Automotive

Apollo Intensa Emozione: The antidote to all those boring hypercars you've been complaining about

Apollo Intensa Emozione: The antidote to all those boring hypercars you've been complaining about
Apollo Intensa Emozione: did somebody ask for extra downforce?
Apollo Intensa Emozione: did somebody ask for extra downforce?
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Apollo Intensa Emozione: it's Italian for 'drunk and shouty'
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Apollo Intensa Emozione: it's Italian for 'drunk and shouty'
Apollo Intensa Emozione: carbon monocoque chassis is sumptuous in its own right
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Apollo Intensa Emozione: carbon monocoque chassis is sumptuous in its own right
Apollo Intensa Emozione: 3D printed trident exhaust snakes its way through the chassis
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Apollo Intensa Emozione: 3D printed trident exhaust snakes its way through the chassis
Apollo Intensa Emozione: even the angles owners will never see are exquisite
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Apollo Intensa Emozione: even the angles owners will never see are exquisite
Apollo Intensa Emozione: carbon. Carbon everything.
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Apollo Intensa Emozione: carbon. Carbon everything.
Apollo Intensa Emozione: horizontally mounted golden shocks on a chassis that weighs just 105 kilograms
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Apollo Intensa Emozione: horizontally mounted golden shocks on a chassis that weighs just 105 kilograms
Apollo Intensa Emozione: even with its clothes off, you'd put it in a glass box in your living room
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Apollo Intensa Emozione: even with its clothes off, you'd put it in a glass box in your living room
Apollo Intensa Emozione: lurid red steering wheel with buttons galore
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Apollo Intensa Emozione: lurid red steering wheel with buttons galore
Apollo Intensa Emozione: paddle shifters
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Apollo Intensa Emozione: paddle shifters
Apollo Intensa Emozione: cabin straight out of a video game
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Apollo Intensa Emozione: cabin straight out of a video game
Apollo Intensa Emozione: not what you'd call a luxury interior. It's business meets brothel
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Apollo Intensa Emozione: not what you'd call a luxury interior. It's business meets brothel
Apollo Intensa Emozione: thin seats are stuck straight to the carbon tub
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Apollo Intensa Emozione: thin seats are stuck straight to the carbon tub
Apollo Intensa Emozione: did somebody ask for extra downforce?
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Apollo Intensa Emozione: did somebody ask for extra downforce?
Apollo Intensa Emozione: gull-wings and more spoliers than Facebook after a Game of Thrones episode
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Apollo Intensa Emozione: gull-wings and more spoliers than Facebook after a Game of Thrones episode
Apollo Intensa Emozione: giant rear wing generates 1,350 kilos of downforce, more than the weight of the car itself.
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Apollo Intensa Emozione: giant rear wing generates 1,350 kilos of downforce, more than the weight of the car itself.
Apollo Intensa Emozione: how on Earth do those doors work?
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Apollo Intensa Emozione: how on Earth do those doors work?
Apollo Intensa Emozione: has headlights, if you're into that sort of thing
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Apollo Intensa Emozione: has headlights, if you're into that sort of thing
Apollo Intensa Emozione: won't be mistaken for anything else from behind
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Apollo Intensa Emozione: won't be mistaken for anything else from behind
Apollo Intensa Emozione: looks like nothing else
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Apollo Intensa Emozione: looks like nothing else
Apollo Intensa Emozione: an aerodynamic efficiency of 3.0 gives this 780-horsepower beast a top speed around 335kmh
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Apollo Intensa Emozione: an aerodynamic efficiency of 3.0 gives this 780-horsepower beast a top speed around 335kmh
Apollo Intensa Emozione: I won't lie, I have no idea what this bit does. But look at all that carbon.
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Apollo Intensa Emozione: I won't lie, I have no idea what this bit does. But look at all that carbon.
Apollo Intensa Emozione: wing tips an Oxford cobbler would be proud of
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Apollo Intensa Emozione: wing tips an Oxford cobbler would be proud of
Apollo Intensa Emozione: no turbos, no hybrids, just pure V-12, naturally aspirated aggression
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Apollo Intensa Emozione: no turbos, no hybrids, just pure V-12, naturally aspirated aggression
Apollo Intensa Emozione: aggressive diffuser and absolutely unique trident exhaust
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Apollo Intensa Emozione: aggressive diffuser and absolutely unique trident exhaust
Apollo Intensa Emozione: pure evil
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Apollo Intensa Emozione: pure evil
Apollo Intensa Emozione: old-school engine meets young-school design
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Apollo Intensa Emozione: old-school engine meets young-school design
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Modern hypercars are boring. That's the contention of the team behind the newly-resurrected Apollo motor company: while turbos and hybrid powertrains are producing unprecedented levels of acceleration and planet-friendly emissions figures, they just don't tickle the trouser glands like those raging, roaring, naturally aspirated supercars of yore.

I'm not sure how many LaFerrari or Regera owners are looking wistfully off into the distance wondering why nothing seems to excite them any more, but to Apollo's credit they've put their effort and a significant chunk of change where their mouths are and created … Well, probably the wildest looking thing on four wheels.

Apollo Intensa Emozione: pure evil
Apollo Intensa Emozione: pure evil

The Intensa Emozione looks like some bizarre unlockable Easter egg from a Playstation game. I mean, look at it. There are passenger aircraft with less wing area than this thing. The gull-wing doors look like they break physics when they sit open, and the depth and layering of the design is outrageous. The front wheel arches are so wickedly high they'll actively block your view, and you will love them for it.

