Sunday 16th July 2017

Apollo IE track-only hypercar teased

Naturally aspirated V12 and limited to ten examples

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Another day, another teased hypercar, and today it's the return - sort of, again - of Apollo.

These are pictures of bits of the Apollo IE, a track-only hypercar, said to be powered by a naturally-aspirated V12 engine.

You'll remember Apollo. Its history is a little complicated because these things usually are. Apollo Automobil is the company that rose out of the bankruptcy of German hypercar company Gumpert, which made a car - though not in sufficient quantities to keep it afloat - called the Apollo. The company was rescued by Hong Kong investors, apparently with the support of original founder, Roland Gumpert, and now has addresses in both Germany and Hong Kong.

Apollo showed a new concept - the Arrow, which had a twin-turbocharged Audi V8 engine - at the 2016 Geneva motor show. Back then, Apollo said it would make track and road versions, with the track version being ready for this year's Goodwood Festival of Speed. It missed that deadline but this IE is, we think, effectively the track-only development of that concept car.

Both track and road cars are being developed in Italy with Manifattura Automobili Torino (MAT), which has excellent form. It created the Glickenhaus SGC003, the P4/5 Competizione (again for Jim Glickenhaus) and the 2010 Stratos concept. Glickenhaus was earlier stated to be involved in the development of the Apollo, but no longer is.

Apollo and MAT only plan to make 10 track-only IEs, which customers can use on a time attack series it will run across Europe; a bit like Ferrari's XX program, in a way. Ownership will also give those customers priority on buying a road-legal Apollo, too.

Deliveries of this track car are meant to start in early 2018, with the road car following at the end of next year.

And that's it for details, for now. Apollo says, mysteriously, that the IE will be presented "to a select group of VIP enthusiasts in a highly exclusive event held at an undisclosed location in Europe later this month." If you're one of them, do let us know.

Matt Prior

[WCZ]

lovely!
you getting one APOLO1 ?

[British Beef]

"Select VIP customers only"....... who the hell is he kidding.

He makes it sound like these customers are queuing out the door, which evidently cant be else the Gumpert Apollo car would have sold in larger numbers and not gone bankrupt in first place.

Good luck all the same, I loved the Apollo, and anyone making new cars today with v12 engines and no electric motors or turbos is alright in my books !!!

[GM182]

Didn't they do a special version of the Apollo called the 'Enraged'? Best car name ever in my book.