A new Apollo has been teased for some time now, with an announcement in October 2016 that something would be coming, before video of the new car was leaked to us earlier this month. Today, Apollo finally unveiled the new IE in all of its naturally aspirated glory, and it looks pretty sharp. Literally.
The IE stands for Intensa Emozione, Italian for, you guessed it, intense emotion. Apollo says the car was created from a “blank sheet of paper.” Under the hood is a 6.3-liter V12 that generates a claimed 780 horsepower and a top speed of 208 mph. The base price is 2.3 million euros, or about $2.7 million. Only ten Apollo IEs will be made. You and I will assuredly never sniff one. But one can dream.
The car has a six-speed sequential manual transmission, with adjustable gear ratios and paddle shifters. (You can also go in reverse.) It’s got a curb weight of 2,755 pounds, made possible in part by its carbon-fiber frame. At its lowest, in certain driving modes, parts of the car are just over two inches off the ground.
The new Apollo was built in Italy, and represents a break from Gumpert, which previously made Apollos; Gumpert’s assets were sold to Hong Kong investors in 2015.
And while we love naturally-aspirated engines in these parts, even we can admit that they’re indie-rock in an EDM world, with turbos and hybrids all the rage in cars these days. Apollo can admit it, too, saying in a press release that, “The decision to refrain from using any emotionally dilutive technological systems, such as hybridization, was made to deliver a modern, yet nostalgically, pure, unadulterated sensory experience.”
Nostalgia, indeed.