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1991 Cizeta Moroder V16T

The 1991 Cizeta Moroder V16T

A Rare Icon of Automotive Ingenuity

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The Cizeta Moroder V16T is a 1990s supercar that is as famous as it is enigmatic. However, due to its low production numbers and troubled past, there are many who have never heard of the car or the company that pushed the limits of what was possible for a car of that time period.

The V16T was the late Lamborghini engineer, Claudio Zampolli’s magnum opus. Fresh off designing the legendary Countach for Lamborghini, he had always dreamt of putting a V16 into a supercar. He had spent more than 10 years designing a transverse V16 to mount into his own line of supercars that bore his name.

At the time of production, the V16T made 540hp and 400 lb-ft of torque, placing it right at the top with other bleeding edge supercars of the time such as the Jaguar XJ220 and McLaren F1. In fact, when tested against a similar spec Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Porsche of the time, it almost beat them all, even though it was rumored that 2 of the 16 cylinders were dead for the whole test. Which means, if true, it nearly wiped the competition with one hand tied behind its back. However, this claim is not entirely substantiated.

The Marconi Cizeta…
This particular Cizeta has a special secret that makes an already extremely rare and unique car, even more so. It is one of three CZ V16Ts ordered by the Sultan of Brunei directly from Claudio.

While it’s not entirely clear what the problem was, our Cizeta had an issue somewhere in the drivetrain, the Sultan then enlisted Pininfarina to swap the V16s out of two of the cars for 512 M V12s from a Ferrari Testarossa.

While he originally requested two swaps, this appears to be the only one that was finished. In fact, the motor and transmission mounts have been so extensively reengineered and redesigned to accept the V12, that the car is no longer capable of accepting the original V16 engine and drivetrain, making it a one-of-a-kind.

The engine and transmission are not the only thing heavily modified, it also had a custom 1 of 1 OZ wheelset, full luxury leather upholstery and many of the gauges straight out of a 512 TR. While the Cizeta V16T is already a rare and mysterious car, The Marconi Museum’s is truly one-of-a-kind.