Sbarro never had any taste at all; his cars just look like sh.t (sorry). In 60 years from now, or in 600, this will be exactly the same. Ugly. Rgds
There is no relation between Franco S and the US pizza company, perhaps, maybe, a remote cousin but no interaction. I first visited him at 17 in 1981 and he took the time to show me around his entire facility. He is not a great stylist but he came up with some very unique concepts such as the hollow wheel. His concept cars in the early 80's always got a lot of press. He has always been very friendly and we had a great lunch by the lake in Yverdon in 2010 where he related great stories from his days as a racing mechanic. I had a wild concept car idea using a real horse but that was not to his liking as he ad a bad experience with a horse back home in his youth. Many of the projects such as the pink contraption I saw in Geneva a couple of years ago with Russian plates were just what clients wanted and one has to pay the bills... A great character, I wish there were more like him. MS
Oh, agreed, Marc, no problem at all. He is a character indeed, and an interesting one; he got a lot of interesting ideas, a lot of press back in the days, etc...but as for taste, well...frankly: no. He will probably be remembered for many reasons, and rightly so, but not for taste. Did you also ate "filets de perche" at Yverdon or are those strictly limited to the Evian/Thonon region? Rgds.
Hello Nerofer, We were on the lakefront having lunch a beautiful summer day but sorry don't recall what I ate In nearby Geneva I often have lakefish goes very well with the very light local white. Had some very nice fish in Montreux a month ago too Anyway the horse story... I had this stupid idea for a Geneva show car (as you know he and later Rinspeed have come up with insane concepts) in which there would be a raised pod at the rear of the car all enclosed transparent in which you would put a horse and he would be walking trotting gallopping on a type of treadmill with clever demultiplication (successive gears) creating electricity which would power the car...I thought Sbarro would think it interesting but he just fell over laughing and said No! I don't get along with horses. I said why? He explained that as a young boy once in deep southern Italy where he came from he had been tasked with relocating a horse for quite some distance, many kms...and after a while the horse began being uncoopoerative and frothing at the mouth..in fact it was high summer very hot he knew nothing about animals and even less so horses so had not realized the poor thing had been in need of...drinking water hours before already so he nearly killed it! He said this in the most self deprecating way...oh that thing needs water? Lol and yes the poor thing survived...but he decided right them that horses were not for him unless they were bhp Best regards, Marc
That's the kind of story that suits the man perfectly...i must say I'm not that fond of horses either myself. Is he still active? He must be close to 80 now; I think he was born in 1939... Rgds
Well he is on the stand the first few days at the Geneva show every year and I say hello if he is not busy. Best regards, Marc