Sbarro

Sbarro is a small Swiss high-performance replica and sports car company founded by Franco Sbarro in 1971.

Models

The first Sbarro offered was a replica of the Lola T70, powered by a 5.4-liter Chevrolet V8. Since then, the company has produced small-series replicas of a variety of models including the BMW 328, Ford GT40, Bugatti Royale, and Mercedes-Benz 540K.

Other significant models have included the mid-engine Tiger (powered by a 6.3-liter Mercedes-Benz V8), the Stash (offered as a 2+2 coupe or convertible), and the wedge-shaped Challenge of the 1980s, based on a Porsche 911 chassis. All have been extremely limited production vehicles.

Another series of project cars of the early eighties which may have been sold to the occasional private customer are the Super Twelve and Super Eight. The 1982 Super Twelve had the bodywork of a squared-off hatchback, albeit with unusually broad fenders and lots of other hints at potency. The mid-mounted engine was a twelve-cylinder unit constructed from two Kawasaki Z1300 six-cylinder motorcycle engines. The 1984 Super Eight featured largely the same bodywork, but received the marginally more sane eight-cylinder engine from the Ferrari 308.

Sbarro has also built dozens of concept cars and custom high-performance vehicles for private customers. Some of the more recent concepts are the Christelle, Millennium Coupe, and Picasso (2001), GT12 (2000), and GT1 (1999). Some of these feature hubless wheels, a Sbarro concept.

At the Geneva Motor Show on March 3, 2011, Sbarro unveiled the Evoluzione concept car. Sbarro's concept car has a 1.8-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine borrowed from Audi. It outputs 134 kW of power. The Evoluzione was built without the constraints that production cars normally have to keep in mind, as the rear exposes the entire rear suspension set-up as well as the engine. Overall, the design took 25 students and just 13 weeks to complete.