There are many different factors that influence a supercar’s auction price: uniqueness, pedigree, performance specifications, maybe even a witty anecdote about how the original owner created a famous genre of music. With the sheer amount of cars that go up for auction on a daily basis, it’s rare for one to embody all those aforementioned traits, but every once in a while, we’re graced with a truly rare vehicle with an even rarer history. Today, it’s the 1988 Cizeta-Moroder V16T — the original prototype of the Cizeta V16T supercar.
The story behind this Cizeta-Moroder V16T is truly remarkable. It’s the brainchild of former Lamborghini test driver and development engineer, Claudio Zampolli, and famous music producer, composer, and the “father of disco” (and techno, depending on whom you ask), Giorgio Moroder. Zampolli moved to Los Angeles in the 1980s with the sole goal of making his own supercar and got Moroder onboard as his investor. He also enlisted the help of legendary designer Marcelo Gandini — whose iconic designs include the Lamborghini Miura, Lamborghini Countach, and Lancia Stratos — to pen the exotic car’s lines. The result was one of the most absurd supercars ever built, with a radical wedge design (peep those stacked pop-up headlamps) and a monstrous, transverse-mounted 6.0-liter V16 mated to a five-speed manual gearbox. Despite having one of the most revered engineers and one of the most legendary designers in the automotive space working on this car, they were barely able to make this prototype, Chassis 001. In fact, this car was so ambitious, complex, and costly to make that it ended Zampolli’s partnership with Moroder, and Moroder’s name was subsequently dropped from the production cars. In total, only nine production cars were created, as they were just too difficult to make.
Once the personal car of Moroder, Chassis 001 is the original prototype of one of the most ambitious supercars ever built and is fully functional following an extensive mechanical restoration by Canepa Design in 2018. The incredibly rare and remarkable Cizeta-Moroder V16T — the only Cizeta in existence to bear Moroder co-branding — will go up for auction in Phoenix through RM Sotheby’s on January 27, 2022, so start saving now.
