The Cizeta-Moroder V16T, now known as just the Cizeta V16T, is an Italian sports car (built from 1991 to 1995) developed by automotive engineer Claudio Zampolli in a joint venture with music composer Giorgio Moroder and designed by Marcello Gandini. It was the only product of the Cizeta company. It was developed by a group of ex-Lamborghini employees and initially introduced in Los Angeles in December 1988.
History
The Cizeta-Moroder name comes from the Italian pronunciation of designer Claudio Zampolli's initials (CZ) (Ci-Zeta). Zampolli worked as a test and development engineer at Lamborghini before starting his own business of selling and maintaining high-performance sports cars. The V16T was conceived out of his desire to have his initials on a sports car. He made a partnership venture with his long time customer Giorgo Moroder, an Oscar winning music composer, who regularly came to his shop to have his Lamborghini Countach serviced after learning that the two shared similar interests in automobiles. Moroder was a 50% stakeholder in the new joint venture. Zampolli selected a team of former Lamborghini employees to develop the car which included Oliviero Pedrazzi as the chief engineer and engine designer and Achille Bevini along with Ianose Bronzatti as in-charge of the suspension and the chassis. Giancarlo Guerra, a former craftsman of Scaglietti body works who was infamous for coach-making the body of the Ferrari 250 GTO along with devising economical ways to make the chassis of the Lamborghini Countach when he worked at Lamborghini, was tasked to build the body of the car for the initial production run.
The original and unique Cizeta-Moroder prototype and show car, chassis 001, was sold at a Sotheby's auction for $1,363,500.
Technical details
The V16T signifies that its engine is a 16-cylinder engine having the two banks of cylinders arranged in a V configuration and mounted transversely in the central rear position, just forward of the rear axle and behind the passenger seats. It shares a single aluminum cylinder block, with four cylinder heads with gearing between themselves, providing a single output from the center of the engine assembly to the five-speed transaxle. The engine is based on the Lamborghini Urraco's 90° DOHC flat-plane V8 with which it shares a number of parts including the separate heads. The central output also allowed chief engineer Oliviero Pedrazzi to retain the Urraco's crankshaft(s). The Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injection systems from the V8 engines were retained for supplying fuel to the engine. The resulting engine has 64 valves, eight overhead camshafts (instead of the conventional long four camshafts) and has a capacity of having a compression ratio of 9.3 to 1. The engine produces a peak power output of at 8,000 rpm and of torque at 6,000 rpm. The decision to use a V16 engine was taken to make the car unique and due to Zampolli's fascination of large automobiles.
The prototypes had a curb weight of with Zampolli stating that the production car would weigh . At the front, the V16T has unequal-length control arms connected to specially designed light-alloy upright joints. The spring-damper units developed by Koni are attached to the control arms conventionally; the suspension arms, connected by an adjustable anti-roll bar, are angled forward to provide anti-dive. The car also uses unequal-length control arms at the rear with the difference being that the twin set of spring-damper units are mounted inboard of the rear wheels. Each unit is actuated by a bell crank from a linkage that attaches to the lower end of the hub carrier. The brakes have drilled and slotted rotors all around and use twin-pot calipers developed by Brembo. The wheels have race-style hubs that have five locating pegs and a large central nut to secure the wheel. The five-spoke, two-piece, cast-aluminum OZ Racing wheels are clad in 245/40ZR-17 Pirelli P Zero tyres up front and 335/35ZR-17s at the rear.