Science 1984 Sbarro Super Eight - Like a Golf but capable of highway speeds

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This 1984 Sbarro Super Eight is a one-off hatchback designed by Swiss builder Franco Sbarro with backing from industrialist Bernd Grohe, to whom it was delivered after being displayed at the 1984 Geneva Motor Show. The car is said to have been purchased by its next owner from the Sbarro Museum and later spent time in a Swiss collection before being purchased by its current owner four years ago. Based on the chassis, drivetrain, and running gear of a contemporary Ferrari 308, the car features red-painted fiberglass bodywork with a louvered fascia, flared fenders, and straked intake vents. Power is provided by a fuel-injected 2,927cc Ferrari Quattrovalvole V8 mated to a five-speed manual transaxle, and additional features include four-wheel disc brakes, staggered-width BBS basketweave wheels, brown leather interior upholstery with cloth inserts over two-place seating, power windows, and a Clarion component sound system. This Sbarro Super Eight was featured on BaT in May 2018, and it is now offered on dealer consignment in Paris, France, with Dutch registration that lists the car as a 1980 Sbarro.
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Franco Sbarro began designing his own cars while working as chief mechanic for Scuderia Filipinetti, which he left in 1968 to establish his own shop, Atelier de Construction Automobile, in Grandson, Switzerland. Sbarro’s projects included the conversion of Ford GT40 and Lola T70 race cars to road-going form and the construction of various replicas as well as several custom creations and design studies. The Super Eight was an offshoot of Sbarro’s 1982 Super Twelve and was based on Ferrari 308 underpinnings in lieu of the Super Twelve’s more outlandish layout comprising a tube frame carrying an inline-12 engine based on double Kawasaki powerplants and dual transmissions.
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The Ferrari 308 GTB frame is said to have been shortened before being outfitted with two-door fiberglass bodywork carrying over much of the Super Twelve’s styling. Design cues include a louvered nose panel that extends over the headlights, a chin spoiler, an offset cowl vent, flared fenders, straked intake vents ahead of each rear wheel, ghosted horizontal stripes along each B pillar, simulated straked vents behind the rear windows, and a rounded rear profile with a painted heckblende and quad upturned exhaust outlets. The body is finished in red, and various imperfections in the finish are shown up close in the photo gallery below.
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Staggered-width 15″ multipiece BBS wheels feature gold-painted basketweave centers and are wrapped in Yokohama AVS AV1-40 tires, while a red-painted spare is secured by leather straps in the rear compartment. Running gear is carried over from the Ferrari 308 and includes ventilated disc brakes and double-wishbone independent suspension with coilover shock absorbers and anti-roll bars at front and rear.
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The cabin is trimmed in brown leather with cloth inserts over the two-place seating and door panels. Additional features include color-keyed carpeting, wood door caps and dashboard accents, shoulder belts, a lockable console storage compartment, a gated shifter, power windows, and a Clarion component stereo system with a cassette player and an equalizer.
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The three-spoke MOMO steering wheel is wrapped in brown leather and sits ahead of Veglia Borletti instrumentation including a 280-km/h speedometer, a 10k-rpm tachometer, and gauges monitoring fuel level, coolant temperature, and oil pressure. The five-digit odometer shows 30k kilometers (~19k miles).
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The 2,927cc Ferrari F106 V8 features dual overhead camshafts on each cylinder bank, four valves per cylinder, and Bosch fuel injection. Power output was factory rated by Ferrari at 240 horsepower.
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Power is sent to the rear wheels via a five-speed manual transaxle.
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The vehicle is being sold on its Dutch registration, which serves as an ownership document. The registration lists engine number F106AB31465 as the VIN, and the last five digits are shown on the steering column above. The seller has not been able to locate the full chassis or engine number on the car.
 
The Sbarro Super Eight is a heavily-modified Ferrari 308 with a name that gives me a weird craving for a slice of lukewarm mall food court pizza.
 
these one off classic cars, i'm torn because they were the product of someone that had a specific vision and was willing to put in the money and effort to make it happen. on the other hand, they are pure sophistry and exist to do nothing but sit in a museum, undriven, while some speculator cranks up the price based on an increasingly distant fantasy of using the thing the way it was designed

i'm reminded of the countless jay leno clips where he's showing off some absolutely priceless one-off concept car and doesn't even bother to stop and remember where he got it or how it works, lies to the viewer about some minor fact to create interest, then damages it in the process of trying to drive it like a normal car. they're toys for manchildren even though they don't have to be
 
they're toys for manchildren even though they don't have to be
And a brief moment of fantasy for the rest of us.
Allow me to elaborate.

You see a car like this or some other overpriced rare example and you can sit and think to yourself about obtaining it. You keep it in the garage for nice weather days and special occasions, take it to car shows so you can show it off and pretend to be important for a bit. This is where the wealthy manchild like Leno stops thinking and starts writing a check and having it shipped to his massive garage. The rest of us keep thinking, consider the cost of insurance, the cost of maintenance, the extremely limited circumstances in which we'd actually drive it, and the likelihood that we probably wouldnt enjoy it enough to make all of that worth it. From that point you accept that your American made pick up truck is the best vehicle for you, it does everything you need and more, its comfortable, its reliable, its easy to maintain, and you already have it.

Seriously, based on the title, I expected this to be about some kind of race involving who is first to deliver a slice of pizza from a mall.
From a mall to a cheap motel.
 
I remember when BaT was full of cool shit for cheap, solid project cars. Now it's an auction site for the internet-rich.

The car? Typical 'far out' design for the era.
 
Very cool. Unfortunately stubby in appearance but it looks like a very high quality custom and I can appreciate that. I love the center console and stereo system, that early '80s hi-fi is so much cooler than anything before or since. You also couldn't pick a better base for a neat '80s custom like that then a ferrari 308 because it causes butthurt among ferrari people who are insufferable, but nothing of immense value is lost because 308s were made in pretty decent numbers and are genuine pieces of crap.
 
Very cool. Unfortunately stubby in appearance but it looks like a very high quality custom and I can appreciate that. I love the center console and stereo system, that early '80s hi-fi is so much cooler than anything before or since. You also couldn't pick a better base for a neat '80s custom like that then a ferrari 308 because it causes butthurt among ferrari people who are insufferable, but nothing of immense value is lost because 308s were made in pretty decent numbers and are genuine pieces of crap.
I honestly wouldn't even call it stubby. It's not as stubby as the beautiful Metro 6R4. Feels like some kind of cross between an R5 Turbo and a... Mk II Scirocco?
 
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