So you want a performance-oriented rear-engine hatchback with massive fender flares. You could get yourself a Renault R5 Turbo, and be just like everyone else, or you could be unique and get this: The 1984 Sbarro Super Eight.
The R5 Turbo may be turbocharged, but it’s a measly little four-cylinder. You could have double that displacement, a thing for which I’m told there’s no replacement, without sacrificing the widebody hatchback form factor. Rather than some pedestrian 1.4-liter turbo four, like you might find in a Chevy Cruze, the Super Eight has 2.9 liters of raw whining power behind its seats.
Picture it. You roll up to your local Cars and Coffee, between all the R5 Turbos and the Ferraris (I’m assuming your local Cars and Coffee is in southern California, and thus is filled with anything other than rusted Subarus and bagged GTIs), and you show them all up with this. Is it an R5? Sort of, but better. Is it a Ferrari? Sort of, but better!
In fact, the Super Eight did start its life as a Ferrari. Beneath this hatchback body is the chassis of a 308 GTB, shortened and reworked to accommodate this extremely practical body. Does it have meaningfully more cargo space than the original 308? Listen. We’re not here to ask those kinds of questions.
The Sbarro Super Eight is on Bring A Trailer out in Paris, and figuring out how to register an imported one-off Ferrari that’s been rebodied, rebadged, and registered with the name of a guy from Switzerland as its make is left as an exercise for the reader. If you can afford the car, you can likely grease whatever palms are necessary to make this a legal daily driver. You can, and you should.
