Giampaolo Dallara’s Single-Seater Dream Finally Reaches the Block

Photo credit: RM Sotheby’s
During the peaceful winter months of 2020, a small team at Dallara decided to take on a project that differed from their regular work on open-wheel racing and sports prototypes. Giampaolo Dallara, the company’s founder, had a vision for an automobile created around one person and not much else. Now it’s poised to hit the public for the first time, with the sale scheduled early next month in Monaco.

Dallara has been producing chassis for high-performance cars, typically for two-seater prototypes, for over fifty years. The Stradale was a two-seater road car that could also race, but this new vehicle takes both cars’ core concepts and pushes them much further. The crew basically removed the second seat and almost every other unnecessary panel, leaving only one passenger in the midst of an open cockpit.

The car’s body and cabin are essentially one molded piece of carbon fiber, with the seat being part of the shell and sculpted to fit whoever is seated in it. There’s a clear wind deflector that rises directly in front of the driver to cut the wind, but there’s no full windshield, roof, or even traditional doors. The steering wheel features all of the functions and a plush coating that feels comfortable in your hands. A basic digital panel displays the numbers that are truly important. As always, the team’s design was guided by one rule: first, figure out the airflow, then make it look attractive.


After the engineers had determined the shape and size of the item, designer Andrea Guerri was given the opportunity to shape the final body. It has the same colors and stripes livery as the SP1000, Dallara’s first sports car. A clamshell hood in the same manner as the prototype cars lifts up, but it’s a little lower and wider than you’d expect for something so elegant, as it’s ready to grip the road like nothing.


This car’s power comes from a 2.3-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine that Ford developed and Bosch tuned for extra performance. With 400 horsepower under the hood, the six-speed automated-manual gearbox that sits behind it will have little trouble sending drive to the rear wheels via those paddles on the steering wheel. Many of the mechanical components they used were already from the Stradale, but the team had to create other entirely new elements because the single-seat configuration required a different approach. Comfort and safety are still extremely important, therefore the engineers spent hours modifying the driving position until it felt entirely natural whether you were stalled in traffic all day or tearing around the course in a few furious laps.


This example, chassis number ZA9MPS001PVM15001, is unique and the only one in existence. There is no other car that is exactly like it. Dallara kept this project under wraps until the car was built, at which point they revealed all. However, in order to keep the Caterina Dallara Foundation going, the company has decided to part with this rare car. The charity, formed by Giampaolo Dallara and his daughter Angelica, aims to improve the lives of residents in the Val Ceno region where Giampaolo grew up. Good news for the foundation, all revenues from this sale will go directly into their bank account.


RM Sotheby’s will auction the MPS without reserve on April 25th in Monaco. They expect bidding to peak around €700,000, and anything above that would be a significant bonus. Whoever purchases the car will own a piece of history in the form of a direct line back to the man who has dedicated his life to building some of the most iconic racing cars out there, a man who is still working on cars in his eighties and manages to build one that exactly meets his lofty standards. The MPS isn’t your normal automobile; it’s just the most direct way to connect driver, car, and road.
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