The Cizeta-Moroder V16T, now simply known as the Cizeta V16T, is an Italian-American sports car (built from 1991 to 1995 in Modena, Italy and from 1999 to 2003 in Fountain Valley, California) developed by automotive engineer Claudio Zampolli in a joint venture with music composer Giorgio Moroder and designed by Marcello Gandini.
Zampolli worked as a test and development engineer at Lamborghini before starting his own business of selling and maintaining high-performance sports cars.
He made a partnership venture with his long time customer Giorgio 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.
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.
[8][9] In a notable design choice, the V16T is the only car to be equipped with four pop-up headlights, two stacked vertically on either side, while the rear lights are borrowed from the Alpine A610.
The car which was finished in a pearl white exterior colour with a red leather interior remained in the possession of Moroder and underwent a full restoration by Canepa in 2018, after which it was auctioned in January 2022.
[11] Although predictions for production foresaw one car per month, only eight examples (including one prototype) were actually built from 1991 to 1995, before the company moved its operation from Modena, Italy to Fountain Valley, California.
The financial slowdown in the mid 1990s coupled with the car's failure to comply with the US road-car regulations and the high asking price restricted production to a made-to-order basis.
[1] The car made in 2003 was a convertible variant of the V16T called the Cizeta Fenice TTJ Spyder completed on a special request from a Japanese customer.