The forgotten original design study for the Cizeta V16T (but also Diablo)

Thought you all might appreciate, I shot this.. uh… not super attractive design study last week.

(text below copy-pasted from my IG)

The simple version goes like this: when Claudio Zampolli started working on his own supercar – the Cizeta V16T – he called upon Marcello Gandini for its design. This original design study became the base of the V16T, but because Zampolli didn’t like it (I don’t think anyone blamed him) and the V16 didn’t fit longitudinally (madness) it took another radical iteration to end up with a near-production version of one of the rarest and mythical supercars in the world.

But my favorite version is slightly more complex: in the early 80s, Gandini had started sketching a possible successor to his Countach, which by then was approaching a decade of production. However, Lamborghini seemed in no rush, frustrating Gandini, and so he used this design when Zampolli came knocking with Giorgio Moroder. Ultimately, Gandini did get the green light to design the Diablo, which was then famously panned by Chrysler and strongly revised by Tom Gale.

So this really is… the first glimpse of the Lamborghini Diablo. The kinks under the windwhield. The front bumper and double headlights. The very Gandini-esque rear wheel arches. And of course, the wedge.

After Cizeta went under, this forgotten design study spent the better part of a decade in a shed, until it was recovered at some point and sold on auction a few years back. I owe an immense thanks to its new owner, and UE Studios in Ingolstadt for the warm welcome at their beautiful facilities. It was an honor to spend intimate quality time with something so influential in the making of my beloved childhood supercar, hand-built by one of the most renowned automotive designers in history.