The .38 Super was actually designed to penetrate body armor - when WW1 surplus body armor first started appearing, they did tests found the only handgun cartridge on the market that would penetrate it was the old .38 ACP used in the 1902 Military / Sporting and 1903 Pocket Hammer pistols. So they loaded it to higher pressure just to be sure, called it the .38 Super and chambered it in a 1911 type pistol.
While because of it's impressive ballistics the .38 Super does have good inherent accuracy, that was never used to its full potential until the 80s. It was meant, like the .38ACP, to headspace on the tiny little semi-rim, which never really worked and the 1911 isn't designed that way. When they started headspacing off the case mouth it improved dramatically.
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