Gumpert Sportwagenmanufaktur GmbH is a German, Altenburg-based company manufacturing super cars. It was founded by former Audi Director Roland Gumpert in 2004. He had an expertise in car engineering since Audi had won a total of 25 World Rally Championship races and four World Champion Titles for the same field.
The Gumpert Apollo’s badge depicts a Griffin, a mythical creature with the body of a lion and head and wings of an eagle; an Indian or Central Asian creation. The Griffin, as a mixture of the kings of beasts and birds represents mastery of land and air. This is directed to Apollo’s speed and high performance on the road.
The founder continued to develop Apollo, after a joint project with Audi on developing new sports car prototype. An agreement was also made between him and Roland Meyer on producing series products for that car model that would be street-legal and ready for the race track. With the aid of Technical University of Munich and Ingolstadt University of Applied Sciences, hand in construction, computer simulations and other tests for its performance were done. Finally, the production of the Apollo started in October 2005.
The Gumpert car Apollo Sport was featured in UK’s Top Gear on July 27, 2008. In a test drive by Richard Hammond and The Stig, the Apollo Sport.
I became the new leader on the Power Lap Board, with a lap time of 1.17.1. That was 0.2 seconds faster than the former lap leader, the Ascari A10. The Apollo was faster than Bugatti Veyron and Pagani Zonda around the Top Gear track. The Ferrari FXX, later broke Apollo’s record with a lap time of 1.10.1. However, it was nullified due to its slick tires that are against the rules for street use.
The Gumper Apollo, Apollo Sport and the Apollo Race are only available in the European, Middle Eastern and U.S. markets. However, Gumpert hopes to export the Apollo to Australia, the Asian region and Russia.
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