Gumpert
 |
|
| Private | |
| Industry | Automotive industry |
| Genre | Supercar manufacturer |
| Predecessor | GMG Sportwagenmanufaktur Altenburg GmbH |
| Founded | 2004 |
| Founder | Roland Gumpert |
| Headquarters | Denkendorf, Bavaria, Germany |
|
Area served
|
European, Middle Eastern and U.S. markets |
| Products | Gumpert Apollo, Gumpert Apollo Enraged, Apollo Arrow |
| Owner | Ideal Team Ventures Limited |
|
Number of employees
|
45 |
| Website | www |
Apollo Automobil (Previously known as Gumpert Sportwagenmanufaktur GmbH) is a German supercar manufacturing company headquartered in Denkendorf. Roland Gumpert, the founder of Apollo, once held the position of director of Audi Sport. Under his management, Audi won a total of 25 World Rally Championship races and four World Rally Championship titles.
In 2001, Roland Gumpert proposed a new generation sports car, one that would be race-ready yet also street-legal. After Gumpert returned to Germany from China at the end of 2001, Roland Meyer asked him to assist in building a prototype sports car. Audi approved Gumpert's involvement in this project on the condition that the new sports car would be a series product and not a prototype.
The company was founded in 2004 under the name "GMG Sportwagenmanufaktur Altenburg GmbH". The technical guidelines were defined and the first designs of the car were drawn by Marco Vanetta. Upon Vanetta's completion of this process, the first 1:4 scale model of Gumpert's car was produced in 2002.
Gumpert continued with the development of the Apollo, along with the Technical University of Munich and the Ingolstadt University of Applied Sciences. They have assisted with the construction work, computer simulations, and wind tunnel tests. This research and development helped form the blueprint for the first full-scale model. Finally two prototype Apollos were constructed. The production of the Apollo started in October 2005.
On July 27, 2008 an Apollo Sport 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 became the new leader on the Power Lap Board, 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. It was later beaten with a time of 01:16.8 by the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport.
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Wikipedia