With a 700bhp twin-turbo Audi 4.2-litre V8 and the stylings of a rocket, the Gumpert Apollo Sport is a street car like no other, writes NICK HALL
A HORN BEEPS from behind as I ease the clutch up ever so gently and feed in just enough revs to get the Gumpert Apollo Sport off the line. However, this isn’t the start of a tale of straight-line blasts, pants-burning speed and eyeball-popping acceleration. I’m trying to join rush-hour traffic in Berlin in the Gumpert Apollo Sport and am desperate not to simply smash into the car in front with this €400,000 rocket.
Roland Gumpert, the man who turned Audi on to four-wheel drive and was in charge of four World Rally Championship title successes, lent his name to a concept produced by the great Audi tuner Roland Mayer, of MTM fame. With their combined credentials, it was always going to be amazing.
It was designed from the start to be a pure driving experience that focused on race-car handling rather than luxuries. So when the mildly refined Apollo Sport, with 700bhp at its disposal, monstered the Nurburgring in just 7m 11.57s and set a new production car record in the process, only the world’s press was surprised. Suddenly, a track test seemed redundant; it is now established amongst the fastest point-to-point car in the world, and advanced aerodynamics and a 4.2-litre twin turbo engine, producing 700bhp and more than 650lb ft of torque, and an overall weight of just 1200kg ensure than this is a rocket.
But that’s not enough. Owners want everyday usability while retaining the elusive x-factor as they cruise into nightclub car parks. More than 40 have paid out for an Apollo so far. But how would it stack up when we set it an entirely different style of test and drove it straight in to the heart of Berlin?
We first meet the car at Gumpert’s new office in the Meilenwerk museum, a restored industrial unit that houses the kind of car collection any enthusiast would kill for – including a Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing, a Ruf CTR, a Ferrari Enzo and the gorgeous Alfa Romeo 8C. These are just a few of the stars on display, yet the Apollo still stands out from the crowd.
It is a devastatingly imposing car that comes without the frills of a top-end Ferrari or Pagani. It’s angular, brutal and aggressive, and every curve, vent and sharp crease serves a performance ethos. Elegance has gone by the wayside to create a GT1 racer for the road. The rear, though, is simply stunning, with a huge diffuser hanging off the rear apron and those sharp cut vents providing a window through which the massive exhaust cans can be seen.
Inside, it’s another world. The seat is a mildly padded racing shell attached directly to the carbon-fibre safety cell that sits inside the chrome molybdenum spaceframe chassis. The cockpit is awash with exposed carbon-fibre, and it’s spartan in there, with the big lever, a basic dash and no rear-view mirror, because there is no rear view.
Even getting in takes a special technique involving the removal of the steering wheel, which comes on a race-style spindle for easier access over the monstrous sill. It’s pure racing car, rather than an elegant supercar for cruising down the Monaco harbour.
Gumpert and Roland Mayer started with a 4.2-litre Audi V8 and kept the bottom end, but now it comes with lightweight racing internals and two turbos that give it a mighty 700bhp and 874Nm of torque from just 4,000rpm in a package that tips the scales at 1,200kg. That slings the Apollo at the horizon and it bursts through the 100km/h mark in three seconds flat. It’s good for a top-end speed of 360km/h (224mph) and a short run on the autobahn shows the Apollo gets more stable the faster it goes, thanks to the monstrous downforce on offer.
That’s all well and good in the at the apex, but in the city, it could be a nightmare.
I pull down the heavy gullwing door (which takes two hands and no small effort), and raise the nose with the optional hydraulic lifter – that is anything but optional in the real world. Dipping the heavy clutch and pulling back on that proud lever to the point of resistance and then another firm pull, I find first, and then it’s out into the world.
Thankfully, I don’t have to reverse, as the rear view camera doesn’t quite keep perspective –for trickly manoeuvres, it would be easier and cheaper to enlist help and push it. Either that or sit on the sill and reverse Lamborghini Countach-style.
Sadly, our first encounter with the outside world comes on painful cobblestones. The Apollo sits frighteningly low and Gumpert had to soften the Sport’s horizontal dampers and raise the floor on the ’Ring to stop it bottoming out at speed and firing off the kerbs.
The rear bounces and jerks over the roughest bumps and the board-stiff suspension rattles the car over expansion joints in the road or even a ripple in the tarmac. It is near violent and already I wonder if we can really conquer the city. But, first, we head out to stretch its legs.
It’s impossible to place the corners, too, and feels much wider on the inside. I suck in a breath of air to somehow narrow the hips every time something comes the other way and even the three-lane traffic as we finally start to clear the city feels claustrophobic.
At least the steering is finger light, and so precise that it makes a Ferrari Enzo feel dimwitted even at town speeds. And that clutch is certainly race-bred, yet it’s not so heavy it will break your leg if you really need to just go somewhere. The brakes, too – six-pot AP Racing steel set-ups – have a depth of feel that rules out jerky stops in traffic. It might be a beast, yet it is controlled safe and perfectly engineered. The nerves melt away as we pass the Alvus Grandstand on what used to be the Grand Prix circuit and I begin to trust the car.
The Racelogic traction control system is set to its maximum and cuts in intrusively as the rear tyres slip with every stab of throttle. We keep it locked in rain and ice mode through the city – on the track, it would be possible to set the near-infinitely variable system up precisely and wind it off gradually to let the rear slide that little bit more as confidence allowed. That would take time.
When we hit a backroad and can truly play, the Apollo explodes down the road with a meaty shove on the throttle. From then on, everything happens too fast to compute. It goes with a jolt and feels more urgent, more aggressive than even the Pagani Zondas of this world and the 4.2-litre V8 makes it feel faster than anything on the road. The power delivery is smooth and linear, but, my word, it comes quick.
That deep, gurgling rumble rises to a violent crescendo that isn’t isolated from the cabin and the car slides subtly, almost inperceptibly, underfoot as the electronics rein in the surfeit of power. In the bends, it’s a scalpel, sharper than any immediate rival, as pressure on the wheel, rather than a real turn, seems to send the car galloping at the apex – on the first turn, I find myself winding lock off to make the bend.
On track, the flat underfloor and aero work on the surface all come into play at higher speeds, too, and allow cornering speeds that would send a Ferrari flying into the undergrowth. It’s that good, that instantaneous and that direct, and it’s the high speed corners where this car left the competition for dead at the ’Ring.
But I only got to third gear, high speed testing isn’t the order of the day, so as the traffic grew thick in the streets of Berlin we turned inwards, to the Kuhdamm, and braved the gauntlet once again in perhaps the fastest point-to-point car in the world. We made it, too, without even coming close to smashing into the car in front.
It would have been easier in a Ferrari, but then it wouldn’t have been half as much fun, and this car will get way more attention in the Monaco harbour. For at least 40 people, that is the important thing.
Gumpert Apollo Sport
Engine:4.2-litre V8 Twin Turbo
Power:700bhp @ 6,300rpm
Torque:915Nm @ 4,000rpm
0-100km/h:3 seconds
Top speed:360km/h
Price:€300,000 base price, €400,000 as tested