#Franco Sbarro

[carsthatnevermadeitetc]

Sbarro coupé Filipinetti, 1966. The first car designed and built by Franco Sbarro, when he was chief mechanic at the Scuderia Filipinetti racing team. It was based on a Volkswagen Beetle and took 2 years to build with fibreglass bodywork.

[frenchcurious]

BMW 328 Roadster 1974 by Franco Sbarro. - source Cars & Motorbikes Stars of the Golden era.

[classicvirus]

The One and Only: 1984 Sbarro Super Eight

In the vibrant world of 1980s automotive design, Franco Sbarro, a Swiss-Italian engineer and visionary, stood out as a maverick. He constantly pushed boundaries with innovative, unique, and bold vehicles. His 1984 Sbarro Super Eight is no exception. Sbarro initially shocked the automotive world with the Super Twelve in 1982, unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show. This compact powerhouse boasted an…

[things-about-cars-in-posts]

thoughts on 4WS? everybody and their mom knows the prelude,but would you be interested in talking about some of the other interesting vehicles with stuff like this?

or maybe other methods of decreasing turn radius?

I love the “everybody and their mom knows the Prelude”. Truly the embodiment of the silicate chemistry XKCD.

But sure! I can’t really say much about 4WS beyond “It’s when the rear tires steer opposite to the fronts to decrease turn radius at low speeds or when they steer with the fronts to increase stability at high speeds, and it really helps make cars be and feel more agile, which is why you see it on the new Range Rover and why you will probably see it in many other cars now that they are all ballooning out of proportion. Cool! Don’t park too close to curbs tho or your rear end will kick out into them and curb your wheels”, so let’s move on to… less orthodox ways to decrease turn radius.

You’d included a GIF of the Rivian “tank turn” which they were going to include in their models only to then not, but I took the liberty to place it next to a GIF of the BYD YangWang U8 showing it off at the latest and incredibly exciting Japan Mobility Salon [for some reason this post is stuck on the old editor so pretend that link is blue] to offer suitable accompaniment

(start at 1:36 if it doesn’t do so automatically)

Hope this will do in lieu of commentary because all I could offer is a demonstration of how many times I can type “what the fuck” in a row. Oh and if that wasn’t enough they also showed one do this.

I am genuinely pretty sure I came up with such a wheel design and then thought “no, this is stupid and absurd, forget I thought that” and then BYD was like “lol, lmao, rotfl even”.

But if you have wheels that don’t make you fear a robot uprising and surfaces that grip too hard to permit that Tchaikovskian bullshit, what are you to do?

Well, turn radius is a function of steering angle and wheelbase, so you can just alter those! Now, one would think the distance between the centers of your wheels would be pretty tough to alter, and indeed, it is. Well, it is pretty tough to alter without getting a wall involved and giving you more problems than you solved, if you know what I’m saying. Let alone to alter it reversibly. But some have done it! Enter Rinspeed, Swiss Porsche tuner turned concept car maker whose staying afloat I genuinely cannot explain, and more specifically its early-00s concept the Presto, a concept car that, once you realize you cannot for the life of you find four people willing to get near that horrendous front let alone in the thing, has the ability to cut your losses and accordionize itself.

“Yahchoo!”

Nice, Ron. And sure, the windshield is borderline nominal, the doors were sacrificed to the gimmick altar so one assumes you must get in Hazzard-style without even having a roof to paint something racist on, and it’s probably illegal in many fun new ways, but at least it’s gotta be a TON of fun.

You know what I suddenly feel like we should move on to something else. How about this thing?

“The Mk1 Golf?”Almost - as seen by the five bolt wheels, different bumpers and barely visible side vents, while this was an ordinary Mk1 Golf, Italo-Swiss tuning house Sbarro took care of that problem by shoving a Porsche 3.3L behind the front seats (what is this, Renault? [again, please record yourself saying “that link is blue” and play that recording back repeatedly over a spinning spiral GIF]). But the thing is, Franco Sbarro saw the whole ordeal and thought “Ah, but the engine that we put right in front of a massive trunk lid is going to need accessing at some point. I must think of the most rational way to accomplish that”, and then made the car fucking open in two. What is it with Switzerland and cars doing this shit.

So yeah. If you were willing to spend an absolute fortune to make your Volkswagen Golf a positive deathtrap, you could, through an incredible and unimaginably dodgy feat of engineering, shorten your wheelbase by a measure I measured at comfortably under two inches. Now, I cannot think that makes much difference in turning radius, but hey, I’ve seen masculinities built and shattered over less.

Fortunately, the wheelbase is just one of the determining factors of turning radius, and the other, steering angle, is a pretty popular thing to increase through aftermarket components because it’s very important in drifting: as explained in this brilliant-as-always article from Speedhunters, since drifting consists of holding your car at a big angle relative to where you’re going, if you want to maintain that big angle you kind of need the front wheels to be able to be at a big angle relative to where the car is pointing.

Unfortunately, your steering wheel doesn’t stop turning just because it feels you got to turn it long enough already - it stops because the wheels are about to hit something. So in serious drift cars the front wheels have to be pushed outwards to keep them from encountering car as they turn. But of course, there is an alternative to pushing the wheels out - pushing the wheel wells in! That, in fact, is the technique employed by the personal driftcar of world champion Piotr Więcek…

….no, not the 800hp S15, I said the one he drives for fun.

Perfection. Indeed, since the last generation Twingo shares its platform with the Smart Forfour which itself shares bits and bobs with the historically rear-engined Smart Fortwo, the engine is in the rear, meaning the front wheels have nothing in between to stop them from turning outrageously wide, making its turning circle great for city driving, city parking, and apparently tandem drifting with an 800hp S15.

