Sbarro Espera Genesis

2008 Sbarro Espera Genesis

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | London, U.K. | September 5, 2018

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Franco Sbarro’s automotive design school is located in Belfort, France, and has been responsible for some pretty wild concept cars. Basically, you go to design school and your final class project is to build a car that Sbarro takes to the Geneva Motor Show.

This was built by the class of 2007-2008, and here was the car from the year before. This one is powered by a V6 from Peugeot and has no top, no windshield, and no rear-view mirrors. It could be a great track toy or, if you’re European, eventually road-registered with enough effort. Design cues range from hot rod, to F1 car, to KTM X-Bow, to Plymouth Prowler, to Polaris Slingshot. And this car pre-dates two of those.

This one-off is expected to bring between $19,000-$25,000 at auction. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $10,401.

Sbarro Espera

2007 Sbarro Espera Turbo S20e

Offered by Oldtimer Galerie | Zurich, Switzerland | June 11, 2016

Photo - Oldtimer Galerie

Photo – Oldtimer Galerie

Franco Sbarro started building cars in 1971 in Switzerland. They started in the replica business but in the 1980s they built small runs of original cars. Over the past 20 years, it seems like all they do is build really out-there concept cars that debut at the Swiss motor show each year. Like really out there.

The car you see here is a one off Sbarro (as are most). It was built over a period of four months by students at the L’école Espera Sbarro in France (it’s an automotive design school). It’s based on a 1991 Isdera chassis and powered by a 5.0-liter V-8 from a Mercedes-Benz E-Class that is mid-mounted and makes 326 horsepower. It’s not actually turbocharged, despite the name, which comes from Turbo, a French TV program.

The body is fiberglass and it has gullwing doors. This is a one-off car from a manufacturer that really sees its cars come up for sale. The pre-sale estimate is $195,000-$225,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.