Recently, at the fourth Shanghai Expo, the brand Apollo Apollo from Hong Kong released a new model Project Evo, which is a hypercar supercar positioned in the tens of millions, as the successor of Apollo IE, Project Evo is equipped with a new carbon fiber chassis, its manufacturing process is no worse than Brands such as Ferrari and Lamborghini, this is because the support of Apollo Apollo is a long-established German racing car manufacturer, where did Apollo come from? Who is the manufacturer behind it? Let's analyze it in detail.
Origin of Hong Kong brand Apollo Apollo
Some fans familiar with high-performance sports cars may have long been familiar with the Apollo Apollo, a model produced by a small German company with the full name Gumpert Alpollo Gomperlo Apollo. Founded by Audi Sport Director Roland Gumpert, in 2001, with the help of GMG, the first Gambert Apollo prototype was born, equipped with an engine from Audi, officially mass-produced in 2005, with a 1100kg vehicle weight and track-based tuning, Apollo was well received in the test of the professional media Top Gear.
In 2009, it refreshed the fastest lap speed tested by Sport Auto Magazine in New North, and became a top sports car on par with brands such as Bugatti, but with the renewal of other brands, Gunbert, who only sold one car, could not keep up with the pace of the times, and officially filed for bankruptcy in August 2013 and disappeared into the long river of history.
After 3 years of silence, in 2016, Hong Kong company Consolidated Ideal Team Venture acquired the plant and brand use rights of Gombert Apollo, relaunched a new brand known as Apollo Cars, and in 2017 released the Apollo IE Sports Car. In 2019, Hong Kong Power Century Group acquired Apollo Motors, as well as The Japanese GLM electric vehicle manufacturer, forming the new Apollo Advanced Technologies Company and Apollo Motors.
Who developed the Apollo IE and Project Evo?
As can be seen from the above brand history, the new Apollo car is similar to Foton's acquisition of Borgward in Germany, and there is no real technical heritage, but it can attract consumers with the Apollo brand. To this end, Apollo Motors approached germany's HWA AG, a large racing car manufacturer behind Mercedes-Benz AMG.
Headquartered in Affaltbach, Germany, it was founded in 1999, because Mercedes-Benz was ready to acquire AMG Tuning Company, but the founders of AMG were reluctant to hand over the racing business to Mercedes-Benz, so they agreed to acquire the road car modification project and retain the racing project, and then the founder of AMG, Hans-Werner Aufrecht, founded the new company HWA AG, the real AMG Racing, HWA taken from the founder's initials.
Although the company has no equity connection with Mercedes-Benz, the two work closely together, all Mercedes-Benz AMG racing cars are from HWA, and also for some newly established sports car brands OEM new cars, with a complete whose auto parts manufacturing and chassis design technology. Therefore, Hong Kong Apollo found HWA is also combed into a chapter.
What makes Project Evo's carbon fiber chassis special
In the Expo for the first exhibition of new cars, naturally more is to show new technologies, the new carbon fiber monomer shell developed by HWA is different from the traditional "bathtub" monomer shell, such as Lamborghini and other supercars, will use carbon fiber monocoque shell and front and rear metal subframe combination, can ensure cost and durability, but Project Evo's chassis is safely integrated with the subframe and collision energy absorption structure, all made of carbon fiber and reinforced composite materials, including front and rear pusher components and mid-engine mounting brackets, etc. All of which are already integrated into the chassis, this design guarantees structural strength and lightweighting.
Officials say the frame weight is lower than the Apollo IE, and it should be noted that the IE with the 6.3L self-priming V12 engine weighs only 1250 kg, which is lighter than many family A-class cars. The early Gambert Apollo is known for its lightness, which can ensure less center of gravity load transfer when it is handled intensely, and in the supercar, reducing the weight of 100kg, the cost of the vehicle will increase by hundreds of thousands, or even millions, so the integrated chassis has a natural advantage. However, the disadvantage is that it can only match a single engine, which is costly and has a high scrap rate after collision.
Car selection detective point of view: Although this Apollo brand and the early Gompert Apollo relationship is not large, but from the history and suppliers of hong Kong brand Apollo cars, cooperation with AMG behind-the-scenes companies has given Apollo the strength to compete with top brands, its predecessor model Apollo IE global limited to 10 units, the price reached 2.67 million US dollars, equivalent to 17 million yuan, the new car Project Evo will also adopt this high-price limited model, through higher bicycle profits to compete with large companies, Do you think there is a market for the Apollo Project Evo? Discussion is welcome.