Czinger Wants To Steal The Nürburgring Record From The Mercedes-AMG One

The 21C has already topped Laguna Seca and COTA, and now the Nürburgring Nordschleife could be on its list.

Photo by: Czinger

Brian Potter

By: Brian Potter

Aug 19, at 10:30am ET

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Czinger is targeting the Nürburgring Nordschleife and says the 21C can challenge the Mercedes-AMG One production-car record.
No official Nordschleife attempt is on the calendar yet as a focused effort could still be up to a year away
The 21C uses a twin-turbo 2.9-liter V8 and three electric motors for a quoted 1,250 horsepower

The Czinger 21C has already largely reset what a road-legal hypercar can do on a race track, now the Los Angeles-based brand wants to take on the Nürburgring Nordschleife. With fresh production-car records at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and Circuit of the Americas, the 'Ring looks like the next big box to tick.

Speaking with Road & Track, Co-Founder and CEO Lukas Czinger says the Nürburgring Nordschleife is a clear target, and that the team has already gathered data at the track. Referencing the newly released 21C Spyder, Lukas says: "We could set some open-top records, but I think we could take some all-out records as well."

Czinger believes his company has a real shot at the production-car lap record currently held by the Mercedes-AMG One, but he stresses that no formal attempt is booked as of yet.

Source: Czinger

Czinger's Track Records So Far

Right now the 21C holds production-car records at Laguna Seca and Circuit of the Americas, and it has even set headline times at other California tracks and the Goodwood Festival of Speed hillclimb. Those laps are the foundation Czinger is using to argue that the car belongs in any serious talk about modern hypercar performance.

The company has already said it wants to keep chasing lap charts beyond the Nürburgring. In a broader look at its plans, laid out in Czinger Wants to Break More Track Records, the 21C is positioned as a record-focused halo rather than just a low-volume showpiece.

The hard-top 21C mixes a high-downforce setup with a twin-turbocharged 2.9-liter V8, three electric motors, and a claimed 1,250 horsepower. In Czinger’s "California Gold Rush" push, one car set production-car records at five circuits in the state in short order and reportedly drove between tracks on public roads instead of riding in a trailer.

The same blend of pace and street legality was front and center when the new 21C Spyder showed up at Monterey Car Week with an open-top carbon tub and aero that Czinger says can generate 3,267 pounds of downforce at 150 miles per hour.

Czinger 21C Spyder

Photo by: Czinger

Czinger's Nürburgring Push

Czinger has suggested that a fully committed Nordschleife push could still be up to a year away, with potential record runs at places like Indianapolis Motor Speedway or Silverstone in the meantime.

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Lukas has also talked about going after both open-top and overall records, hinting at what the 21C Spyder might do. Early Czinger Nürburgring testing footage give a sense of the bar they are trying to clear and how public these programs can be.

Motor1's Take: Czinger has been building up its case with real lap times on American circuits before talking about the Nordschleife, which makes a future Ring bid look credible. Turning that into a headline lap will still come down to running a true production-spec car on the right tires, locking in focused test time, and inviting outside timing so the result carries weight.