Sbarro, replicas of unique items

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Purchasing classics there

Let us pass that there is a pizza chain called 'Sbarro'. We are talking about the cars of the Swiss Franco Sbarro. Franco had been chief mechanic of the Filipinetti fleet and started in 1968 for himself. He turned out to be an inventive person, a successful entrepreneur and clearly a counterpart to the Dutch credo "Just do it, then you will act oddly enough."

Franco Sbarro started to make replicas of unique items

The first was a copy of the Lola T70 with an 5,4 liter Chevrolet V8. But he also made replicas of the Ford GT40 based on De Tomaso Pantera, the BMW 328 with the good looks, but with current technology, the Bugatti Royale (with two consecutively mounted Rover V8s) and Mercedes 540 K - which is technically based on the Mercedes-Benz 500 SE - plus a number of 'fantasy models' that Willie Wortel could have come up with after an intensive session with magic mushrooms and hashish.

Rare and expensive

Another series of project cars from the early 1982s that were sold in the smallest series to wealthy individuals with spacious thinking frames were the Super Twelve and Super Eight. The 1300 Super Twelve had the body of an angular hatchback, and with its unusually wide fenders and many other clues, indicated a clear surplus of potential. Here too Franco Sbarro had let himself go technically but again: the engine mounted in the middle was a twelve-cylinder made up of two Kawasaki Z1984 six-cylinder motorcycle engines. The 308 Super Eight had much of the same bodywork, but received the marginally more rational eight-cylinder engine from the Ferrari XNUMX.

The Sbarro Royale from 1979

In the 1920s, Ettore Bugatti had invited a wealthy English woman to spend a few days in his house. During a dinner she said to the "patron": "You will undoubtedly make the most fascinating racing cars and sports cars, but if someone wants a really elegant car, there is nothing but a Rolls-Royce." Ettore Bugatti jumped out of his chair, ran to his drawing table and started to draw the Bugatti Type 41, nicknamed the 'Royale'.

This story may not be more than a legend, but it shows that EB's goal was to build a car dedicated to the elite, that is, aristocracy at the time, who loved Rolls-Royce, Daimlers , but not too sporty Bugattis.

The approach of Franco Sbarro is similar: each of his many creations is, due to the price, reserved for the elite, or ordinary ordinary rich Dagobert Duck-like ones.

The Sbarro Royale is clearly inspired by the greatest Bugatti 41 of all time

But he has his own personality. It is a limousine with four doors and six windows that evokes Park Ward's Generous Limousine. The radiator has the typical horseshoe shape, but the Bugatti elephant has been replaced by the running Sbarro greyhound. The bonnet is the most Bugatti identical part, considering both the length, the shape and the slats.

Sbarro also did less fierce things

Well, the engine he mounted in the Stash from 1975, co-designed with designer Cardin, was from a Volkswagen K70. That provided 146 hp again but still.

Sbarro has also built dozens of concept cars and custom high-performance vehicles for private customers. Part of that was vo0rzien of another idea from Sbarro: the hubless wheels.

Sbarro is still in business. And eccentric as always

Sbarro

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3 comments

      • This man has always fascinated me from childhood!

        I remember eg. still the super cool Robur and his Golf with the engine in the back that could be raised / opened 'from the rear bumper' to reach the engine and ... mean those motorcycles and cars with hubless wheels.

        Especially that car with hubless wheels was strange, you could look through the rear wheels from one side to the other ...

        Great guy with Italian blood (just like myself! 😉)

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