Intermeccanica Apollo

[Cedric]

http://www.intermeccanica.org
http://www.intermeccanica.org/vehicl...015jafferf.jpg

Does anyone have a clue what has become of the car that was driven by the vilain in The Love Bug? It was an Intermeccanica Apollo, and in awesome livery I must say. Has anyone seen of these cars in real life, cos I haven't.

[Motorace]

I've seen them several times at the Concorso Italiano during the Monterey Weekend (third weekend in August every year). I did not attend this past year (2006), but I understand they were supposed to have a reunion of sorts for Intermeccanica Apollo owners.

Here's a copy of the Apollo Registry newsletter announcing their plans to meet: http://www.italiareproductions.com/A...spring2006.pdf

The picture on the left at this website may have been taken at that gathering: http://www.vettaventura.com/Home_Page.php

[mattmacklind]

Hemmings Sports & Exotic Cars had a nice article about that car about 6 months back. Realy interesting car, and very pretty.

[Cedric]

Would you be able to get that article on the internet some way or another?

[Egg Nog]

Cool, I've dropped by Intermeccanica's offices here in Vancouver. I don't think the Apollo was ever made when the company was in my area though. They're a pretty small operation these days, but they're still pumping out the best 356 replicas money can buy.

[henk4]

The Apollo was an American design but the bodies were built by Intermeccanica.
Here is an Intermeccanica Indra and a a rare Apollo Convertible, shot at the Quail Lodge in 2005.

[go.pawel]

Cool, I've dropped by Intermeccanica's offices here in Vancouver. I don't think the Apollo was ever made when the company was in my area though.

No, of course not. Since the company moved to USA (1976) and later to Canada (1981) they've been producing only replicas (various Porsche 356s and VW Kuebelwagens, XK120s and Cobras) and convertible conversion of Mustangs (officially contracted by Ford!), Corvettes and 200SXs.

The Apollo was a design of two American students, first 18 cars were called Apollo 3500 (a 3,5 l engine), next 40 Apollo 5000 (yes, a 5 l engine ). The last 40 cars (produced in 1965) were sold under the name Vetta Ventura - the original Apollo project went belly up and a new company took over production.

There was another American car for which Intermeccanica produced bodies. It was called Murena and 11 of them were build in 1969-70. For some reason I relly like that car although it looks much like a sporty hearse

[Motorace]

Would you be able to get that article on the internet some way or another?

For articles on the Apollo (and any other Intermeccanica-made car) check out the great website: www.Intermeccanica.org
There you will find a heading called"Publications" with pages & pages of listings of published articles on these cars. Many of the articles are already scanned into the website and can be accessed there without having to go find the back issue on eBay.

[Motorace]

The Apollo was a design of two American students,

The two 'students' I think you are referring to are Milt Brown and Ron Plescia. They'd met as senior students in high school, but I think they were about 28 at the time they came up with the Apollo. Milt was the engineer and originator of the project, and had a friend - Newton Davis Jr. - who financed it. Ron Plescia (a graduate of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena) sketched the original protype with Milt Brown. Ron shortly left the company but remained active as a consultant.

The Jaguar E-type and various Ferraris appear to have been strong influences in Ron & Milt's prototype design - with it's long nose and short rear deck, but it's too bad they did not also include the "haunch" or kick up over the rear tires that give both those cars the look of muscular power in the rear wheels (my personal opinion). On the other hand, the beltline that starts at the top of the headlight and continues all the way down the side to end over the tailight gives the car a lithesome, long-legged elegance by not being interrupted with a rear kick-up... more gazelle than lion.

The prototype design was a coupe with limited rear vision and huge blind spots in the rear quarters. The lack of rear quarter windows may have been an attempt to control costs, but this is just my guess. Either that, or they were copying that rear 3/4 portion of the Ferrari SWB's styling onto a longer body. Either way, the blind spot was unacceptable. This original prototype design can be seen featured as the cover story in "SPORTS-CAR Graphic" magazine, January '63.

Meanwhile, Frank Reisner (Intermeccanica) befriended Italian aerodynamicist and master stylist - Franco Scaglione - the designer of the wild and famous Alfa Romeo BAT 5, 7, & 9 cars when he worked for Bertone. He'd also designed the original Lamborghini 350 GT, the Alfa Sprint and Sprint Speciales, the Alfa 2000 Sportivas, and the mid-engined ATS - beautiful cars all. Frank Reisner asked Franco Scaglione to assist with productionizing the design of the Apollo-Buick and Franco deserves the credit for cleaning up the lines, adding rear quarter windows, and (thankfully) removing a strange vertical bar that had been in the middle of the grille on the prototype.

