Cizeta-Moroder V16T: The Supercar You’ve Never Heard Of

When it comes to supercars, it takes something big to grab the hearts and minds of buyers—and even more to grab the headlines of the gearhead press. In the late 1980s and early ’90s there was no shortage of exotic and exclusive cars for well-heeled sorts to buy, but only one had 16 cylinders: The Cizeta-Moroder V16T. If you haven’t heard of it, you’re not alone, and you should be prepared for the wild history ride that created this crazy thing.

The V-16 wonder is the topic of Jason Cammisa’s latest Revelations video. We won’t try to rewrite the history but will instead advise you to grab a snack and cold drink before clicking play.

This supercar story begins like many supercar stories: A very proud man decides he can do the whole supercar thing better than anyone else, and so he hustles until the money and knowledge are there, and then he proceeds to build an absolutely absurd car. Like, two V-8s with the crankshafts married to allow the power take off in the center of the massive engine. The whole car appears to be roughly the same width as the downtown area of a Midwestern city, but hear that engine once and suddenly the dimensions become a lot less important.

For every “supercar problem” designer Claudio Zampolli solved during the creation of the car, something else would pop up and create even more of a headache. Power windows that work? Nailed it. Air conditioning? Not only accounted for, but functional. In-period road tests said it made a Lamborghini look like a kit car. So why have you never heard of it?

Well, because the price ballooned to $600,000 by the time anything resembling production was set to begin. That production would be completed by the mere 16 employees at Cizeta-Moroder. A Ferrari F40 was just $400,000, and it had the Cavallino cachet. Then there was the $150 million lawsuit against Jay Leno that sealed the deal and relegated the V16T to a lifetime as a footnote. But what what an amazing-sounding footnote it is …