Do you know about the Cizeta V16T and Claudio Zampolli?

Jeff Glucker

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Claudio Zampolli has passed away. This is the man responsible for absolutely wild Cizeta V16T. A supercar with lines penned by Marcello Gandini and an insane transversely mounted 16-cylinder engine. It’s a nearly 6.0-liter engine producing 540 horsepower and 400 lb-ft of torque. It sits in the middle of the car and pairs with a five-speed manual gearbox. And the initial asking price back in 1989, when the car was new, was nearly $300,000. The goal was to build at least 50 cars per year. In the end, just about 11 were produced.

Backing up a bit though, before Zampolli came to create the Cizeta V16 he was an engineer and test driver with Lamborghini. Claudio then came to California where, after a time spent helping Lamborghini get a dealership up and running, he opened a garage working on Italian cars. His clients drove Ferraris and Lamborghinis. Sammy Hagar, for example, even featured Zampolli in the opening to his I Can’t Drive 55 video:

This is hilarious to me since the opening shots show gear crunching and then a locked-up spin. Yet Sammy brings the car in saying how great it feels. Perhaps Sammy can’t drive well at any speed? Regardless, Zampolli was known as the man to fix your Italian car in Southern California. And he wanted more. He wanted a car with his own name stamped on it. The Cizeta moniker is taken from Claudio Zampolli’s initials C.Z. But he needed serious cash to get this thing rolling. He turned to Academy Award-winning music producer Giorgio Moroder. Thus Cizeta-Moroder was born with Claudio developing the vehicle and Moroder providing cash and some input when necessary.

There was initial enthusiasm for the car with a fair number of deposits secured. However, production times began to ballon, the two partners weren’t happy, and the Cizeta dream fizzled out. One car owned by Moroder says Cizeta-Motorder on it while the other production models just say Cizeta, according to this great piece by Hagerty.

And if you want to learn a bit more about Zampolli, take it from the man himself. He sat down for a video interview earlier this year. It’s quite interesting to hear from Claudio about his early time with Lamborghini on to building Cizeta:

An interesting man built a unique machine with a wild engine. Rest in peace Claudio Zampolli.

About

Jeff Glucker

Jeff Glucker

Jeff Glucker is the co-founder and Executive Editor of Hooniverse.com. He’s often seen getting passed as he hustles a 1991 Mitsubishi Montero up the 405 Freeway. IG: @HooniverseJeff

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5 responses to “Do you know about the Cizeta V16T and Claudio Zampolli?”

  1. Sjalabais Avatar
    Sjalabais

    That is sad news, I only knew this car as the Cizeta Moroder, the king of my set of car cards in school in the early ’90s. When this was new, it captured a space in every boys’ imagination. I like to believe that someone realizing a dream such as building a bonkers super car, still has that boy alive in their head no matter their age.

    Reply
    1. Rover 1 Avatar
      Rover 1

      If someone was game enough to modify the engine of one of these, there’s plenty of scope. They use the same rods, pistons and valves as a Ferrari 308 GTB/C motor, just twice as many. The room exists to make an 8.0+ litre 1000 HP V16 by using the same expensive internals as later, bigger capacity Ferrari V8s.

      Reply
      1. joe desmo Avatar
        joe desmo

        Nope. Rods, pistons, crankshafts, valves and heads came from Lamborghini Uraco V8 but were modified and improved. The Zampolli V16 engine had 2 crankshafts, 4 heads and 8 camshafts. Engine was completely designed by Oliviero Pedrazzi, who also designed the quad turbo V12 engine, transmission, 4WD center differential for the Bugatti EB110. Starting out as one of the original engineers at Lamborghini, he was originally responsible for completely redesigning the original Bizzarrini front mounted V12 for the Miura rear transverse with new integrated gearbox and differential. He was working under Giampaolo Dallara at the time.

        Reply
        1. Rover 1 Avatar
          Rover 1

          Thanks for the correction Joe. That makes more sense. I was going off an article in Road and Track.

          Reply
  2. Slow Joe Crow Avatar
    Slow Joe Crow

    The stacked popup headlights are so 80s supercar. It’s too bad Giorgio Moroder pulled out, if his name was on it there could been a greatest hits mix tape with each car.

    Reply