Apollo Intensa Emozione: The Mechanical Rebellion
By 2017, the McLaren P1, Ferrari LaFerrari, and Porsche 918 Spyder had already defined what a state-of-the-art hypercar looked like: hybrid powertrains, four-figure horsepower managed by sophisticated software, and weights approaching two tonnes. Apollo Automobil, the spiritual successor to the defunct Gumpert marque, built something that rejected every one of those choices.
In 2017, they unveiled the Apollo Intensa Emozione (IE).
Translating directly to “Intense Emotion,” the IE is a deliberate throwback to the golden era of GT1 racing. It has no turbochargers, no electric motors, and no heavy battery packs. It is simply a staggeringly light carbon-fiber tub bolted to one of the loudest, highest-revving naturally aspirated V12 engines on the planet, wrapped in bodywork that looks like it belongs to a supervillain.
Brand Heritage: From Gumpert to Apollo
The company history that produced the IE is itself a fascinating story of automotive resilience. Gumpert Sportwagenmanufaktur, founded by former Audi Sport head Roland Gumpert, built the brutal Apollo—a car famous for its Nürburgring record and its cameo on Top Gear—before going bankrupt in 2013.
The intellectual property and brand were subsequently acquired and restructured as Apollo Automobil, with new ownership and a mandate to produce something that went beyond the original Apollo’s uncompromising ugliness. Rather than simply updating the Gumpert formula, Apollo’s new team decided to rethink entirely what the brand should represent.
Their answer was the IE: a car that explicitly rejected the direction the hypercar industry was taking, and that appealed specifically to collectors who already owned the hybrid Holy Trinity but wanted something raw, loud, and unmediated by electronic sophistication.
The Design: Form Dictated by Aerodynamics (and Anger)
The design of the Apollo IE, penned by Joe Wong, is a violent assault on the senses. It is incredibly jagged, aggressive, and devoid of the elegant, sweeping lines found on a Pagani or a Bugatti. It looks like an insectoid spaceship designed by someone who grew up watching GT1 racing and wanted to capture every visual element of that era in a single automobile.
However, almost every crease and fin serves a purpose. The car was engineered with assistance from HWA AG—the motorsport company that originally built the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR and has a pedigree in GT racing that spans multiple championships.
The aerodynamic package is staggering. The front features a massive splitter and dive planes. A pronounced central spine runs from the roof scoop down to a colossal, tri-element rear wing. The exhaust system terminates in a unique, 3D-printed trident shape at the center of the rear fascia, sitting above an enormous diffuser.
The result is aerodynamic efficiency that rivals Le Mans prototypes. At 300 km/h (186 mph), the Apollo IE generates an astonishing 1,350 kg (2,976 lbs) of downforce. Because the car itself only weighs 1,250 kg, the theoretical “drives upside down” figure that Roland Gumpert sought for the original Apollo is achieved here in a car that looks the part entirely.
The Heart: Autotecnica Motori V12
When Apollo decided to eschew turbochargers, they needed an engine capable of delivering hypercar power through sheer RPMs alone. They sourced a 6.3-liter naturally aspirated V12, originally derived from the Ferrari F12berlinetta’s engine architecture.
However, they handed this engine over to Autotecnica Motori, an Italian firm specializing in motorsport engines. Autotecnica essentially rebuilt the engine for racing applications. They raised the compression ratio significantly, revised the intake and exhaust systems for less restriction at high RPMs, and completely reprogrammed the ECU for a more aggressive ignition and fueling map.
The result is a reliable 780 horsepower and 760 Nm (560 lb-ft) of torque. Crucially, the redline was pushed to a screaming 9,000 rpm—a figure more associated with naturally aspirated racing engines than road cars.
Because the engine does not have to force exhaust gases through turbochargers, the sound is completely unobstructed. The Apollo IE features a bespoke titanium exhaust system that costs more than a standard luxury car. The noise it produces is a deafening, high-pitched, Formula 1-style wail that physically vibrates the chest of anyone standing within a hundred yards at full throttle.
The acoustic experience is not merely a side effect of the engineering—it is a stated design objective. Apollo built the IE specifically for owners who wanted to feel and hear the engine working, without the muffling effect of turbochargers absorbing acoustic energy from the exhaust.
The Chassis: Carbon Fiber Purity
To keep the car as light and communicative as possible, Apollo co-developed an entirely new carbon-fiber chassis with HWA and Capricorn Group—the company that built the carbon fiber tub for the Porsche 919 LMP1 car that won Le Mans three times. The pedigree of the chassis manufacturer is directly traceable to the pinnacle of prototype racing.
The central monocoque, the front and rear subframes, and the crash structures are all formed from carbon fiber. The entire chassis weighs just 105 kg (231 lbs).
The suspension is pure motorsport: double wishbones at all four corners with pushrod-actuated inboard Bilstein dampers. The anti-roll bars are adjustable. The driver sits in a carbon-fiber bucket seat that is molded directly into the tub—to adjust the driving position, the steering wheel and pedal box move, not the seat—a setup identical to the LaFerrari and the Ford GT.
Power is sent to the rear wheels via a Hewland 6-speed sequential racing transmission with pneumatic paddle shifters. The shifts are brutally fast and physically violent, reinforcing the sensation of driving a Le Mans prototype on the street. There is no pretending this is a comfortable grand tourer.
The Anti-Digital Experience
The Apollo IE was explicitly built to be challenging. It lacks the modern electronic safety nets that allow amateur drivers to safely pilot 1,000-horsepower hybrid hypercars.
There is traction control, but it is rudimentary and motorsport-derived. The steering is hydraulically assisted to provide maximum analog feedback—the driver feels every surface irregularity and load change through the wheel. The driver must respect the machine, managing the massive aerodynamic grip and the sudden, aggressive power delivery of the V12 without relying on a computer to save them from a mistake.
This anti-digital philosophy extends to the interior, which is stripped to the essentials: a carbon fiber bucket seat, a racing harness, the critical controls, and a view through the massive windshield of the road ahead. No touchscreen, no ambient lighting, no customizable digital instrument cluster. The IE is designed to disappear between driver and physics, with nothing mediating the experience.
Rarity, Cost, and Collector Value
Apollo limited production of the Intensa Emozione to exactly 10 units. With a base price starting around $2.6 million, it was an incredibly expensive proposition for a brand-new, relatively unknown manufacturer—particularly when established hypercar brands were offering more conventional performance at lower prices.
However, the entire allocation sold out immediately. The buyers were collectors who already owned the hybrid “Holy Trinity” but were seeking a return to the terrifying, loud, and mechanically pure hypercars of the late 1990s GT1 era. For these buyers, the IE’s rejection of hybrid technology and computational driving aids was not a limitation but precisely its appeal.
Ten cars at this specification, this level of engineering involvement, and this stated philosophy make the IE one of the most exclusive hypercars ever produced. Values have appreciated substantially since delivery, with used examples now commanding significantly more than their original purchase price.
Legacy: A Statement That Resonated
The Apollo IE proved that there was a genuine market—small, but genuine—for hypercars that prioritized emotional and sensory experience over computational sophistication. It demonstrated that the GT1 racing philosophy of extreme aerodynamics, high-revving naturally aspirated engines, and minimal electronic intervention could be translated to a road car without compromise.
With exactly 10 units built, a carbon tub weighing just 105 kg, and a Hewland sequential gearbox that makes every shift feel like a punch in the back, the IE remains the only 21st-century road car to use a Le Mans prototype chassis supplier (Capricorn Group, who built the Porsche 919 LMP1 tub) and deliver 780 horsepower entirely without turbocharging. For the ten buyers who own one, those choices remain the entire point.