A Star is Born: Cizeta-Moroder Steals the Spotlight in Hollywood
Featuring a 16-cylinder engine built from two Lamborghini engines, Cizeta built just over a dozen examples of their 204 mph supercar.
We attended the monthly Sunset Gran Turismo “cars and coffee” event on West Hollywood’s Sunset Strip on November 11 and among the collection of amazing cars on display was this Cizeta-Moroder V16T. This car was created via a joint venture by Lamborghini Countach designer Claudio Zampolli, Lamborghini Diablo designer Marcello Gandini, and music composer Giorgio Moroder, with the resulting brand being called Cizeta-Moroder. Shortly after the V16T debuted, Giorgio Moroder left the partnership, leading to the car being called the Cizeta V16T.
The supercar boom in the 1980s and 1990s led to a great many small companies that sprouted up to create rare, high performance machines. The Cizeta V16T is one of them and like many other vehicles of that time, the V16T drew much of its design inspiration from the Lamborghini brand with help from two men who designed the Raging Bull’s hottest models from that era.
Cizeta V16T Design
When Claudio Zampolli and Marcello Gandini worked together to create the V16T, they clearly combined the design language of the famous Lamborghini models that they had created before joining forces to make their own brand. The V16T clearly looks like the early sketches of the Diablo, with the sleek, angular body being stretched over a chassis made from chromemoly elliptical steel tubing. Frankly, it looks like many of the other small-brand supercars of the era, but it is still beautiful in its own right.
To add some “wow factor”, the V16T has a rear engine cover that flips towards the back of the car, revealing the massive 16-cylinder engine. Along the side, there are coves that transform into vents for the big engine and the midship engine layout creates the short front end that we saw on many of the 90s supercars.
On the inside, the Cizeta V16T is chock full of premium plush amenities, bright red leather, matching carpeting and an array of switches on the large center console. Those leather-wrapped seats look like something that you would find in the office of an executive, being wide, deep and nicely detailed with the stitch-work.
Lamborghini Power
Under the rear engine cover is a 6.0-liter V16 engine that is actually a pair of Lamborghini 3.0-liter V8 engines from the Lamborghini Urraco, which are mated in a single engine block. A chain-driven system runs between the quartet of cylinder heads and while output varied by model year, the strongest V16T engines delivered 560 horsepower and 398 lb-ft of torque. That power is sent to the rear wheels by means of a 5-speed manual transmission, allowing the car to dash from a stop to 60 miles per hour in 4.4 seconds while running up to a top speed of 204 miles per hour.
Low Production
When the Cizeta V16T first went into production, the company planned to build one car each month, but from 1991 through 1995, only 12 cars were built and sold, while another two were built in later years – one in 1999 and one in 2003. That low production could be due to the price, as each car cost $650,000, which was expensive even by the lavish standards of the 1990s supercar boom.
Fortunately, one of the original Cizeta V16T supercars is up and running in California, allowing attendees of the monthly Sunset Gran Turismo event a chance to check out one of Italy’s rarest supercars.
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