CIZETA MORODER

Cizeta Moroder V16T goes up for auction

The unique Cizeta Moroder V16T supercar exudes the spirit of the 80s, and will be sold at Sotheby's auction next month.

The model was built in Italy in partnership with automotive engineer Claudio Zampolli and legendary music producer Giorgio Moroder, and it can be said that the V16T fully embodies the 80s, both its good and bad sides.

The 1988 Cizeta Moroder V16T bears chassis number #001 and is the first prototype built and the only one to bear Moroder's name.

The story goes that Moroder had a Lamborghini Countach serviced by Zampolli, who had previously worked for Lamborghini, but wanted to build his own supercar. Starting a joint project, they hired Countach designer Marcello Gandini to design the V16T, which was partly based on the Lamborghini P132 prototype, the car that also served as the inspiration for the Diablo.

With supercar proportions and a V16 engine mounted behind the driver, essentially two V8s from a Lamborghini Urraca, the V16T debuted in late 1988 after numerous delays. These delays led to Moroder pulling out of the project, leaving the remaining nine examples in production as the Cizeta V16T.

The chassis was constructed from elliptical chrome-molybdenum steel tubing, enveloped by elegant bodywork designed by Marcello Gandini—who had previously designed the Lamborghini Countach and several aerodynamic Maseratis—and Claudio Zampolli. The shape of the V16T's front end was derived from Gandini's original design for the Lamborghini Diablo. Initially, Gandini wanted to reuse the design he had created for the Diablo, but Zampolli was unimpressed with the rear section. Consequently, only the front of the car retained the original design, while the rear featured modifications made by Zampolli himself. In a notable design choice, the V16T is the only production car equipped with four independent pop-up headlights—stacked vertically in pairs on each side—while the taillights were borrowed from the Alpine A610.

Performance and production... The V16T achieved a top speed of 328 km/h (204 mph) and could accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 4 seconds.

Only one prototype bearing the Cizeta-Moroder name was built before the partnership dissolved. That car—finished in pearl white with a red leather interior—remained in Moroder's possession; it was fully restored by Canepa in 2018 and subsequently auctioned in January 2022.

In 1991, the list price of a Cizeta was estimated at US$300,000. Although production forecasts called for one car per month, only eight examples (including the prototype) were actually built between 1991 and 1995, before the company relocated its operations from Modena, Italy, to Fountain Valley, California. The financial slowdown in the mid-1990s, combined with the car's inability to meet US road-legal regulations and its high asking price, limited production to custom orders. Subsequently, three more cars were completed (two coupes and a spyder) in 1999 and 2003. The car built in 2003 was a convertible variant of the V16T named the Cizeta Fenice TTJ Spyder, completed at the special request of a Japanese client.

As of May 1, 2006, the car was still in production on a made-to-order basis, though the price was then $650,000—or $850,000 for the Spyder TTJ—excluding shipping, taxes, and extras. According to a 2018 interview, Zampolli considered the car theoretically still in production and available for purchase up until 2018, even though none had been built since the 2003 Spyder. Zampolli passed away on July 7, 2021, at the age of 82.

Chassis #001 was retained by Moroder himself, who parked it and later sent it to Canepa in California in 2018 for restoration, where the car was completely restored and upgraded by Porsche specialists. Moroder did not sell it until 2022 at an RM Sotheby’s auction, where it fetched $1,363,500.

Now, however, the car is set to change hands again next month, with the auction house estimating it could fetch between $1.4 million and $1.8 million.

Autonews