1973 Sbarro Mille Miglia

Sbarro’s interpretation of the 1957 Ferrari 335S is in some ways prettier than the one Scaglietti built in the 1950s

by Donald Osbourne

At the age of 17, Franco Sbarro, whose real name is Francesco Zefferino Sbarro, left his native Italy for Neuchâtel, Switzerland, in order to live his dream of being an auto mechanic.

In 1957, he found employment in the field and met Georges Filipinetti, owner of the famous auto racing team. Sbarro became his chief mechanic, and while maintaining the racing cars he designed his first car, the Filipinetti coupe. In 1968, he left Filipinetti and created the ACA—Ateliers de Construction Automobile—in Grandison, on the shore of Lake Neuchâtel. From that time, he has concentrated on the construction of cars, either replicas of legendary models, or prototypes of his own design.

Inspired by the famous, rare, and expensive 1957 Ferrari Testa Rossa, the car we present was finished in the colors of the American Cunningham race team, which ran Testa Rossas at the beginning of the 1960s. Based on a Ferrari 365 GT4 2+2, the frame was removed from the...