Supercars aren’t about sharing the thrills with more than one passenger but some automakers have made efforts to cram a third seat. McLaren’s F1 and Speedtail along with the Gordon Murray T.50 spring to mind with their unusual 1+2 cabin layout. With the F80, Ferrari initially wanted to go in the opposite direction by making the interior all about the driver.
Speaking with Top Gear magazine, Maranello’s design boss revealed the F80 was originally conceived strictly as a single-seater. The idea was to give the LaFerrari successor “really extreme proportions” by adopting an ultra-narrow cabin. The new flagship V-6 hybrid machine ultimately got a passenger seat but Flavio Manzoni says the Prancing Horse figured out how to make the interior feel like a single-seater without sacrificing the person riding shotgun.
You can even tell from the press images Ferrari seemingly wants to hide the passenger seat by making it black to blend with the rest of the cabin. Fixed in place to save weight, the passenger seat is positioned slightly farther back than the driver’s seat. They did this to narrow the cabin without hampering ergonomics and comfort.
An even smaller cabin sans a passenger seat would’ve enabled Ferrari to shave off more fat. Even so, the engineers managed to keep weight in check by extensively using carbon fiber. Before adding fluids, the F80 tips the scales at 3,362 pounds (1,525 kilograms).
Already sold out, the F80 wouldn’t have been the first Ferrari without a passenger seat if they had stuck with the original plan. Back in 2018, the Monza SP1 was introduced as a single-seater, alongside a Monza SP2 that allowed a second person to hop inside the retro-flavored V-12 speedster. Last year, the 499P Modificata was launched as a track-only machine with just the driver’s seat.
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The vast majority of Ferraris have had two or four seats but there was a three-seater in 1966. Penned by Sergio Pininfarina, the unusual 365 P Berlinetta Speciale aka “Tre Posti” (Italian for three-seater) was initially a one-off affair. However, a second car, pictured above, was built following a request made by the Head of Fiat Gianni Agnelli.
With Ferrari having the Icona series reserved for ultra-exclusive cars like the Monza SP1, we won’t be too surprised if there are plans for more limited-run models with unusual seating layouts. We’re genuinely surprised wealthy people haven’t offered Ferrari an obscene amount of money to build a real version of the Vision Gran Turismo, the futuristic single-seater designed specifically for the racing game. Well, maybe they did, and the company turned them down, but we’re not in those elite circles to know what the rich folk want.