1988 Sbarro Robur

Franco Sbarro is known worldwide for extreme cars and show cars. He has done just about everything you can imagine, and possibly more!

In 1988 he presented a powerful small car, ideal for the Robur. It had the Audi 5cylinder Turbo engine transverse-mounted behind the two seats. Sbarro used the 182PS engine and tuned it to 200PS instead of the Urquattro or Sportquattro engine. As the Audi engines were normally mounted longitudinal, Sbarro searched for a matching transverse-mounted gearbox. He then used the automatic transmission of ZF that was also used in the Saab 9000 and provided five gears.

The car was short, very short: 3 meters without the spoiler in front, and it was wide: 178cm, the Audi 100 Typ44 measures 181cm! The car was also pretty low with its 120cm. And it was light: only 800kg! That was one hell of a ride, even if it had only rear-wheel drive!

But as it is a city Coupé, you can expect some more from Sbarro. At the back, two little wheels can be extended. They lift the car and -going on a circle- helping to position the car in a narrow parking space! As the little wheels were attached to the suspension, there was nearly no changing of the car's stance when lifting.

If you left the city and were cruising at a top speed of 220km/h (138mph), you were perhaps very happy to know that the large rear wing would work as an airbrake every time you hit the brake pedal!

The license plate in front would swivel to open or close the air intake, like on the Cobra or the Jensen cars. If you wonder what rims those are: They are custom-built Alpinault rims! Tires are 205/40/14 in front and 285/45/14 in back. It cost some 150.000 Swiss Francs in 1988.

Source: www.audistory.24max.de

Images: Sbarro; Dingo