Dutch Hypercar Startup Wants Drivers Sitting Like Batman

A New Hypercar Company

No matter what you drive – be it a battered hatchback, a family SUV, or a seven-figure hypercar – you’re basically sitting the same way. Upright or a bit reclined, arms outstretched, feet poking at pedals. The recipe hasn’t changed in decades.

Sure, there have been a few rebels, like the McLaren F1 and its center-seat setups. But even those wildcards stick to the old formula: you’re still perched behind the front axle, peering over a long dashboard.

Enter Sanrivatti, a startup from the Netherlands that’s not content with just building a faster hypercar. Instead, the Dutch company is tossing the rulebook and introducing something called the Apex Position.

A Little Hypercar, A Little Batman

Unlike the conventional driving position, the Apex Position won’t let you sit buried deep in the cockpit. Instead, you’re shoved further forward than in any normal hypercar, almost leading with your head.

If you’re getting Batmobile vibes, you’re not alone. As a Batman fan, Bruce Wayne driving the Tumbler (Nolan’s Batman Begins) immediately comes to mind, especially when it’s in attack mode and ready to deploy the Batpod. Not an exact match, but the thinking is the same: put the driver right in the thick of the action, not tucked away.

Sanrivatti founder and CEO Santiago Sánchez Rivero says the inspiration came from high-performance motorcycles (no surprise there), where rider and machine often feel like a single unit.

“On a high-performance motorcycle, rider and machine move as one,” he explained. “The connection is immediate, physical and instinctive.”

Sanrivatti claims this setup gives you a wider field of vision, lets you place the car with pinpoint accuracy on track, and cranks up the connection when you’re accelerating, braking, or throwing it into a corner. They’re also cooking up some secret tech to help the driver move more naturally with the car.

The Team Behind the Vision

If you think this all sounds a bit wild, Sanrivatti isn’t just winging it. They’ve brought in some serious car-world heavyweights. Paul Arkesden, who’s done stints at Singer, McLaren, and even worked on the legendary P1, is now their Executive Director of Technology Partnerships.

Arkesden says what attracted him was the opportunity to explore a genuinely new idea in an industry that often focuses on refining existing concepts.

They’ve also snagged Geoff Dowding as Commercial Strategic Advisor. His resume? Lotus, Bentley, Al Habtoor Motors, and – wait for it – Harley-Davidson.

Sanrivatti claims that prototype work is already rolling, promising more news soon. Will the Apex Position become the next big thing in hypercars? Who knows. But it’s definitely one of the wildest ideas we’ve seen for shaking up the way we drive fast cars.

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