Photo credit: Patrick Ernzen, RM Sotheby’s, Wheelsage
Two Italians meet to make a dream come true: one was a man who preferred his cars hardcore like Lamborghinis. He was in Los Angeles where he had moved to build something of his own. His name was Claudio Zampolli, an engineer who opened a workshop repairing and transforming sports cars. The other was Giorgio Moroder, a man of music who left Italy to become a citizen of the world. And he did precisely that by winning no fewer then three Oscars for the musical soundtracks he wrote, such Top Gun and Flashdance.
From words to actions with the technician who emulated the Miura by installing transversely, not a 12-cylinder but a 16-cylinder engine and the composer who agreed to finance the Cizeta Moroder car that was destined for production.
In this “Italian concert”, it’s hard to imagine the designer not coming from the Bel Paese, and who better than Gandini, the man who penned Lamborghini’s greatest successes to work his magic?
All set? Not exactly. Time and costs kept expanding. Moroder abandoned the music of the engine for more electronic sounds and Zampolli, after presenting model 001 at the Geneva Motor Show in 1988 – one that remained unique in style and characteristics – managed to produce just 8 more.
A dream that was both realized and, at the same time, shattered. Number 001 was recently sold at auction by RM Sotheby’s in Phoenix, Arizona for $1,363,500. And so the star shined once again.
