The boldest and most experimental Cizeta V16T ever made will cross the auction block at Monterey next Saturday, August 15th. It’s an early prototype penned by music producer Giorgio Moroder before his departure from the project in 1988. Estimates place the value of the coupe between 1.4 and 1.8 million USD.
The Cizeta V16T is in itself a highly exotic supercar with only 20 units produced, but the prototype pictured here is not one of them. The original car was co-designed between Marcello Gandini, whose ambition was to build a successor to the Lamborghini Countach, former Lamborghini engineer Claudio Zampolli, and the aforementioned musician Giorgio Moroder. Every example came equipped with a 6.0-liter, naturally aspirated V16 engine rated at 540 PS (533 hp / 397 kW) with a five-speed manual transmission.
The Italian trio had a manufacturing agreement signed with Chrysler for production, but the American company declined Moroder’s draft of the car, finding it too aggressive and complicated. Moroder severed his ties with Cizeta, and the company ultimately managed to get 20 V16T examples assembled after simplifying the design.
The prototype heading to Monterey next weekend is not street-legal, but otherwise fully serviced and in good running condition. With less than 400 kilometers (250 miles) on the odometer, it should make for a solid retro racer.