Gumpert: Rocket Science.

Introduction

Supercars. They’re built with extensive research and development, with parts being developed from the ground up, and developed specifically for the car being built. They’re usually high-tech, feature the latest technologies and materials, and are made to last. But what if you’re incapable of developing your own parts due to costs, or your company is still small? This is where Roland Gumpert goes in.

Roland Gumpert was a determined man, one man who’s ultimate dream goal is to build the fastest car on Earth. But he had no suppliers or materials, but he was constantly being moved forward by determination. Using his experience from being leader at Audi Sport, the performance division of Audi, he sourced used parts and panels from Audi to build his ultimate dream car.

He essentially built his car out of what he had, resulting in an extreme and aggressive looking car that would blast through 220 MPH or 355 KPH. It was the ultimate kit car. With a insanely powerful 780 HP V8 engine at its heart, with looks and aerodynamics that would look like it would rip the track apart, it was the best driver’s car a millionaire could afford.

Founder's Background.

Roland Gumpert was a man who grew up in the world of motorsport and mechanical engineering. Born in 1944 in Głuchołazy, Poland, he was always interested into cars. For the sake of fulfilling his dream of building his ultimate ream car, Roland Gumpert studied in the University of Graz in Austria, and graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

After graduating in 1969, Roland applied to Audi, where he tested and experimented with prototype cars and future products for Audi. Being a development engineer, he gained many experience with testing pre-production cars and developing new parts and mechanisms while there. He was promoted to head developer for advanced development and testing.

Some of his notable projects while with Audi were the Audi 50, a supermini economy car based on the Volkswagen A01 platform which is also shared by the Volkswagen Polo, the little-known Audi Motorcycle, the Z02, which was rejected by the head of VAG at that time, and the switchable all-wheel drive system of the Volkswagen Itlis.

Motorsports

Roland Gumpert then became the head of Audi Sport, the performance and racing division of Audi AG. Under his head, he developed some legendary race cars such as the Audi 90 Rallye, the Audi 200 Trans-
Am, and the legendary Audi Sport Quattro, one of the best Group-B rally cars ever produced at the time Group B was still underway. Under his leadership as race director, Audi won 25 rally championships and 4 world rally champion titles.

In 2004, Roland Gumpert left Audi to fulfill his dream of building his ultimate driver’s car. He founded GMG Sportwagenmanufaktur along with Roland Mayer, owner of Motoren Technik Mayern, who were involved in developing 5-cylinder engines for Audi products, and tuner and developer of technologies in the VAG product line. One year later, the company was renamed to Gumpert Sportwagenmanufaktur.

Development

In 2000, when Roland Gumpert was still in Audi, proposed a new generation sports car. One of the first concerns of this car was that it was a street-legal car which would be ready for the racetrack. He returned to Germany at the end of 2001, after more than three years in China where he was the head of sales and marketing, responsible for the development of the dealer network of the Audi-VW joint enterprise.

Just after he returned to Germany, automobile designer Roland Mayer asked him if he would assist him in building a prototype supercar. Audi approved Gumpert’s involvement in this project, on the condition that, if they did eventually develop a new supercar, it would not be a prototype, but a series product.

So with parts sourced from Audi, Gumpert started development on the Apollo. Gumpert continued with the development of the Apollo, along with the Technical University of Munich and the Ingolstadt University of Applied Sciences. They assisted with the constructional work, computer simulations, and wind tunnel tests. This research and development helped forming the blueprint for the first 1:1 scale model. Finally, two prototype Apollos were constructed.

The Apollo

In 2005, development of the Apollo was complete, and production had started. It would become one of the most powerful cars at that time, with a 780 HP 8-cylinder engine powering a lightweight and aerodynamically advanced body at that time, blasting past the 200 MPH barrier at that time, and reach a top speed of 220 MPH, one of the fastest cars at that time.

In April of 2005, the car was unveiled at the Divinol cup. It was driven by Belgian race driver Ruben Maes; andfinished third on the Hockenheimring race track. Three years later Gumpert announced that they would enter a hybrid version of the Apollo in the 2008 24 Hours Nürburgring, driven by 2004 winner Dirk Müller and ex-Formula One racer Heinz-Harald Frentzen.

On July 27, 2008 an Apollo was featured on the UK show Top Gear. Richard Hammond and The Stig drove the Apollo Sport. With a lap time of 1:17.1, the Apollo Sport was for a while the fastest on the ‘Power Lap Board’, but has been beaten by the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, and five other cars since then.

Specifications

The Apollo is a 1,100 kg, street-legal race-car-like sports car. It is a mid-engined, rear wheel drive two-seater constructed on a tubular chromoly frame, with fiberglass or optional carbon fiber body panels. Gumpert claims the design of the Apollo is optimized so that the car could drive upside-down in a tunnel if driven at sufficiently high speeds at over 190mph, but this has not been tested.

