People often misunderstand the story of Victor Frankenstein's Monster written by Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in both the book and in pop-culture. While the creature is frequently portrayed as a mindless, monstrous brute, the novel reveals him as a complex and deeply human figure. The Monster G created by genius Swiss coach builder Franco Sbarro, is nothing like the novel. Complex perhaps, but the Monster G is a mindless, monstrous brute, wanted, loved by all, and more need to be made.
Born in Italy in 1939, Franco Sbarro emigrated to Switzerland in the early 1960s and built one of Europe's most unconventional automotive ateliers in Grandson, near Lake Neuchâtel. Unlike traditional coachbuilders who refined and beautified existing designs, Sbarro preferred to destroy convention entirely and rebuild it from first principles. Over five decades he created more than 100 vehicles — some technically brilliant, some borderline insane, many both — including twin-engine supercars, a road-legal Formula 1 replica, and a car that could be driven while lying flat on your back. The Monster G was not his most extreme creation by engineering standards. It may have been his most joyfully ridiculous.
The story of the Monster G is no different than Frankenstein itself — it was pieced together from an assortment of different parts lying around, just like any one-off vehicle or one that everyone wants or should have in the Mad Max arsenal waiting for doomsday to happen. A 28-year-old German customer named Thomas Gehrig requested Sbarro to create him an off-road vehicle to carry him around his parents' 150-acre property. Who of us has not had that issue? Sbarro embarked on this ambitious endeavor to create such a vehicle that would redefine the limits of exploration. He just didn't want to push boundaries while doing this — it was about obliterating them and creating new ones at the same time. The result was an absolute master beast or piece, both actually. It was an audacious creation that lived up to its name of Monster G. Practicality was clearly not a priority in the design brief, and it's safe to say the design team relished in that freedom. Let the lunacy begin.
Frankenstein Has Feet
With practicality tossed aside, the design team found themselves liberated to sketch something truly audacious. The Monster G took shape rapidly, but it needed an edge — something fundamental, something to highlight its untamed nature. The easiest and best answer was also the simplest in design, not execution — the wheels. The wheels had to be massive, outlandish, and on the side of madness. They were a statement, the cornerstone of the Monster G's wild persona. Fate stepped in and provided the landing gear from a crashed Boeing 727 that happened at Geneva airport — fortunately no casualties occurred during the crash. Being the opportunist, mad scientist, or genius visionary that Sbarro was, he seized the opportunity and acquired the landing gear from the crash. Towering at 20 inches high and 14 inches wide, the wheels were gargantuan and the foundation for his off-road masterpiece. Each wheel though weighed an unwieldy 200kg, making them extremely heavy — as one would hope, bracing the impact from landing a commercial airliner. To make them suitable, Sbarro worked with Goodyear to lighten the wheels and develop custom tires. Frankenstein has feet.
The Backbone
Now having feet, the Monster G needed a backbone. The foundation was built on the sturdiness of the Range Rover — this retained the rugged DNA of its origin which was needed for the vision, while undergoing radical transformations. Sbarro equipped the vehicle with a massive suspension system and custom-built chassis modifications to accommodate its skyscraping stature of 2.3 meters (7.5 feet) and its already gargantuan wheels, making drive-thru runs somewhat difficult, even if there were no doors. The design exuded an air of brute strength, combining industrial aesthetics with functional innovation — such as the eight exhaust pipes protruding from the hood like you would find in a MAD magazine cartoon. So how does one get this Monster moving with the weight of the wheels and Range Rover's frame weighing more than the national debt?
Sbarro and the company that they are had an ace up their sleeve. Sbarro is renowned as one of the world's top polyester specialists. However, according to Option Auto magazine, the hull of the Monster G was crafted from Kevlar — a synthetic fiber commonly found in bulletproof vests and in world-class sailboats but rarely used in automobiles, especially in the late 1980s. Key benefits of Kevlar are its lightweight properties and exceptional strength, something needed for a vehicle of this stature. With Kevlar in place, a 6.9 liter V8 Mercedes engine pushing out 350hp was designated to rocket this creation, having a top speed around 210km/h (130mph) — plenty of speed for this wild, open-air machine.
