Surprisingly, the solo supercar experience isn’t hugely rare; you’d have thought that ownership of a spectacular piece of styling and engineering would be something buyers wanted to share, if only to show off. Unsurprisingly, when a single seat is all that’s on offer, you can be sure that the reasoning comes from motorsport.
From the Gordon Murray-designed Rocket for the Light Car Company, through to today’s BAC Mono and McMurtry Spéirling Pure, through to limited editions like the Ferrari Monza SP1, one-person cars are almost universally aimed at track day aficionados.
Sanrivatti ONE Hypercar
That’s certainly the intention behind the Sanrivatti ONE, an ultralight Dutch hypercar powered by a high-revving V10 from Power. Weighing in at around 1,100kg dry, the Sanrivatti ONE has a carbon-fibre monocoque architecture and bodywork inspired by flying, both of the feathered and powered variety.
The cab-forward design has more than a hint of the fighter jet about it, with a central canopy-style driver compartment flanked by low bodywork that tapers to a vast wing surrounding the entire rear end of the car. A vertical fin also rises up from the centre of the car, behind the driving position. Lead designer Robin van Tilborg references the high-speed diving configuration of the peregrine falcon and a fighter jet in his sketches, but what really defines the form is the ONE’s unusual driving position.
Sanrivatti ONE Hypercar
Sanrivatti calls this the Apex Position and it involves the driver sitting similar to how they would on a high-performance motorbike, i.e astride the central spine of the car, face forwards with feet back. How this plays out in terms of cabin and dash design we don’t yet know – no interior images have yet been released – but it’s a radically different approach for the sector. Aside from the wild ItalDesign Giugiaro Machimoto concept from 1986 (which seated up to nine people on two benches), this seating position just isn’t found in four-wheelers.
The primary reason for the switch is visibility of the road ahead. Sanrivatti has real and virtual simulators running as well as a proof-of-concept model; the company claims that ‘in comparative virtual testing at Corner Three of Silverstone Circuit, the Apex Position showed an average of 3.2 times more visible racing surface than the ten benchmark hypercars and track cars assessed at the same location.’
Sanrivatti ONE Hypercar render
‘When we started Sanrivatti, we didn’t want to create another hypercar that simply followed the established formula with more power and more technology,’ says founder and CEO Santiago Sánchez Rivero, ‘We wanted to question something more fundamental: what it actually feels like to drive. Fighter aircraft shaped the canopy, front intakes and the relationship between fluid surfaces and sharp edges. But our task was never just to make a dramatic-looking car. The architecture and every line needed to have a reason to exist.’
We’ll bring you more information on the ONE as it’s revealed.