The First Real Hypercar Makes Beautiful Music With 16 Cylinders
It was Claudio Zampolli's ambition to change the face of automotive history with a new kind of car when he launched the mighty V16T in 1988. A former Lamborghini development engineer, Zampolli used a cast-off Marcello Gandini design—an early draft for the Lamborghini Diablo—for his world-beating machine, but it was the engine that truly made the car special. About as wide as a city block, the Cizeta (Zampolli's initials CZ in Italian) V16T was designed around a pair of V8s joined with a common block mounted transversely behind the driver. This is a truly bizarre car that exemplifies 1980s excess, and probably would have been a wild success if it weren't for Zampolli's brash mannerisms, a global economic slowdown, and severe production delays.
In all, just ten of these machines were sold over 12 years. Instead of making the world stand up and pay attention, Cizeta kind of faded into nothing, but the story of its rise and fall is well worth telling. Thankfully Jason Cammisa went through the full history in an easily-digestible 23-minute breakdown on YouTube. It's a story you'll want to hear. Click the play button and check it out.
Read more: Dodge Will Pay You $10 Per Horsepower To Buy A New Charger, Challenger, Or Durango
After securing funding to make his vision a reality from legendary 70s and 80s producer Giorgio Moroder, Zampolli went to work building what might be the coolest car of the 1980s. What else has two separate sets of pop up headlights, and can take down the almighty Ferrari F40 and Porsche 959 (when it's running right)? This car is everything that the Lamborghini Countach dreamed of being when it grew up. Only one car could do it like this. Of course, in the process of building his dream, Zampolli managed to piss off everyone who he came into contact with. Maybe car company CEOs should leave the marketing and product communication to professional PR folks, and that would solve a few problems.
It's hard to call a ten-car run a wildly successful business, but Cizeta did accomplish what it set out to do. Maybe a little late, over budget, and creating a ton of enemies, but it's real, and it's fantastic.
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