Sbarro Super Eight

With the Super Eight, Swiss automotive entrepreneur Franco Sbarro seemed to have turned the automotive world upside down. Giving a hatchback the appearance of something valuable and exotic is common practice, but transforming a Ferrari 308 GTB into a hot hatch is quite unusual and, to some, even sacrilege. 

The first time I learned about the Super Eight was through one of the German car magazines that I devoured as a kid. I didn’t think much of it at the time, except that it looked like a Group B rally car with a fancy interior. The small Swiss company Sbarro first made name manufacturing replicas, but gradually moved to striking and often outrageous creations which were always unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show. Even though the company owner of Italian origin Franco Sbarro always managed to grab the attention of the international media, none of his creations made it into series production.