The efficiency automotive world could be brutal for automakers. It turns into much more intense as you progress into the limited-series supercar category. Inside this area of interest area, efficiency alone shouldn’t be a positive assure for fulfillment.
Simply ask Apollo Automobil (beforehand known as Gumpert Sportwagenmaufaktur GmbH). The boutique carmaker produced arguably one of the vital excellent efficiency supercars of its time. But, it nonetheless bottomed out and went bankrupt.
To its credit score, Apollo was in a position to bounce again and lives on right now because the brains behind the otherworldy-looking Intensa Emozione hypercar. This was no happenstance. Apollo was in a position to attraction its means again into the realm of hypercar royalty with a well-executed technique and, in fact, a lot of funding capital.
The Man Behind The Model
Apollo Automobil was steeped in uncompromising efficiency from the start. It’s a mindset that attracts immediately from the experiences of the corporate’s founder, Roland Gumpert. The German engineer began his profession with Audi as a check engineer means again in 1969. He rose steadily by way of the ranks, and by 1981, Gumpert grew to become Audi’s Head of Sport and Particular Growth. As Race director, he steered the German carmaker to a powerful 25 Rallye titles and 4 World Rally Championship titles.
In 2004, Roland Gumpert departed Audi and established his personal vehicle firm – Gumpert Sportwagenmaufaktur GmbH. Given his motorsports experiences at Audi, it was no shock that the corporate’s first main venture was to construct a track-focused supercar. Roland’s dream was to create a observe machine that one might nonetheless drive on public roads. In that sense, he did reach a giant means.
The Gumpert Apollo Ticks Virtually All The Proper Containers
The Gumpert Apollo was Roland’s first creation post-Audi. The supercar was the conclusion of Roland’s imaginative and prescient – a race-oriented avenue authorized machine. At its coronary heart was a formidable twin-turbocharged V8 powerplant that made wherever from 650 hp to 800 hp, relying on the mannequin variant. The Gumpert Apollo boasted performances that put it proper on the prime of its class. It might rocket to 62 mph in simply 3.1 seconds and proceed on to a 223 mph prime velocity.
Design-wise, the Gumpert Apollo prioritized operate over kind. Each groove, minimize or flap was customary to maximise downforce with little regard for the automotive’s general aesthetics. The outcome was a brutal machine that took the automotive neighborhood by storm. In 2009, the Gumpert Apollo even set a Nurburgring report, lapping the circuit in 7:11.57 seconds. Again then, it was sufficient to make it the quickest manufacturing automotive across the notorious Inexperienced Hell.
Apollo Flatlines
Sadly, the Gumpert Apollo’s controversial design was additionally a major contributing issue to its eventual downfall. The market simply was not prepared for such a polarising design, efficiency king or not. To make issues worse, the Gumpert Apollo was not low-cost. The bottom model price half one million {dollars}, a sticker value that turned many potential prospects away.
It wasn’t lengthy earlier than gross sales floundered, regardless of the carmaker’s finest efforts to lure consumers, particularly within the European and Chinese language markets. To be truthful, the Gumpert Apollo did generate lots of curiosity, but it surely simply was not translating to gross sales. Gumpert produced the supercar from 2005 to 2012 earlier than the corporate grew to become bancrupt. There was a flicker of hope the next yr when there was severe investor curiosity in bailing the corporate out. Nonetheless, talks collapsed, and the carmaker flatlined, declaring chapter and slipping out of sight.
The Rebirth Of A Sturdy Title
The Apollo story didn’t finish with its chapter. In 2016, Splendid Crew Enterprise, a Hong Kong-based funding consortium, bought the corporate and renamed it Apollo Automobil GmbH. That very same yr, the reformed firm unveiled an idea known as the Apollo Arrow on the Geneva Auto Present.
The idea used a carbon-fibre tub and body derived from the Gumpert Apollo. Initially, there have been plans to place the Arrow into manufacturing, however they have been shelved as Apollo Automobil’s new house owners determined a extra radical course for the corporate’s development was wanted.
A very new mannequin, underneath the venture title ‘Titan,’ was introduced. It could finally develop into the track-only Apollo Intensa Emozione or, simply merely, the Apollo IE. The automotive’s title is Italian for ‘intense feelings.’ It aptly describes the frenzy of emotions the hypercar goals to speak with its putting look and efficiency. There may be nothing fairly just like the Apollo IE, a automotive whose design was impressed by aviation and apex predators like sharks and raptors.
Just like the Gumpert Apollo, the Apollo IE’s design is polarising – you both adore it or detest it. Nonetheless, in contrast to its ill-fated predecessor, the Apollo IE appeared to take pleasure in extra acceptance throughout the automotive neighborhood. This was partly because of the firm’s aggressive publicity marketing campaign. Within the months and years following its preliminary unveiling, the Apollo IE popped up at numerous high-profile automotive occasions everywhere in the world. In every of these occasions, the automotive stood out amongst rival choices from established hypercar manufacturers like Bugatti and Koenigsegg.
Regardless of the robust curiosity within the automotive, Apollo Automobil GmbH determined to construct solely ten models to protect the automotive’s exclusivity in a neighborhood the place rarity is vital. It’s a legitimate purpose, however one may additionally put down the carmaker’s cautious method to classes realized with the Gumpert Apollo. In any case, the Apollo Intensa Emozione was principally meant to announce the carmaker’s re-entry into the very best ranges of efficiency and design. Measured towards that standards, it’s truthful to conclude they succeeded. All of the deliberate ten models have been shortly taken up by rich collectors. As we speak, the Apollo Intensa Emozione hypercar nonetheless sometimes pops up at automotive exhibits, the place they proceed to garner lots of consideration.
Trying Forward For Apollo Automobil
There was nothing refined about Apollo Automobil’s ‘rebirth.’ The Apollo Intensa Emozione made positive of that. Greater than the publicity, it has additionally offered a stable platform for the carmaker to launch into the longer term. The naturally aspirated hypercar has already spawned one other mannequin dubbed the Apollo Evo.
The Evo is much more unhinged than the Intensa Emozione. It dials up an already excessive design language a number of notches increased up the madness scale. Little is thought concerning the Evo at the moment, however you possibly can anticipate it to be one other limited-series track-only manufacturing.
Nonetheless, past the carmaker’s observe specials, there are larger plans to broaden Apollo Automobil’s presence, particularly throughout the EV section. In October 2022, the corporate unveiled a G2J EV prototype and improvement car. This may be used as a platform to develop future manufacturing fashions, with the primary Apollo electrical car anticipated someday in 2024.
The corporate has no plans to ditch its fossil-powered creations simply but. Nonetheless, it’s clear that electrical powertrains will play a outstanding function within the firm’s close to future. Right here’s hoping that this time, the corporate truly hangs round lengthy sufficient to deliver its formidable plans to gentle.