Royale Event

In 1979, Franco Sbarro presented the Royale at the Geneva Motor Show, a unique model inspired by the famous Bugatti. Thirty-five years later, a second Royale saw the light of day: a magnificent white phaeton, almost 6.50 meters long, with a simple yet pure design.

Replica builder?

After building competition cars, Franco Sbarro made a name for himself with his famous BMW 328 replica, the most widely produced Sbarro. Although he went on to design original cars and develop innovative techniques (electric cars from 1977, orbital wheels, dual-frame chassis, etc.), for many he remained a replica builder. With all the condescension that implies. This is to misunderstand Franco Sbarro. And this Royale Event is proof that it's possible to draw inspiration from the past and produce a highly desirable car.

 

Evocation

The Royale 2014 is not, strictly speaking, a replica. The aim was not to make a perfect copy of the Bugatti, but rather to draw inspiration from it and evoke the spirit of the luxury cars of the Roaring Twenties. As a result, the bodywork does not repeat the lines of an original Royale. There are even stylistic elements from other brands of the period, such as Mercedes or Duesenberg. The lines are pure and unadorned, with a serene white hue. It's a far cry from the excesses of some Sbarro models, even though the Royale reaches six meters fifty. The interior appears stripped down to the bare essentials, giving an impression of space, but also of luxury with the elm burr dashboard.

16 cylinders

Under the hood, the engine is more ostentatious. Two 8-cylinder blocks have been joined together, giving the Royale an unprecedented 16-cylinder engine (like a Bugatti Veyron or a 1930s Cadillac). We're talking about the exceptional here, a far cry from replicas powered by a Beetle engine! This engine design places the Royale squarely in the world of exceptional cars.  This type of engine assembly is not new to Sbarro. The first Royale already had a sixteen-cylinder engine made up of two Rover V8 blocks. As early as 1971, the SV1 was powered by two assembled rotary engines.  Then there was the Super Twelve with its two Kawasaki V6 blocks.

Interior

Let's return to the interior for a moment. Franco Sbarro called on two former Espera students to dress the Royale, Honorine Pourcher and Matthieu Noël, who set up Composites 21 in Meloisey, Côte d'Or, at the end of 2011. They also worked on the Sbarro Espera Eight.