Supercar startup Apollo has confirmed that its much-hyped Intensa Emozione, or IE for short, will be unveiled in Italy on October 24.
Apollo is the Chinese-backed, Italian-based firm born out of the remains of Germany’s Gumpert. It first showed up at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show where it presented the 986-horsepower Arrow supercar.
Now Apollo is just a week out from showing the IE. Expected to be a more extreme, track-only version of the Arrow, the IE has been in development for some time and is tentatively slated to start deliveries in early 2018.
“We are extremely anxious and proud that we will soon be able to reveal the product of our passion to the world,” Apollo boss Norman Choi said in a statement.
Just 10 examples are planned and each buyer will have access to a driver training program to be held at some of Europe’s top racetracks. Similar programs have been included with rival track cars such as the Aston Martin Vulcan, McLaren P1 GTR and Ferrari FXX K.
Power in the IE will come from a naturally aspirated V-12 and should peak at around 800 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque. A road-going version, likely sticking with the Arrow name, will feature a more emissions friendly twin-turbocharged V-8.
Apollo originally teamed with America’s Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus to co-develop the IE and Arrow alongside the SCG003. The plan was to share major elements such as engines and chassis to help reduce costs. However, Apollo and Glickenhaus have since gone their separate ways, with Apollo choosing to work exclusively with Manifattura Automobili Torino (MAT) on development and production of its models. The Italian engineering skunk works was also responsible for much of the SCG003.
The IE and its road-going sibling have been designed from scratch. Underpinning them will be a bespoke chassis made from carbon fiber. The lightweight stuff will also be used for much of the body and interior.
Apollo’s goal is to build supercars that are powerful, lightweight and aerodynamically efficient. The cars will also come with the latest in-car technology such as connectivity, but nothing that will distract from the raw emotion of driving a supercar.
“We felt that all the technological advancement and automation in today’s supercars took away the pure, raw emotional connection between the driver and car,” Choi explained. “We wanted to build a car that would fill that void separating car and driver—so we built the Apollo IE.”
