Cizeta V16T
| Cizeta | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| V16T | |
| Production period: | 1991-1995 |
| Class : | Sports car |
| Body versions : | Coupe |
| Engines: |
Otto engine : 6.0 liters (399 kW) |
| Length: | 4493 mm |
| Width: | 2060 mm |
| Height: | 1115 mm |
| Wheelbase : | 2690 mm |
| Empty weight : | 1700 kg |
The Cizeta V16T (still Cizeta-Moroder V16T in the development phase ) is an Italian super sports car whose special features are its technically sophisticated sixteen-cylinder engine with a displacement of 6.0 liters and its body design similar to the Lamborghini Diablo .
history
The initiator of the project was the Italian engineer Claudio Zampolli. He formerly worked in the development department of Lamborghini and took over the representation for Lamborghini and Ferrari in Los Angeles in the 1980s . In 1985 he started working on a supercar project. A year and a half later, when the development of the car was already quite advanced, the composer and Grammy winner Giorgio Moroder took part in the project - and thus ensured its realization. The aim of both of them was to create an incomparable super sports car that would overshadow everything that had been there up to that point. Marcello Gandini , who had already designed the Lamborghini Countach and was working on the design of the successor model, the Lamborghini Diablo , at around the same time was hired as designer . In that regard, there were some obvious similarities between the Diablo and the Cizeta Moroder. There are rumors that Gandini's Cizeta design should actually be the one for the Diablo and that the Lamborghini owners at the time, Chrysler, found the design too brutal.
The ready-to-drive prototype was presented at the 1988 Geneva Motor Show after a development period of three years. Even before the Cizeta-Moroder went into series production, Giorgio Moroder left the company and left Claudio Campolli sole management. The only model that was still produced under the name Cizeta-Moroder V16T was a prototype and remained in Moroder's possession when he left the company in 1990. In various tests and driving reports, this pre-production model impressed above all with its sheer output of 399 kW (542 hp), which led the trade press to regard the V16T as the super sports car that was superior to all of the competition at the time.
But the actual start of series production turned out to be extremely difficult, and the target date proved untenable. Due to the delay, due to a renewed revision of the optics, the sponsors jumped out and had to be replaced by new donors. The previously targeted number of 40 units per year was last corrected to 10 models that should leave the factory in Modena every year. But even this number turned out to be utopian in retrospect.
Origin of name
Cizeta is derived from Claudio Zampolli's Italian pronounced initials: C = ci , Z = zeta ; so CiZeta . V16T refers to the 16 cylinders in V-design. The T stands for "trasversale", which means that the engine is installed transversely.
production
The demand for the approximately 300,000 US dollar - in Germany the purchase price was given at 527,250 DM - fell far below expectations. Between 1991 and the company's bankruptcy in 1995, only eight vehicles including the prototype were built, two of which belonged to Hassanal Bolkiah , the Sultan of Brunei . One of these two V16T is now in the Marconi Automotive Museum in Tustin , California . The plan was to complete a maximum of one vehicle per week, i.e. 52 units per year if required.
After the company's bankruptcy, Zampolli moved to the USA in the 1990s , where he maintains exotic cars and also builds the Cizeta V16T on request. So far, three more Cizeta V16Ts have been completed: two coupés (the first in 1999), as well as the first and still only Cizeta V16T Spyder (yellow, 2003). Compared to the earlier models and the Moroder prototype, the three new vehicles have a slightly different design in the area of the front and the side air intakes. According to unconfirmed information, two incomplete vehicles are said to have been stored in containers at the end of the 1990s. It is currently not known exactly where these have gone.
The list price (excluding taxes and delivery) is US $ 649,000 or US $ 849,000 for the V16T Spyder TTJ, with a down payment of US $ 100,000 due upon signing the contract.
Engine and technology
The Cizeta V16T has some technical features. The super sports car nominally offered the best conditions to outperform the fastest models from Ferrari and Co. The body was extremely wide, made of light metal and stylishly styled. The core of this car, however, was the engine. Its 16-cylinder engine with a displacement of 6.0 liters was the only one of its kind for a long time until the appearance of the Bugatti Veyron and is also installed transversely in the car, with power being tapped in the middle of the engine. This construction also explains the enormous width of the Cizeta Moroder. Such a drive, there was recently at the American luxury cars Cadillac V-16 , which in times of global economic crisis by rather hurt their sales, but the prestige of the brand Cadillac could increase over the years tremendously. For many years, V12 engines were the absolute power plant for sports cars too, Cizeta broke this rule with a V16, which with a displacement of six liters developed up to 399 kW (542 hp) and whose power was sufficient to accelerate the car to a top speed of 325 km / h .
The engine designer, Oliviero Pedrazzi, was employed by Lamborghini just like Zampolli in earlier years . So he constructed the engine based on the 90 ° V eight-cylinder from the Lamborghini Urraco P300 . However, two Lamborghini V8s were not simply welded together, because a certain amount of technical effort was required in order to guarantee the decrease in power in the middle of the two eight-cylinder units. The machine has also been tilted 15 degrees forward to allow a lower center of gravity. Two large coolers dissipate the heat, and a 120-liter tank supplies the engine with fuel .
A synchronized ZF five-speed gearbox is attached to the engine . It is also interesting that early vehicles have a Bosch K-Jetronic injection system, while later a system was installed that was supplied by an external company from Bologna with former Weber- Marelli employees .
Apart from the steel roof, the entire outer skin of the V16T is made of aluminum . The Cizeta has 245 mm tires at the front and 335 mm at the rear with Pirelli P-Zero on two-piece 17-inch OZ rims. The brake discs, like the rest of the Brembo brake system , are 12 inches in diameter. An anti-lock braking system is just as unavailable as ESP or ASR . The simple cockpit is equipped with audio and air conditioning, leather upholstery is also standard. However, there is no more extensive comfort equipment.
Others
The Cizeta or Cizeta-Moroder brand and the V16T fell into relative oblivion for many years. However, the design of the car has been used as the basis for various vehicles in computer games.
In 1990 the Cizeta appeared in the computer game Super Cars published for the Amiga 500 - but under the name "Retron Parsec Turbo". The car had other appearances in 2005 in the computer game Gran Turismo 4 and in 2010 in Gran Turismo 5 , as well as in Gran Turismo 6 , where the player can drive this car.
A book and a DVD about the car are currently in preparation.
Technical specifications
- Engine: 90 ° V16 mid-engine, installed transversely
- Valves: 64 (4 per cylinder), double overhead camshafts
- Electronic fuel injection from Weber- Marelli or Bosch K-Jetronic
- Displacement: 5995 cm³ (bore × stroke: 86.0 × 64.5 mm)
- Output: 399 kW (540 hp) at 8000 rpm
- Torque: 542 Nm at 6000 rpm
- Transmission: 5-speed manual from ZF
- 0-100 km / h: in 4.5 s
- V max : 328 km / h
literature
- There are always miracles - hard to believe, but the Cizeta Moroder lives with all of its 16 cylinders , driving report Cizeta Moroder V 16 T, in: auto motor und sport 10/1989 of May 5, 1989, p. 54 ff.
