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Cizeta supercar creator Claudio Zampolli has finished work on the first roadster version of his unique 6-litre V16 supercar, previously presumed dead. The £500,000 two-seater, which has a claimed top speed of 205mph, has been prepared to order for a Japanese customer, and is shortly to be followed by a second bespoke convertible.

evo tracked down Zampolli in his Southern California workshop, where he relocated after quitting Modena in 1994, having completed just nine cars.

Although his core business is preparing engines for Ferrari Challenge cars, he still has the passion that first drove him to create the car that wowed the Geneva show crowds back in 1988. More importantly, he's still got enough chassis and engines to build another four cars.

The original Cizeta Moroder V16 (partly named after electro-pop maestro Giorgio Moroder who helped bankroll the project) was a monster in every sense. It was 14ft long and seven feet wide, and the 16-cylinder engine - complete with 64 valves and eight camshafts - produced 560bhp and 469lb ft of torque.

Zampolli is an ex-Lamborghini engineer and test driver, whose decision to go it alone in Modena ruffled feathers among the resident supercar elite, causing him some supply problems as ranks were closed around him. Since he had pinched a number of Lambo staff and was using some Ferrari contractors, a little hostility was perhaps unsurprising....

His creation was originally styled by Marcello Gandini, creator of the contemporary Diablo (among others) though it had to be heavily modified at the rear to accommodate the transverse layout of the huge engine.

Orders were taken for the car, and nine were delivered from 1991 onwards, including one to the Sultan of Brunei. But a combination of pressure being put on his suppliers and the onset of a recession forced Zampolli to quit for America just three years later.

It's taken Zampolli five years to complete his first roadster, which will cost around £200,000 more than the 'standard' car. The second roadster has just been ordered by a customer who already owns a Cizeta coupe.

When evo visited Zampolli's small workshop in Orange County, we were able to drive one of the original nine cars, which a customer had asked Zampolli to sell. Finished in Italian racing red, the Cizeta is immediately impressive, albeit in a very '80s fashion, primarily down to the Testarossa-esque side strakes over the air intakes. Zampolli explains that he much preferred his original design, with three vertical boomerang-shaped intake guards, but Federal regulations 
 
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of the time forbade any aperture that could potentially scoop and trap an unlucky cyclist's foot. Only three of the Cizetas produced have horizontal strakes - the vertical ones look a lot better, especially in unpainted carbonfibre as featured on the Roadster.

After a prolonged whirr of the starter motor, all 16 cylinders catch with an incredible eruption of sound - a synchronised cacophony of cam-chains and exhaust noise.

The steering wheel is slightly more canted than the norm, and there is a rather quaint dogleg first on the longitudinally mounted five-speed gearbox that is reminiscent of past Ferraris. The clutch is user-friendly, despite the carbon plates.

Although massive, the Cizeta does not feel unwieldy, at least not on American roads. In fact, the car feels incredibly well balanced; with all of its mass ahead of the rear wheels, the engine helps give phenomenal traction, and all 560bhp can be deployed in first gear without inducing wheelspin.

Despite some visual similarities, the Cizeta feels more wieldy than Diablos of the same era. The ride is surprisingly soft but well damped, although for more spirited road driving or track use the set-up can be stiffened. The Brembo four-pot brakes are superb, with no judder or fade.

Unsurprisingly, the Cizeta's USP is the engine, which offers masses of smooth torque from tickover, plus a willingness to rev to nearly 8000rpm. And all the time it growls and screams like a cross between a Ducati Desmo and a Merlin aero-engine. In every sense it feels like a supercar.

 

Che macchina spaziale.
Mi spiace di non averne mai vista una dal vivo.
COmunque Marcello Gandini è sempre il mio dsigner preferito!!

non originalissime...ma stupende!

Scusate tanto, ma a me non piace proprio. Meglio una Ferrari, se proprio vogliamo esagerare.

Le Ferrari sono troppo diffuse.

Io sbavo per quelle auto vermanete costruite ad personam come :
Zonda
Koeningseng
Saleen
ecc


Su le Ferrari sono troppo diffuse.

Sarà, ma le altre sono un pò degli accrocchi 

??
scherzi?in che senso?

Che sono produzioni quasi artigianali, con un enginnering limitato come investimenti, la linea è approssimativa e la qualità costruttiva direi lo stesso (ma non ci sono mai salito sopra), l'affidabilità chissà, insomma io non mi fido, per fare seriamente un'auto ci vanno investimenti che questi non si possono permettere.

Ma dici sul serio?
Va che la Zonda è forse la migliore supercar del mondo, in tutto.....tecnica, rifiniture, materiali ecc

Sinceramente, anche a me queste Cizeta non piacciono molto. Homer Gandini ( ) è una gran matita, ma qui ha peccato di scarsa fantasia... nella prima foto le somiglianze con la Diablo sono esagerate e i 4 fari sanno un po' di 288 GTO...

Non insisto, dovrei vederle dal vivo e provarle. Ma non ci credo, sarebbe troppo facile se si potesse fare la miglior supercar al mondo con così pochi mezzi. La vita è dura, molto dura 

guaVda taci, a coVtina non se ne più più e a PoVtofino la usano i paVVenù

Da un certo punto di vista hai ragione.
Poi ogni auto fa storia a se.
Saleen è diversa da Pagani  cosi come questa è diversa da Spyker.

Sono prodotti personali e spesso hanno una tecnologia inferiore a livello telaistico ma spessisimo montano particolari (ammo, ecc) di primissimo ordine.

Sono auto da vedere nascere e pianificare nelle pelli colori ecc... non auto da fare in 5000 pezzi annui.


Comunque concordo con Kaos sono salito su una Pagani (non volevo più scendere) e anche sulla ENzo e Mc12 e come finiture non c'è paragone (se volete posto mie foto a riguardo)

Prestazionalmente una Saleen S7 ad esempio  demolisce una Enzo e anche una Mc.

SE VOLETE!!??
SE VOLETE??!!

Certo che vogliamo, anzi DEVI!

e pppostalee!