Video: Czinger 21C breaks Laguna Seca lap record

Remember Czinger? We’ve been enthralled by their journey to hypercar stardom so far and now news of this record-breaking latest development from across the pond confirms that the Los Angeles-based start-up – the $200m dream of ex-banker Kevin Czinger – is no flash in the pan.

Czinger’s first car is the centre-seat 21C – an astonishing blend of jet fighter looks and Le Mans-fit power and performance. In the photographs and on paper this awesome 1,250PS (932kW) and 1,240kg machine ticks all the boxes. It’ll do 0-62mph in 1.9 seconds, 0-186mph in 8.5 seconds, 0-248mph in 21.3 seconds and has a top speed of 281mph. Or will it? What we have not known until now is if this LA hypercar comes with a dose of LA hype…

Where better in the States to separate fact from fiction than Laguna Seca, scene of so much US motorsport drama since the 1950s. The record around the 2.238 mile circuit for a production car was set in 2019 when Randy Probst took a McLaren Senna around in 1:27.62. Czinger now says that in July this year a 21C driven by Joel Miller and on road legal Michelin Pilot Sport Cup2R tyres did a best lap of 1 minute 25.44 seconds, almost two seconds quicker.

"As a blue-collar kid growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, I used to lie awake at night thinking about my racing hero, Jim Hall and his technology-packed Chaparral cars racing on the legendary Laguna Seca Raceway," Kevin Czinger tells us. He said getting the record – in a Californian designed and built car on a Californian circuit ­– was like “living the American Dream at speed."

Further record attempts at other venues are planned, says the company. Good news – proof of the pudding is always in the eating after all, and maybe one day we will even see the 21C scorching up the Goodwood hillclimb. Meanwhile such antics can’t do this newest of American hypercars any harm as the company seeks to sell the 80 cars it wants to build, at around £1.5m each.