czinger has ever built.

The BrakeNode is the real story

What makes the Spyder interesting beyond the horsepower is a new part called BrakeNode. Traditional brake systems split the caliper, mounting bracket, and hydraulic lines into separate pieces. Czinger prints all of that as one aluminum structure, with internal passages that carry fluid directly to the pistons.

The design cuts 1.5 pounds of unsprung mass at each corner, which is weight that never rotates with the wheel. Czinger says stiffness goes up by as much as 30 percent, stopping distances shrink by up to 15 percent, and the whole system is simpler to service because there are fewer interfaces to leak. The front calipers use six titanium pistons; the rear uses four lighter aluminum pistons.

BrakeNode will be standard on the 21C Spyder, and existing 21C owners can retrofit it. Czinger also debuted a new dashboard structure called NeuralNode, which wraps the gauges, air vents, and controls into a single 3D-printed piece. Both parts exist because the company's generative design software places material exactly where load paths demand it, rather than starting from a block and cutting away.

Only 30 will be built

Czinger plans to hand-build 30 Spyders at its Los Angeles factory. Buyers choose paint, carbon fiber finishes, interior materials, and even colors for the 3D-printed metal parts. The starting price is $2.75 million, and fully optioned examples will run higher. Every car gets homologated for all 50 states, so there is no grey-market gymnastics required to drive one in the US.

The 21C Spyder is not a car for most people. It is a car for the sort of buyer who sees a $2.75 million price and thinks the technology underneath matters more than the badge on the hood. Czinger is already supplying 3D-printed parts to Aston Martin, McLaren, and Bugatti through its sister company Divergent Technologies. The Spyder is the brand's most visible advertisement yet that additive manufacturing is no longer a laboratory experiment.