The Goodwood Festival of Speed seems to be the ideal place for many automotive manufacturers to do a car reveal. With so much automotive royalty on show, it makes sense that it has become the place to do reveals. One of those manufacturers was Apollo Automobili.
Apollo Automobili is the company previously known as Gumpert Sportwagenmanufaktur, and it was rebranded after it was rescued from bankruptcy by Hong Kong consortium Ideal Venture. This is the company that is also the owner of the De Tomaso brand.
Apollo has, since 2021, been working on the Evo hypercar, also known as Project Evo. Developed as a successor to the wild Intensa Emozione, it was first revealed in Shanghai back in 2021, with production said to have started in 2022. At the time, Apollo said that just 10 production versions would be produced in total.
Now, we have finally got the first look at a production example of the hypercar. Apollo was on hand at Goodwood to take the covers off the very first production example, which earned the name Caribbean Dragon and was commissioned through the company’s exclusive Forge programme.
The First Production Apollo Evo Is a Special Machine
View this post on Instagram
The car was commissioned by Fred Grifhorst, the founder of FG Groep, which specializes in design and real estate. He commissioned Caribbean Dragon through Apollo’s Forge programme, an exclusive programme that allows customers to fully customize the car as they so desire. Seeing the first production example of the Evo certainly makes the project seem real at last.
The hypercar certainly looks striking. It is finished in a stunning two-tone exterior color, with white and blue, and with matching wheels. White wheels are at the front of the car, while it has blue ones at the rear. Inside, the cabin follows the same two-tone color pattern as the exterior of the Evo. Apollo even gave the carbon fibre tub of the car a blue lacquer.
Unlike a lot of modern hypercars, there is no electrical assistance. Instead, the Apollo Evo uses a 6.3-liter naturally-aspirated V12 engine. This produces 800hp and 564lb-ft of torque, and of course, an incredible soundtrack. Cars with V12 engines are a dying breed, so we should embrace them while they are still with us. At Goodwood, the car met its predecessors in the form of the original Gumpert Apollo and the Apollo IE.
What Makes This Such a Special Car?
On the outside, there are 75 additional carbon fiber elements on the Apollo. It took over 1,000 work hours just to give the car its amazing Pearl White with Diamond Dust finish. Mixed into that was the gorgeous Ocean Blue, which also had a Blue Diamond finish. Thanks to the V12 engine, the car can reach a top speed of 208mph with a 0-62 mph time of just 2.7 seconds, so it is not a slouch.
Standout features of the exterior also include the X-shaped LED headlights and the vertical W taillights. The interior details are perhaps even more impressive. 3D-printed aluminum components make up much of the interior. There is a bespoke steering wheel with solid-milled aluminum, capped off nicely with some blue carbon accents. It is a truly stunning piece of automotive engineering.