Setting a new standard for hypercar performance and endurance, the journey stretched from the hills of Northern California to the heat of the Southern desert, linking the state’s most iconic racetracks. Led by Czinger Vehicles Chief Engineer Ewan Baldry and a team of eight engineers who developed and built the Czinger 21C, the mission was simple in principle, but daunting in execution.
The journey began in Northern California and wound its way south, linking Thunderhill, Sonoma Raceway, Laguna Seca, Willow Springs, and The Thermal Club. Between the tracks, the 21C crossed through redwood-lined valleys, along coastal stretches, and deep into the desert. The team navigated everything from sweeping canyon roads to the cracked flats of the Mojave.
Along the way, they passed through some of the state’s most recognizable landmarks, driving across the Golden Gate Bridge, stopping at In-N-Out Burger, Blackbird Airpark, and winding the tight turns of Box Canyon Road. Each stop added a new layer of contrast to the journey—urban, remote, historic, modern—mirroring the extremes of the car itself.
It all ended at Area 21, where the garage doors lifted to the sound of applause from the team that had built the car and followed its every mile.
“With the California Gold Rush campaign, we set out to redefine hypercar performance. Taking into equal consideration lap records and road endurance. We believe that a hypercar must perform over multiple dimensions and technical innovations are only worthwhile when proven in the real world,” said Lukas Czinger, CEO & Founder of Czinger Vehicles. “The driving force behind any technological leap is a mission driven, resilient, and exceptionally capable team. The California Gold Rush documentary celebrates the individuals behind the 21C. I could not be prouder of what our team accomplished.”
The record-setting journey saw the Czinger 21C hypercar achieve the following times, all verified by Racelogic using a VBOX GNSS-based system and witnessed on site:
Thunderhill Raceway Park: 1:48.30, -3.39 seconds off previous record
Sonoma Raceway: 1:35.05, – 0.70 seconds off previous record
WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca: 1:24.39, -0.36 off Czinger’s own previous record
Willow Springs Raceway: 1:19.73, – 1.35 seconds off previous record
The Thermal Club: 2:03.17, -10.33 seconds off previous record
At each track, the 21C delivered a lap for the history books. In total, the car shaved 16.26 seconds from benchmark records, a performance that speaks not only to the hypercar’s capabilities but to the spirit of the team that built it.
In the film, directed by Luca Brinciotti, an Italian-born, Los Angeles-based filmmaker known for his immersive automotive storytelling, the 25-minute documentary captures far more than performance data. It reveals the human side of the California Gold Rush campaign—fatigue, setbacks, breakthroughs, and the unrelenting spirit of the team.
“From the beginning, it was clear this team had an extraordinary level of grit and focus,” said Brinciotti. “My goal was to capture and share the energy that fueled them. What they’ve built isn’t just a car, it’s a collective effort born from belief and determination.”
At the center of the journey was Baldry, who not only oversaw every detail of the car’s development but also drove the thousands of road miles between tracks. “The amazing thing about this team is the self-belief and tenacity,” he said. “It was a difficult challenge, and tensions ran high at times, but that’s part of doing something hard and worthwhile. The film captures that.”
Throughout the journey, Baldry and team faced real technical adversity. A cracked casing at Thunderhill required a full system teardown and overnight rebuild. At Laguna Seca, the car hit a tire wall during a push lap, resulting in another on-the-spot repair. Yet each time, the crew regrouped and kept the mission alive.
Driver Joel Miller, a longtime Czinger development driver, handled all five circuits. “When the Czinger team called me and said five lap records in five days, I knew it would be intense,” said Miller. “Taking the car straight from the street to five track circuits with varying temperatures and configurations is an amazing feat, one that I’ve never heard of another manufacturer being crazy enough to attempt.”
The team’s resilience and momentum were powered by more than engineering. “This was never just about the car,” said Ryan Bonnelly, Lead Technician at Czinger. “It was about the people behind it. Everyone here put in everything they had. We worked through the nights, fixed problems on the fly, and stayed united. No ego. Just focus.”
More than an automotive documentary, California Gold Rush is a story about belief. About a car that redefines what is possible. About a team that refused to crack. And about a state that continues to inspire dreamers, builders, and boundary breakers.
About Czinger VehiclesEstablished in 2019, Los Angeles-based Czinger Vehicles is an industry-disrupting performance vehicles brand pioneering a new era of design and manufacturing. Built around a core ethos of utilizing revolutionary, proprietary technology to create vehicles equipped with both dominating performance and iconic design, Czinger represents a radical transformation of the manufacturing sector and the future of human-AI design.
Led by CEO & Founder, Lukas Czinger, Czinger Vehicles’ first production car, the 21C, signals a new era of performance, engineering, and design. Limited to only 80 units, the 21C is a street-legal hypercar, and the delivery of the initial customer cars is underway globally. In addition to the five California track records, Czinger holds the fastest lap record of 2:10.7 at Circuit of the Americas.
Czinger’s cutting-edge Area 21 production facility in California opened officially in September 2024. More than a traditional factory, Area 21 represents the future of manufacturing—a fully integrated space where advanced human-AI collaboration and additive manufacturing come together to shape the next generation of automotive innovation.
For more information, go to www.Czinger.com.
Contact:Suzanne Wellington
Shamin Abas Communications for the World’s Finest Brands
[email protected]
+1-404-543-3623
SOURCE Czinger Vehicles
