Sbarro Super Eight History

Following the Super Twelve's motorcycle-engine experiment, the Super Eight appeared at the 1984 Geneva Motor Show with a more exotic powerplant: a Ferrari 308 V8 installed in a central mid-engine position, producing approximately 260 hp and driving the rear wheels through a five-speed manual.

The body shared the Super Twelve's squared-off hatchback silhouette with aggressively flared fenders, weighing the same 800 kg. Sbarro claimed a top speed of around 220 km/h. Like its predecessor, the Super Eight was a one-off built to showcase engineering creativity rather than to attract a production order.

The Super Eight and Super Twelve together represent a brief early-1980s period in which Sbarro used the Geneva Motor Show as an annual platform for experimental drivetrain solutions packaged in compact, aggressively styled bodies — a format he would abandon in favour of the more commercially targeted Challenge series.