Dutch start-up Sanrivatti is aiming to reinvent the hypercar by introducing an unusual motorcycle-style driving position for its new V10 track toy.
Its ‘Apex position’ drapes the driver head-first on a centrally-mounted frame. It claims this brings a significant improvement in forward visibility compared with a normal seat, as well as fostering a greater sense of connection with the machine.
Founder Santiago Sanchez told Autocar it is “a total coin flip” of a traditional car’s architecture: “You feel as one. It's not that you're sitting in the car, like on a sofa eating popcorn and watching a movie. Now you're in an active position, an aggressive stance, and you're forced to be in the moment.”
Sanchez said that placing the driver head-first means “things are not coming at you, but you’re going towards the corner”; the more aggressive posture encourages drivers to attack bends.
Although it is inspired by a motorcycle, Sanrivatti’s design retains a conventional steering wheel and pedals – which, Sanchez said, will be connected to the corresponding elements of the car mechanically, rather than by-wire.
The posture is not, however, completely flat. Riding a motorcycle at speed places considerable stress on the body, and cars are capable of generating much greater lateral G-forces through corners partly because of the tyres' greater contact patch area. Sanchez said Sanrivatti had found a “sweet spot” between something too aggressive, as with a superbike, and something too “passive”.
The company is also working on what it calls a ‘G-force neutralising system” (GNS) to counteract the loads on the body. Sanchez suggested this would be a “kind of leaning mechanism” but declined to share further details as development work is ongoing.
Sanrivatti has now revealed its first prototype, the One, indicating the specification of the track-only car that it plans to build in 2030.
