Apollo – 3500 Gran Turismo Spyder (1963)

The idea conceived by three entrepreneurial automobile aficionados from California at the beginning of the 1960s sounded wonderful: Milton “Milt” Brown wanted to join forces with two partners to build a sports car to compete in top-flight racing. They combined Italian design and styling artistry in coachwork construction with the robustness and reliability of an American drivetrain. When the press and motoring public in the USA clapped eyes on the first Apollo, it received a resounding round of rapturous applause. Unfortunately, the project ultimately failed as a result of misman- agement after just 88 vehicles had been built.

Nevertheless, one open-top prototype from 1963 experienced its debut at the San Francisco Imported Car Show. This is that very example and everybody intuitively associates the car with Italy on account of its elegant appearance – and that is indeed entirely correct: Franco Scaglione penned the lines, while Intermeccanica manufactured the body in Turin. After this prototype, successor companies are supposed to have assembled ten further Spyders but this is the only one powered by a 3.5 litre aluminium V8 engine from Buick. Its current owners were able to purchase the one of one in 2019. The fastidious restoration down to the last detail took three years.