Nabil: let me first welcome you to Goodwood FoS 2024 and say what a great car the Czinger V-Max so I want to ask you: Where did you get the inspiration for the new livery for Goodwood, then we will talk about the design details.

David O’Connell: First of all, we say it’s great to be here at Goodwood 2024. You know. We’re a new brand we’re based in California and we’re super excited to be here to show American-designed and developed products in this very international space.

So we’re showing 2 cars here this year. One is V-max, which is the sister car for the 21c. The 21c is the car we started with at the beginning.

What makes 21C different and special is the perfect position for the driver, it also cuts down on the front layer of the car, and makes the aerodynamics a lot better on the cars. these are the key factors that make the 21C and the V-MAX very different than any other car that’s here at Goodwood.

We created a livery for that car's carbon body with a red accent. We call it tinted green, a rattlesnake green, and there are two aspects of that: the most dangerous rattlesnake in California is called the Mojave green and you don’t want to mess with this snack at all, its bite is very venomous. And then also it’s kind of homage to Jim Hall and Chaparrals back in the 60s and 70s that raced at rattlesnake track in Texas, a little bit of American racing heritage story behind that. As well, California Mojave rattlesnake, which is very venomous, very powerful, very dangerous, It’s kind of a good thing to have with a hyper car.

Nabil: Yeah definitely!

David O’Connell: Yeah, we’ve seen it run now. Three times at Goodwood and it’s really wonderful seeing the car in the sunshine with this hot red accents on the arrow part. So, you know, it really stands out. It’s pretty exciting for us. And then, of course, the V-MAX.

Nabil: You still use the same technique, the 3D printing technology. But I believe you have something new to add it to from last year to this year in terms of technology?

David O’Connell: The basic premise in the construction is really the same as what we showed last year. What I want to say, the big news here this year is these are production-ready products, so, these are all homogenate for crash and regulatory issued for Europe and for North America, Asia. So the base core technology is the same, of course, it’s more refined. The controls are a little bit different and the powertrain is still the same, now we’re ready to go and sell these cars to the public.

We actually started production in California with the customers. This is a really big step and we started with the 21c and with the V-max. The first one is 21c Blackbird Edition and we’ll be delivering that at Pebble Beach.

The V-max debuted back in 2020 at Pebble Beach. The spec is in what we call an Iceman blue which is inspired by the cold north and the blue skies of the Arctic and it’s combined with this beautiful leather on the inside, its contrast is very well, you know, and then you have the exposed carbon parts, which are finished in satin solar, so it makes a handsome package. It’s a really nice contrast and sends a very aggressive statement.

Nabil: I have a few questions regarding some details. So if you look at the rims. You’ll see it's carbon fiber, aluminum and then you have bronze color if I’m not mistaken.

David O’Connell: Titanium.

Nabil: So it’s just a combination of materials for weight reduction or was intentionally designed like being the person responsible for the design?

David O’Connell: It’s really both, everything’s about being light, and strong, so, this is the best combination we can have for the wheels and that philosophy of having the best combination and best balance between materials weight, stiffness, performance, handling, and aesthetic is woven into the fabric of this entire car into the whole brand.

So, in the case of the wheel, it’s aluminum, it’s as light as it can be and still pass FIA, you know, crash, strength, everything the wheel has to do and then of course the center hub is titanium, the story of the car is really interesting, because if you think of the DNA of the brand with printed parts, it’s a lot of metal, you know, we want the metal to be have a natural finish, to be very clear and very obvious, so showing the natural carbon and the carbon in natural form, the wheel and the metalized form and then letting the titanium, you know, showing its natural form, really is a very beautiful combination because you have the cool silvers and then the warm bronze tone of the titanium.

Nabil: When you’re working on the design, I can imagine you have to take the airflow, cooling and down force into consideration, So how easy was it to work with engineers? When you’re talking about a car? That is let’s say out of this world, so, it’s not your normal car, it’s not your normal aerodynamics, it’s more of a combination of a jet and aerodynamics.

