A Unique Single-Seater Sports Car from Dallara Will Be Auctioned (23 photos)

The single driver's seat is located in the center of the car.





At the end of April, RM Sotheby's will auction off an unusual sports car with the complex name Dallara Macchina Posto Singolo (MPS). The name reflects the sports car's key design innovation: it has only one seat, located in the center. The one-off road-legal prototype is expected to fetch €700,000 or more.

Dallara is best known for developing sports chassis for various racing series, but in 2015 it designed its first road-legal car, the Dallara Stradale. In mid-2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown, company founder Giampaolo Dallara decided to use his platform to create an even more driver-focused modification.

The Stradale platform had to be significantly modernized based on the new cockpit layout. Its exotic design, among other things, ensures a reduced drag coefficient, along with a new aerodynamic wing. The MPS's interior is so compact that there's no room for a traditional transmission selector: the six-speed automatic transmission can only be controlled using steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters, although a manual transmission is also available for the Stradale. Some control buttons, including the engine start button, are mounted on the door panels.

The MPS shares its engine with the platform-sharing coupe. This is a 2.3-liter Ford "four," modernized with the help of Bosch engineers and producing approximately 400 hp. The sports car is being offered for sale by Dallara itself—it has never had a private owner before.