Apollo Intensa Emozione: won't be mistaken for anything else from behind
Apollo Intensa Emozione: won't be mistaken for anything else from behind

The unique 3D-printed trident exhaust, which apparently costs more by itself than an entire BMW M4, makes one heck of a visual signature, and in a perfect world, it would visibly pucker whenever you go into a corner too fast.

Apollo Intensa Emozione: not what you'd call a luxury interior. It's business meets brothel
Apollo Intensa Emozione: not what you'd call a luxury interior. It's business meets brothel

Look at the interior. It's obscene. Brothel-red leather meets brothel-red LED lighting. The seats are literally bits of cushion laid straight onto the car's lascivious carbon monocoque frame, which, stripped of all bodywork, is enough of a work of art in its own right that just looking at it causes me some pretty Intensa Emoziones.

Apollo Intensa Emozione: carbon. Carbon everything.
Apollo Intensa Emozione: carbon. Carbon everything.

The steering wheel, also carbon, and the cartoonish dash look like they were yanked straight out of some rich kid's expensive living room video game rig.

Apollo Intensa Emozione: cabin straight out of a video game
Apollo Intensa Emozione: cabin straight out of a video game

Don't get me wrong. I think this thing looks absolutely sensational. It approaches, and in fact even exceeds Lamborghini Veneno levels of visual excess. It's unabashedly young, energetic, extravagant and loud, the work of a youthful team ready to show a vehement middle finger to the hypercar establishment.

And does it back it up with performance? Well, that sort of depends what you're after. Remember, the Apollo team believes forced induction and crazy electric torque take the fun out of berserker hypercars, trading acceleration for involvement.

Thus, the powerplant here is old-school, from Autotecnica Motori. A naturally aspirated V12 screamer displacing 6.3 liters, mated to a longitudinal Hewland sequential 6-speed+Rev paddle-shift gearbox.

Apollo Intensa Emozione: how on Earth do those doors work?
Apollo Intensa Emozione: how on Earth do those doors work?

The banner numbers are 780 horsepower and 760 Nm of torque, and the motor revs to a stratospheric 9,000 rpm redline. Those figures are certainly enough to get you into trouble, but a 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) time of 2.7 seconds and a top speed of 335 km/h (208 mph) won't buy the Intensa Emozione a ticket to party with the big kids in its class.

Those who get the concept won't give a hoot. If you want outright performance figures, this is not the car for you. In fact, it's hardly the car for anybody anyway, as only 10 will ever be built. So who cares what you think?

What's more, none of them will ever see road use. Presumably due to emissions regulations among other things, the Intensa Emozione is a track-only special. Hence the giant rear wing, which generates enough downforce that it'd drive upside down at 180 mph, if you could find a long enough upside down road.

That downforce, plus a very fat set of Michelin tires, makes this thing stick to the ground hard enough to develop 2G of cornering force. The suspension is electrically adjustable Bilstein gear offering three modes, as well as custom adjustments. There's also a hydraulic lift system that causes the car to rise up by 2 inches when you need to get it on and off the trailer.

Apollo Intensa Emozione: gull-wings and more spoliers than Facebook after a Game of Thrones episode
Apollo Intensa Emozione: gull-wings and more spoliers than Facebook after a Game of Thrones episode

As a car designed to eliminate "any emotionally dilutive technological systems" and "deliver a modern, yet nostalgically pure, unadulterated sensory experience," it's interesting to note that the Apollo IE runs a 10-stage ABS system, three different engine modes and a 12-stage traction control unit. These would appear to have been installed to dilute the emotion of fear, which is in my mind definitely an emotion.

But I think we can let them get away with that. You can switch it all off and free-ball your way around the racetrack, or dial in a setting that'll let you get loose and silly without excessive risk to your €2.3 million motor car. That's 2.72 million dollars worth of shouty boy toy in American money, a sum that's probably worth bearing in mind when you go choosing your ABS settings.

Apollo Intensa Emozione: looks like nothing else
Apollo Intensa Emozione: looks like nothing else

The Intensa Emozione will act as the flagship for Apollo. A second model, the Arrow, will follow in 2019, and anyone lucky enough to pick up one of the ten IEs to be built will automatically become a consultant on the design of future Apollo machines. That's a nice touch.

Your chances (and mine) of ever seeing one of these beasts in the flesh are minuscule; here's hoping this outrageous statement of a thing finds its way into a Gran Turismo download pack where we can all have a go at it. Here's a video in the meantime:

Apollo Intensa Emozione "IE" | Official Launch Video

Source: Apollo

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4 comments
4 comments
zackzelmo
Well executed and impressive build but...Excuse my cynicism: Another rather useless toy for the crassly wealthy. An entire company that only exists to produce a novelty for 10 children of enormously wealthy parents. Expect to see these driven by Arabs in Dubai and London. Oh but wait it may not even be road worthy. No matter. It is an exercise in the display of vulgar wealth that soooooo many people, who can't afford to buy it, drool over though.
aksdad
I nominate Loz for a Pulitzer in Automotive Reporting. Outstanding! Especially this: "The unique 3D-printed trident exhaust, which apparently costs more by itself than an entire BMW M4, makes one heck of a visual signature, and in a perfect world, it would visibly pucker whenever you go into a corner too fast."
axio
haha, I agree.. Superb hyperbolic writing that more than matches and even surpasses this brilliantly outrageous machine...
El_Zato
The real enthusiast supercar already exists, it's called the Spyker C8 Preliator and it boasts something no other 2017 supercar does: A manual transmission.