David O’Connell: Yeah, so the car was very inspired by an aircraft the SR-71 that’s a really legitimate story. We had pictures of that Jet up, not to copy it, but to use the philosophy behind it, minimum frontal area, and then do something very timeless, and that’s the philosophy we wanted to take from that, but the real specific answer to your question, designers and engineers have to work together because if not you have a car that can be very aerodynamic, not very attractive, or maybe you’re not going to meet your aero targets. So you have to understand and cooperate and use it as an advantage to do something, combining that strength with both sciences.

Nabil: Speaking of the tires so you can look at this style and look at that, you see the other one is kind of pushed a little bit outside more than this one. Is this an engineering or design element?

David O’Connell: The track is wider in the front. It’s for handling and performance.

Nabil: What about the interior of the car?

David O’Connell: As you can see it’s inline seating, it gives you this expert driving experience really like no other just the fact that you’re sitting in the center, we pulled the pillars back as far as we could so that the driver has this truly panoramic view of the road. And what you see from the driver seat is really just the two tops of the fender flares and you have a concept i would call forward focus, you got the steering wheel, the steering wheel is smaller, It’s an excellent size, then you’ve got clear visibility and a small screen then right after that you see the front of the car, so you have no limits on your visibility, the back seat, is made so, you’re sort of like sitting on the back of a touring motorcycle or the back of an F-14 fighter, it gives both driver and passengers an amazing experience that you just can’t get it any other vehicle. When you take all these hyper cars and you look at them, they’re all very beautiful and gorgeous in their own way, but if you throw a car cover on them, they all sort of have the same, this car is different because the geometry behind it is that much different.

Nabil: How easy is to go in and out?

David O’Connell: It’s pretty easy, you have a pretty good dimension between the splitter and the threshold but we intentionally made the threshold or the sill plate, you know, wide and flat so you can basically put your bottom on it. It’s a swivel-side approach. You can see the bottom of the wheel is brought up, so that’s how you can get into the car really easily. I'm almost 6 foot 5 almost; I’m just less than 2 meters. I feel great in the car and I fit even better in the back seat, so it’s extremely easy.

Nabil: So it’s not like the monocoque concept where you have the pedals and the steering moves towards you, it’s just a seat that you can actually adjust it.

David O’Connell: Yes, you can see the pedals are printed, the steering wheel printed, you have exposed structure, all cars have what they call a cross-car beam that creates a structural bond between the left side of the car, and the right side. We’ve let some of the 3D printed optimized structure show through the instrument panel and be clearly visible, so that’s the kind of the car’s DNA that we’re bringing forward, it structured, it’s also quite beautiful, so, everything that you see on your car that’s silver is printed, also, quite interesting is the fact that the steering wheel is also printed the steering wheel weighs about 2.5kg, it’s extremely light if you take it usually a typical steering wheel, it’s anchor it’s very heavy, so we’re taking like enormous amounts of the mass out of the car. And a final thing to mention is that if you notice the door panels are concave, we know that this is an inline seating car; So with the concave, we’ve actually got more shoulder elbow room, we have more shoulder room in here than an S Class Mercedes, and even in the back seat, we’ve got a glass top for a full panoramic view and if you can see the line, the belt line that comes up and sweeps up, it’s right in front of where the rear passenger’s eyes are so that the rear passenger doesn’t feel claustrophobic in the back seats. So again, it’s really very unique, dramatic, efficient, and exciting.

Nabil: Yes, definitely. The only element I want to ask about is the material used on the doors is it made of Alcantara?

David O’Connell: Yes it is Alcantara.

Nabil: That’s the only element that’s made out of Alcantara, the rest is in blue leather.

David O’Connell: It looked better in there, warmer, and a little softer.

Nabil: All right. That’s it thank you so much for the tour.

David O’Connell: You’re welcome.