There are convertibles, there are supercars, and then there is the Czinger 21C Spyder — a machine that appears to have been designed after someone asked a perfectly reasonable question: How much downforce can you possibly fit onto a car with no roof?

The answer, apparently, is 1,500kg at 150mph.

In a detailed first look, Shmee150 gets up close with the new 21C Spyder, joined by Czinger’s Lukas Czinger to explore the extraordinary hypercar and the technology behind it.

The Spyder is the third member of the 21C family, following the original 21C and the HDF and VMAX variants. With the roof in place, it matches the HDF’s remarkable 1,500kg downforce figure at 150mph. Remove the roof and, incredibly, the car loses just 18kg.

That means the open-top experience comes without the usual compromise in performance.

Underneath the spectacular bodywork sits Czinger’s 2.88-litre twin-turbocharged V8 hybrid powertrain, producing 1,250hp in a tandem-seat hypercar that looks more like a spacecraft than a conventional road car.

But the engineering story goes much further. Czinger has continued developing its technology with systems including BrakeNode and NeuralNode, pushing the 21C concept further than ever before.

Shmee150’s walkaround explores everything from the dramatic exterior design to the cockpit, powertrain and aerodynamic philosophy behind the Spyder.

Unveiled during Monterey Car Week at The Quail, the 21C Spyder isn’t simply the original car with its roof removed.

It is Czinger doing what Czinger does best: taking the traditional rules of hypercar engineering, throwing them out of the window, and seeing what happens next.