But I cannot talk about ways to facilitate street parking without talking about the first thing I ever received by email, in January 2011, or more than twelve years ago (yeah I know, sorry): a video of this car.

Apparently, it was an idea that had existed since the 50s, too!

I find this to be a really clever idea - you already need to bring the spare tire around anyway, and you already have a shaft spinning in that direction because that’s what connects the engine to the differential! Unfortunately though, nowadays most cars -especially the space-conscious ones- are front wheel drive, which would make implementing what already was a packaging nightmare to begin with take up even more space, probably to the point of being counterproductive. Unless perhaps you put the spare in front of the engine and redesigned the differential to *spends the next six months thinking about this*

[storycars]

⛅1986 Sbarro Citroën Adventure⛅ Another wacky concept from Swiss coachbuilder Franco Sbarro, this one-off is based on the Citroën C15 light van, which has been transformed into a luxurious, multi-passenger shooting break with front seats that can be swiveled to face the rear when the car is stationary. • • Visit www.Story-Cars.com • • #storycars #carpage #conceptcar #conceptcars #rarecar #rarecars #prototype #prototypes #sbarrocitroenadventure #sbarrocitroen #francosbarro #citroënc15 #citroenc15 #shootingbrake 📸/📚: sbarro https://www.instagram.com/p/CmVZXXSM7G8/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[dilib]

FRANCO SBARRO ACA DOMINIQUE III

thanks @culettoo ❤️

[somar78]

FERRARI SBARRO Tornado 1994/2005 by Imagonos – Ferrari Sbarro Tornado SB2, Einzelstück eines Supersportwagens – gezeichnet vom Kult-Designer Franco Sbarro – 2005 an den Auftraggeber ausgeliefert – basiert auf einem Ferrari 456 GT mit Erstzulassung 1994 – V12-Motor mit einer Leistung von 357 kW (485 PS) aus 5,5 Litern Hubraum – klassische Farbkombination: Ferrari-rotes Exterieur mit beigem Leder-Interieur – 6-Gang Handschalter mit Kulissenschaltung – Schweizer Zulassungsdokumente – extrem sportlicher und absolut auffälliger offener Zweisitzer Quelle: classicbid Some of my groups and albums DIES UND DAS - BITS AND PIECES STRASSENPHOTOGRAPHIE - STREET PHOTOGRAPHY VINTAGE PHOTOGEAR AUTOPORTRAETS - CAR PORTRAITS ASPHALT VETERANEN - BLACKTOP VETERANS OPEL TOTAL OPEL / VAUXHALL CLASSICS OPEL RARITIES AND SPECIALS MASCHINE UND BEWEGUNG - MACHINE AND MOVING NIMM PLATZ - TAKE A SEAT MONOCHROME TO SEE ONLY IN 30/60 OPTED OUT GROUPS ! NUR IN GRUPPEN OHNE 30/60 RESTRIKTION ZU SEHEN ! https://flic.kr/p/2jEmcw3

[coffeebreakexpresso]

Vehicles by Franco Sbarro

[alfaromeopassione]

The Diva is a concept car, the was first shown at the Geneva Motor Show in 2006 and was developed through a colaboration between Centro Stile #alfaromeo, Elasis and Franco Sbarro❗❤️🍀

[kaliman3]

Sbarro, TAG Funtion Car, Cadillac El Dorado 1978.

Modificado por el carrocero suizo Franco Sbarro como oficina rodante. Se planeo fabricar 25 unidades más solo se construyeron 23. Sbarro lo produjo en sociedad con la empresa francesa Techniques d'Avant Garde quien proveia todo el equipamiento interior.

[carsthatnevermadeitetc]

Geneva ‘73 - 50 Years on Sbarro SVI, 1973. Franco Sbarro displayed for the first time at Geneva in 1973 but made the most of it with the Safety Vehicle 1 concept in addition to the Tiger. Whereas the Tiger was based on a earlier Bertone concept, the SVI was all his own work. The interior was strengthened by a concealed roll-cage and the car came equipped with sprinklers that activated in the event of a crash to prevent fire. Most extraordinary of all it was powered by two NSU twin rotor Wankel engines producing a combined 300hp. Failing to attract any buyers, the car was displayed again in 1974 repainted red.

[frenchcurious]

BMW 328 Roadster 1974 by Franco Sbarro. - source Cars & Motorbikes Stars of the Golden era.

[burninghydrocarbon]

Franco Sbarro - Coupé Filipinetti 1 - 1965

[ninonucarocarexpert]

Alfa ISSIMA SPIDER Concept by Franco SBARRO - for sure this Concept inspired the Brera a lot, even the Brera Concept was also more aggressive as the later series. As they finally saw with the Giulia, Alfa is one of the less brands, that can sell cars over 50 - 100.000€, only the car must a real Alfa #nino_nucaro #Alfa Romeo @americanclassicmusclecars

[somar78]

Sbarro Alcador GTB - 2001 / 2009 by Perico001 Chassis & Technic : Ferrari 360 Modena 39.000 km € 169.000 The Alcador GTB presented at the Geneva Motor Show 2009 is an evolution of the 2008 model. Instead of the V8 from the Ferrari 348, Franco Sbarro installed the most recent V8 360 Modena. Unchanged, it develops 400 horses. This second version of the GTB Alcador differs externally from the first 4 entries by air either side of the front and a redesigned rear. A third version of the GTB Alcador was presented in Geneva in 2009 : the LO with a 12-cylinder engine Testarossa. 3,6 Liter V8 400 PS Retro Classics Cologne 2017 Koelnmesse Köln - Cologne Deutschland - Germany November 2017 https://flic.kr/p/DN6QEG