It uses a 4163 cc bi-turbo intercooled version of the Audi V8 engine. The 90° V8 has a closed-deck light metal crankcase with dry sump lubrication. The light metal cylinder heads have five valves per cylinder, four overhead camshafts, VarioCam Direct variable valve timing on the intakes, and hydraulic valve clearance compensation.

The double-flow exhaust system has four oxygen sensors to monitor the gas mixture, and a 3-way catalytic converter. Modern controls include an on-board diagnostic system, eight-coil electronic ignition, sequential multipoint fuel injection, and an electronic (drive by wire) accelerator system.

Trims and Other Specifications

The Apollo came in three trims, Base, which made approximately 650 HP, Sport version which approximately 690 HP, and the fastest and most track-focused variant, the Race version which approximately made a whopping 789 HP. If its base model can reach speeds up to 220 MPH, the race version could go past that mark easily, if it does not have an electronic speed limiter.

The base Apollo which makes 650 HP reaches a top speed of 260.4 KM/H or 223.9 MP/H. The car reaches from 0-100 or 0-62 in a fast 3.1 seconds, while reaching 200 KM/H or 120 MP/H in 9.1 seconds. The Apollo has a total kerb weight of only 1200 KG, which is very light considering how powerful the car is. The car has an aerodynamically advanced body made of carbon fiber. Although it’s looks may displease some people, it its the purest iteration of the term ‘Form over Function.’

Each example of the Gumpert Apollo costs $865,000, depending on specification, and only around 50 examples are made.

Apollo Hybrid

Three months passed between the first discussions and the finished hybrid Apollo. The Apollo was driven in the 24 Hours Nürburgring in May 2008. The hybrid Apollo can deliver up to 519 HP, powered with a 3.3 litre V8 twin-turbo engine coupled with a 100 KW or 134 HP electric motor. The car has the ability to recharge the battery under braking, or in simple terms, had regenerative braking. It was an early iteration of torque vectoring found in many modern-day supercars.

Nurburgring lap record.

Gumpert decided to go to the Nurburgring, to prove how much of a track focused beast the car is. The car lapped the entire 12.9 miles in under 7 minutes and 30 seconds, which was the standard of the fastest laps at that time. The car was driven by 26-year old skilled driver Florian Gruber, and thanks to its 700 HP Audi Turbo V8, the car lapped the entire Nurburgring in 7 minutes and 11 seconds, setting a new benchmark for Nurburgring lap times at that time.

This time is an eleven-second improvement over the the Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR and Corvette ZR1 times, and a full 15 seconds over the Nissan GT-R VSpec time, which were the fastest cars that lapped the Nurburgring at that time. It would be unchallenged as the fastest road-legal car to lap the Green Hell, till the Porsche 918 Spyder had beaten its lap time 4 years later.

Bankruptcy

Sadly, in 2013, Gumpert filed for bankruptcy and insolvency for the company. On that same year, Roland Gumpert left the company. After all their feats, producing one of the world’s fastest cars even on today’s standards out of nothing but spare parts from Audi, proving the entire auto industry wrong by making a car fit for the road, and a complete track monster, and even lapping the hardest and longest circuit on Earth, the Nurburgring, it all ended. Or did it?

Revival

After the company’s bankruptcy, several Hong Kong investors bought the company, and decided to revive it. In 2016, they renamed the company to Apollo Automobil, and revealed the Arrow, a 1,000HP extreme track monster. The Arrow uses a modified version of the original Apollo construction: A tubular chromoly space frame combined with a carbon fiber tub.

The Apollo Arrow distinguishes itself from others in its class with its aerodynamics, geometry, and weight. If it hits its target weight of under 1,300 kg for the final production vehicle, the company will have one of the lightest super sports cars on the market. And it will be one of the more affordable ones, costing less than €1 million. Practicality is usually a low priority for exotic automobiles, but the Arrow will include powered windows, electronic stability control, ABS, and a satellite navigation system as standard. The only thing missing is the high-net-worth pilot to steer it around.

The bodywork was penned by a British team tasked with making the high-performance machine just a little more conventional-looking. Apollo says the Arrow will be both street legal and FIA approved, making it a true race car for the streets just like it’s predecessor, the Gumpert Apollo. But sadly, Roland Gumpert won’t be part of any future development cars, as Gumpert and Apollo Automobil have parted ways.

The Apollo IE

Earlier this week, Apollo unveiled the Apollo Intenza Emotiozone, a modern-day equivalent of the original Gumpert Apollo Race. The IE features a 6.3 liter V12 engine making a whopping 780 HP, paired with an extreme and angular lightweight carbon-fiber body making the total car weight just 2,755 pounds. And the best part? That V12 engine is naturally aspirated.

The car looks so extreme and angular, it makes even a Lamborghini look tame! But the car has some proving to do, to live up to its predecessor’s name of being one of the world’s most extreme cars that has ever been built.

We could not wait.