Miguel Sánchez
PHOTOS CIZETA V16: CURATED
Looking back there are two decades of very similar spirit during the 20th century. We are talking about the 80s and XNUMXs. Characterized by bubbling economic bonanzas, both ended abruptly as a result of stock market failures. While the 20's did it on October 24, 1929 with the Crack on Wall Street, the 80's said goodbye on October 19, 1987 with that Black Monday on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Two financial slaps responsible for ending years of eccentricities and megalomania. Many of them in the automotive world.
And it is that, while in the crazy 20s elegant brands like Duesenberg They had no problem selling their lavish cars, the 80s saw the golden age of supercars. Ferrari with the Testarossa, Lamborghini with the Countach, Bugatti being reborn with the EB110 project… All this protected by the checkbooks of ambitious new rich tanned under the Palm Beach sun. A somewhat tacky euphoria that in the automotive world even led to the development of 16-cylinder engines, just like 60 years ago. However, all that remained in a "much ado About Nothing".
In 1988 BMW closed the Goldfish project with its V16 installed in the rear of a 7 Series. A sign of moderation that they did not hear at the Cizeta facility in Modena, where the mechanic and former Ferrari dealer Claudio Zampolli he drew up his ideas under the financial auspices of Giorgio Moroder; Advanced electronic music icon packed with synthesizers and drum machines. And so, with these defining credentials of the excessive '80s, the development of the Cizeta-Moroder V1988T began in 16.
CIZETA-MORODER V16T. THE REVENGE OF MARCELLO GANDINI
As soon as we see the lines of the Cizeta we all say the same thing: how it looks like a Lamborghini Diablo! However, we should rather say it just the other way around. We explain ourselves. By the mid-80s Lamborghini was already in the process of developing a replacement for the Countach. So, logically by Sant'Agata Bolognese Marcello Gandini, at the time designer of the Miura and Countach himself dropped by. However, when the millionaire Swiss Minram brothers sold Lamborghini to Chrysler in 1987… Everything changed.
Needing to play it safe to maximize the brand's profits, Americans rejected Marcello Gandini's design as too flashy. A controversial decision, since the very design of the Lamborghini Diablo conceived at the Chrysler Styling Center in Detroit is clearly related to the original idea.
Perhaps for this reason, in an act of spite, the Italian turned to his friend Claudio Zampolli to carry out his solo design. A good contact, since Zampolli wanted to build his own cars after the accumulated experience working for Lamborghini and Ferrari.
So, with the technical work in full swing, only the financial question remained to create the Cizeta. Moment in which the musician Giorgio Moroder enters the door. Responsible for soundtracks such as Midnight Express or ScarfaceThis icon of synthesizers also revolutionized disco with the application of electronics to disco sounds.
Obviously, such a character did not lead a moderate utilitarian. In fact, he was driving a Lamborghini Countach; which he periodically took to repair in the Zampolli workshop. Occasions that he took advantage of to convince Moroder about how lucrative it could be to set up a factory of artisan supercars near Modena. Anyway, It was the crazy finances of the eighties. This is the only way to explain the birth of Cizeta.
CIZETA. A SUPER SPORTS CAR WITH 16 CYLINDERS IN CENTRAL POSITION
Throwing a quick memory, we believe that today there is only one supercar with 16 cylinders. We are talking about the excessive and unreasonable Bugatti Veyron, which produces about 1200CV thanks to its W16 based on two blocks of eight cylinders. However, in the case of the Cizeta we are talking about 1988. A daring based on the 6-liter, 64-valve, 540CV transverse engine designed under the coordination of Oliviero Pedrazzi, a former Lamborghini engineer later involved in the Bugatti EB110 project.
For the Cizeta architecture, a tubular chassis mounted on double-wishbone suspensions inspired by those of competition was proposed. All this dressed in a light aluminum bodywork that, however, does not prevent you from seeing climb the scale to more than 1700 kilos. Something that is not a hindrance to achieve performance with a maximum of 340 km / h and a 0 to 100 set at 4 seconds. Interesting data, but put in context were not strong arguments to move the Cizeta forward.
CIZETA HEADING TO CHAOS. FROM EXCESS TO BANKRUPTCY
First of all, a Cizeta V16 cost about twice as much as a Lamborghini Diablo; its most direct and obvious competitor. Secondly, our protagonist suffered from a multitude of reliability problems, something to take into account since there are not many mechanics with experience in V16 engines. In third place, the artisanal manufacture of the Cizeta greatly delayed delivery times; something that the maniacal and perfectionist character of Claudio Zampolli did not help.
Fourth, there was also the refusal of the homologation of the Cizeta in the United States, where it was prohibited to circulate with 16-cylinder non-industrial vehicles. A very annoyed point, since the closing of the American market forced to look at the Arab and Asian fortunes. And that is not to mention the drop in demand after Black Monday on the Tokyo Stock Exchange… All of this finished off with the departure of Moroder and his money in 1990. In short, chaos.
In this context, the manufacture of only 9 units of the Cizeta counting the prototype. A production that was canceled with the closure of the company in 1995, although it is rumored that in the late 16s and early 14s, three Cizeta VXNUMXs were made to order, including the only convertible version. In fact, the company was re-founded by Zampolli in California XNUMX years ago, offering to assemble a copy for you if you asked.
Something that seems not to be happening. For this reason, the Cizetas have remained for history as examples of a business and mechanical madness representative of the delusions raised in the financial bubbles of the eighties.
A narrative of rise, excess and fall paradoxically similar to Tony Montana's story. The central character in Scarface, a movie we couldn't understand without Moroder's own haunting soundtrack. Once again in which reality was already announced through fiction.
PS: the Cizeta V16 with which we have illustrated this article is currently for sale at the dealership curated of Miami. A dealer specializing in supercars from the eighties and nineties to whom this unit from the collection of the Sultan of Brunei has ended up. It has never been registered, having only less than 800 kilometers.