Kevlar — developed by DuPont chemist Stephanie Kwolek in 1965 — is a para-aramid synthetic fiber with a tensile strength five times that of steel at the same weight. By the late 1980s it was used in bulletproof vests, military helmets, racing car monocoques, and high-performance sailboat hulls. Its use in a consumer vehicle body was extraordinary rare. For Sbarro to specify it for the Monster G's hull was either the decision of someone who had genuinely thought through the engineering demands of the vehicle, or someone who simply wanted to build the toughest shell possible and didn't care what it cost. Knowing Sbarro, likely both.
"It was pieced together from an assortment of different parts lying around — just like any one-off vehicle, or one that everyone wants in their Mad Max arsenal waiting for doomsday to happen."
The Survival Kit
After being chased and escaping in a Mad Max post-apocalyptic world, your Monster G has now run out of gas, the enemy is closing in, you observe sanctuary ahead but know it is impossible to outrun them on foot — especially over sandy terrain. You keep your wits about you, step out, walk to the back and take out your survival mini-bike. Yup, the Monster G has placed a generator and what can only be best described as a miniature foldable motorcycle in the back — in the event one should run out of gas, as one most certainly will with this vehicle on a daily occurrence.
This is a true to form, real life-saving vehicle that one would find on the cover of a space Lego set driving on the moon. Ironically, the only trouble the Monster G could not run from — much like the townspeople in the book — was financial problems. I am just assuming the townspeople had financial problems; most people do, they never really discussed it. Anyway, after completion, due to the unique and over-the-top parts, plus the actual building of the Monster G, the client, for circumstances unknown, was unable to afford his order. The Monster sat for a bit and was then sold to a Japanese collector along with four other Sbarro vehicles to add to his collection.
The Monster G eventually made its way to the Cité de l'Automobile in Mulhouse, France — home of the former Schlumpf Collection and one of the world's most remarkable automotive museums. There it is displayed with an astronaut mannequin standing beside it, which feels entirely appropriate. It has also appeared at various Sbarro retrospectives and concept car exhibitions across Europe. Thomas Gehrig, the 28-year-old who commissioned it for his parents' 150-acre property and couldn't afford the final bill, presumably found another way to get around the estate.
The Verdict — Let's Party, Let's Go
The Sbarro Monster G is a jaw-dropping homage to unfiltered, unapologetic madness. It's a spectacle of grandeur, rolling on airplane wheels so absurdly massive they might as well come with their own flight crew. It's a marvel of technical insanity — a Frankenstein's monster of mechanical parts cobbled together in a glorious, improbable symphony. And let's not forget the sheer extravagance: a machine so over-the-top that its price tag probably requires a second mortgage and a winning lottery ticket. Above all, it's a larger-than-life ode to audacity, a dream machine built for those who refuse to play by the rules.
With no doors to cramp its style and a fuel appetite that could bankrupt an oil tycoon, this beast wasn't made to blend in — it was made to rocket adrenaline straight into your veins. It's fast, ferocious, and uniquely bizarre, embodying a rebellious spirit that thumbs its nose at convention. Everything about it screams, "Let's Party, Let's Go!" From its absurdly oversized airliner wheels to the thunderous growl of its Mercedes V8 engine, to the Nintendo Excitebike casually strapped in the back — this isn't just a vehicle. It's an unhinged carnival on wheels, a bonkers joyride into the realm of the extraordinary, and I so want one so badly.
Franco Sbarro built over a hundred vehicles across his career. He built twins of Ferrari Testarossas and Formula 1 replicas you could drive to the shops. But the Monster G is the one that truly captures what happens when a genius is handed a request with no guardrails, a pile of mismatched parts, Boeing wheels from a crashed plane, and a budget with a zero somewhere in it that wasn't supposed to be there.
It has no doors. It has eight exhaust pipes through its hood. It has a folding mini-bike in the back for emergencies. It is built from bulletproof vest material on an aircraft undercarriage. It has a 350hp Mercedes engine and a top speed of 130mph. It is 7.5 feet tall. It weighs approximately the same as a reasonable life decision not to own it. And yet.
I so want one so badly.
