Cars with history: Cizeta-Moroder V16T

The Cizeta-Moroder V16T is one of those supercars that made history. It was designed by Marcello Gandini, whom you will surely recognise for having penned models such as the Lamborghini Miura, the Lamborghini Countach, the DeTomaso Pantera or even the Bugatti EB110. Gandini got in touch with Claudio Zampolli and they soon began developing the Lamborghini Diablo that Chrysler had ruled out. The Cizeta-Moroder was a handcrafted, extreme and daring supercar.

To develop this sports car, Zampolli teamed up with Giorgio Moroder, a music producer and composer known for creating the soundtrack to Scarface. The name of the model, Cizeta-Moroder, comes from the pronunciation of Claudio Zampolli and Moroder, the surname of the music producer. V16 refers to the engine layout and the T to the transmission.

This is the story of the Cizeta-Moroder V16T

The model was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in 1988, and it soon caught the attention of visitors, because the Cizeta-Moroder V16T was an elegant and aggressive sports car. A detail? Its side gills were almost as spectacular as its width. Two years later, in 1990, Moroder parted ways with the company and it was sold as the Cizeta V16T.

We could say that the Cizeta-Moroder V16T was very similar to a Lamborghini Diablo. Its front end, its cabin and its retractable headlights made it unique. It was fitted with 335 mm tyres and had a width of, no more and no less, 2.05 metres. The engine was mounted transversely and measured 1.50 metres. It was a naturally aspirated V16 developed by Oliviero Pedrazzi. It was unique because it joined two V8 blocks of 3.0 litres with a flat-plane crankshaft. It had only one crankshaft, eight camshafts and a shared timing drive.

This revolutionary V16 had four valves per cylinder, and its 5,995 cc delivered 540 CV of power at 8,000 rpm and a torque of 542 Nm at 6,000 rpm. It was rear-wheel drive and had a five-speed manual gearbox. The transmission was in a T configuration relative to the engine, which was mounted transversely. It weighed 1,700 kilograms.

This supercar could accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in four seconds. Its top speed was 328 km/h. Each unit was sold at a price of around 250,000 euros today. At the time, it cost twice as much as a Lamborghini Diablo. Only eight units were built until 1995. Between 1999 and 2003, three more units were built: two V16T Coupés and one Spyder TTJ. It is worth noting that the chassis were entirely aluminium and were developed by Cizeta near Modena.