Cizeta V16T
Two and a half years ago, we already presented the Cizeta V16T in detail. The occasion was the 30th anniversary of its world premiere. Now, a very special example is up for auction at RM Sotheby’s. A good reason to once again put this rare supercar in the spotlight. Under the direction of company founder Claudio Zampolli (C.Z., read Ci Zeta in Italian) and designer Marcello Gandini, this car took shape in the mid-1980s. When Oscar and Grammy winner Giorgio Moroder learned of the plans, he became financially involved in the project. However, Zampolli and Moroder fell out shortly after the world premiere of the V16T in December 1988. The composer received the white-painted prototype as a payoff.
Small series with V16 engine
Small-series production of the Cizeta V16T then began. This sports car came onto the market about a year before the Lamborghini Diablo. Visually, however, the Diablo shows very strong affinities. The reason for this is that Marcello Gandini had originally developed the basic design for Lamborghini. He failed with project ‘P132’ due to the veto of Chrysler, the then-owner of the sports car brand. However, when the Americans were unable to produce a satisfactory design for the Countach successor, they fell back on the Gandini designs. They eventually put them into production with slight retouching. Meanwhile, Gandini had also sold the sketches to Claudio Zampolli. For the V16T, he had four pop-up headlights and a longer, flatter rear section added.
Technical data
This was necessary to accommodate the specially developed V16 engine and the ZF five-speed transmission. Zampolli used the V8 from the Lamborghini Urraco as the technical basis for the engine. Various modifications increased the displacement to six liters. From this, the engineers developed an output of 399 kW/542 hp. The power was delivered to the manual transmission in the center of the transversely (T) mounted engine. Since only the roof is made of steel, but the rest of the body is aluminium, the curb weight is 1,700 kilograms. Cizeta gave the topspeed as 325 kph (202 mph).
From small series to very small series
Originally, up to 40 new vehicles per year were to be built by hand. However, the complex design of the V16T, including its power unit, soon caused these expectations to be reduced. Pre-orders had already been placed. After all, there were vehicles on display at major motor shows such as the Geneva Motor Show. In the end, however, apart from the white prototype, only nine production cars of the V16T were built. A bright yellow Spyder followed years later, but it remained a one-off. The biggest buyer of the coupés was a small state in Southeast Asia, which to this day is famous for the car collection located there: Brunei. It wasn’t until January 1, 1984 that this state became independent of the British protectorate. As a result, the ruling family around Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah could freely dispose of the income from oil and gas mining.
Huge car collection
In addition to a good infrastructure for the population, this income quickly ensured the Sultan’s rise to become, at times, the richest man on earth. Together with his older brother, Prince Jefri, the Sultan founded what is believed to be the largest car collection in the world. In addition to classics and series-produced vehicles, they primarily bought one-offs, roadworthy studies and special bodies. In this way, they kept brands such as Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Aston Martin and Pininfarina in business during the 1990s. A total of probably around 2,000 cars ended up in the Sultan collection. Cizeta received orders for three V16Ts from Brunei. Two of these cars were to be painted black, one blue. While the two black cars reached Brunei and were later converted there to Ferrari V12 engines from the 512 TR, the blue car was shown at the 1993 Geneva Motor Show. In the following weeks, Cizeta used the car for some press pictures in Italy.
Parked in Singapore for 25 years
The right-hand drive car (Brunei drives on the left) was then shipped to Singapore. Hong Seh Motors, a luxury car dealer based there, served as a port of call for orders from Brunei for almost all sports car manufacturers. It is not one hundred percent clear whether the blue V16T ever reached Brunei, or got stuck directly in Singapore. In any case, it spent around 25 years there in a locked hall along with other sports cars. It was only last year that the US dealer We Are Curated was able to acquire this car and bring it to the USA. This means that two of the former Brunei V16Ts are now on American soil. One of the converted black cars is at the Marconi Car Museum. The blue vehicle will be offered by RM Sotheby’s in an auction in Arizona on January 22. It is expected to fetch between US$ 600,000 and US$ 750,000.
Images: RM Sotheby’s, Jasen Delgado
