The Lone Cizeta Moroder V16T Can Now Be YoursRM Sotheby´sClaudio Zampolli, a former Lamborghini employee, had a dream of building his own supercar. Moroder had the money to buy in.The styling is by Marcello Gandini of Miura and Countach fame, and it's wildly over the top, with a V-16 that makes a claimed 540 horsepower at 8000 rpm.The only Cizeta Moroder V16T ever made is coming up for auction at RM Sotheby's.Four cylinders mean thrift. Eight cylinders mean power. Twelve cylinders mean elegance. Sixteen cylinders? That's just cuckoo-bananas, who would do such a thing? Answer: The man who introduced Sammy Hagar to Van Halen.Coming up for auction at RM Sotheby's in Monterey, California, is one of the wildest supercars of the late 1980s, the kind of thing to make a Countach look like a Honda Civic. Four pop-up headlights. Bodywork that's three inches wider than a Testarossa. Eight camshafts and four more pistons than anything that ever came out of Maranello or Sant'Agata Bolognese.RM Sotheby'sIt's called the Cizeta-Moroder V16T, and it's the only one of its kind. The prototype for nine cars that would follow, only this car got the hyphenated name that combined that of its restless creator and the money behind the build. "Cizeta" is Italian for the C and Z of Claudio Zampolli, mechanic to the stars and irrepressible dreamer. Giorgio Moroder is the other half, producer of many of Donna Summer's greatest disco hits and winner of three Oscars for soundtracks like Flashdance.AdvertisementAdvertisementZampolli spent his early career working under legendary Lamborghini test-driver Bob Wallace on the Miura P400 and P400S, sorting out cars and learning the business of exotic car creation. It lit a desire in him to build his own supercar, one with his name on it, and to his credit, he did just that. It wasn't easy.RM Sotheby'sAfter moving to Los Angeles, Zampolli made a career of importing some of this heavy firepower Italian machinery to the United States. The engine revving in Van Halen's Panama is Eddie Van Halen's Miura, and Zampolli worked on that. You can also spot him in the video for Can't Drive 55, as he had helped Hagar get his 512BBi. When the band needed a new singer, Eddie called Sammy from Zampolli's shop.Zampolli had the former contacts from Lamborghini and the drive to build something truly outrageous, but he needed someone to foot the bill. At first, he went pitching to some of Hollywood's biggest names, and there is reportedly an engine cover that bears the name Cizeta-Stallone. If ever a car was Rambo III, it's this one.However, the funds would eventually come from a partnership with Moroder, and thus the prototype car got its double-barreled name. With styling by Marcello Gandini and engineering from former Lamborghini old hands, things slowly came together. A bit too slowly, perhaps, and Zampolli and Moroder ended up parting ways. However, not before this car was built.AdvertisementAdvertisementAfter being shown and having spent a long time in storage, Moroder sent his V16T to Bruce Canepa's shop near Santa Cruz. Used to dealing with the complexity of servicing and even improving on the likes of the Porsche 959, Canepa's team was able to tidy up some unfinished details on the prototype V16T and make it properly ready for the road.RM Sotheby'sThe headline is, of course, the 6.0-liter 16-cylinder engine, mounted transversely in the engine bay just as a Miura's V-12 is (hence the T). It produces a claimed 540 horsepower at 8000 rpm, but the main character of the engine is its immensely flexible torque, paired with a five-speed manual. It's basically like driving a Ferrari 308 with two engines.The Cizeta-Moroder V16T has a great backstory, incredible presence, and also offers a driving experience that's unlike any exotic of its time. It's absolutely spectacular, and while Claudio Zampolli was never quite able to spin things up into a volume-selling supercar manufacturer, he did at least get to see a handful of exotics with his name on them. That should impress everyone, perhaps even David Lee Roth.➡️ Skip the lot. Let Car and Driver help you find your next car.Shop New Cars Shop Used CarsYou Might Also LikeGift Guide: Best Ride-On Electric Cars for KidsFuture Cars Worth Waiting For: 2025–2029