When a convertible model of the Apollo Buick was later requested, Franco Scaglione designed this and followed it with an extemely beautiful Apollo 2&2 prototype that rivals the Ferrari Lusso for luxurious beauty (If only Jaguar's top-heavy E-type 2+2 had been handled by Scaglione!). Anyone know what happened to the Apollo 2+2 prototype?

The resulting run of Apollo-Buicks (& Vetta Venturas) have stood the test of time as beautiful designs. Franco Scaglione went on to work with Reisner on the Murena (seen in the photos in the recent post above), also the Intermeccanica Griffith/Omega/Torino/Italia and the Indra that followed.

[Cedric]

The Jaguar E-type and various Ferraris appear to have been strong influences in Ron & Milt's prototype design - with it's long nose and short rear deck, but it's too bad they did not also include the "haunch" or kick up over the rear tires that give both those cars the look of muscular power in the rear wheels (my personal opinion). On the other hand, the beltline that starts at the top of the headlight and continues all the way down the side to end over the tailight gives the car a lithesome, long-legged elegance by not being interrupted with a rear kick-up... more gazelle than lion.

I entirely agree with you, although there is one little thing about the design that is a bit disturbing, namely the wheels, which do not seem to match the wheel wells of the Apollo. there is something wrong with them, although I can't exactly pinpoint what. It seems to me as if the wheels stick out just a little bit too far. In addition, the tyres don't balloon like those of other 60's sports cars, these don't do the car any justice. But that's just a matter of taste.
The body will always remain a successful design.

[Motorace]

there is one little thing about the design that is a bit disturbing, namely the wheels, which do not seem to match the wheel wells of the Apollo. there is something wrong with them, although I can't exactly pinpoint what. In addition, the tyres don't balloon like those of other 60's sports cars, these don't do the car any justice. But that's just a matter of taste.

I agree with you that it's a matter of taste, and I agree with your taste - I'd prefer it if the wheels had a deeper dish to them. Many cars in the '60's had some dish to the wheels (especially muscle cars), while modern cars typically do not. The Apollo's wire wheels have the spokes laced right out to the edge of the rim - allowing for none of the deep dish look familiar to cars of the '60's.

Milt Brown used the rear axle and front cross member/suspension system from the standard Buick Special (which had a 71 inch wide body). My guess is that this forced the front and rear track further outboard than the 66-inch wide Apollo's Italianate bodywork could accomodate with deep dish wheels - forcing the selection of narrow wheels with rim-laced spokes to bring the wheels within the fender wells. Anyone know Milt Brown & can get him to weigh in on this?

Note, however, that the Jaguar E-type's wheels looked a lot like the Apollo's!

[ribatejo69]

No, of course not. Since the company moved to USA (1976) and later to Canada (1981) they've been producing only replicas (various Porsche 356s and VW Kuebelwagens, XK120s and Cobras) and convertible conversion of Mustangs (officially contracted by Ford!), Corvettes and 200SXs.

The Apollo was a design of two American students, first 18 cars were called Apollo 3500 (a 3,5 l engine), next 40 Apollo 5000 (yes, a 5 l engine ). The last 40 cars (produced in 1965) were sold under the name Vetta Ventura - the original Apollo project went belly up and a new company took over production.

There was another American car for which Intermeccanica produced bodies. It was called Murena and 11 of them were build in 1969-70. For some reason I relly like that car although it looks much like a sporty hearse

more pic's of Murena 429 GT

[ribatejo69]

my lasts in folder:

[Dons63ApolloGT]

Well it seems that you guys know quite a bit about these cars

go.pawel is correct the 1st 18 cars were 3500 GT's had the 215ci all aluminum buick, the 5000 Gt's had the heavier Iron Buick. I was talking to Milt Brown the other day when he was appraising the car and he was saying how the heavier 5.0L engine effected the handling of the car. " with that heavier engine the car doesn't handle as well".

Motorace seems to know a lot about these cars. As far as the 2+2 coupe is concerned. Its still around, but it slips my mind right now of who owns it.

I heard the Apollo Reunion was success at Concorso Italiano in Monterey. It was the 1st time since the cars were built that Milt Brown, Ron Plescia and Ned Davis have been together. It was also the largest gathering of Apollo's assembled in 1 place since the cars were built.

I'm going to be attending the Concorso Italiano this year, it was one of a few stipulations that Milt had before apraising the car. 1. That I would take the car out and show it at Palo Alto if possible (lots of polishing needed for that) and to Monterey this year. 2. If I ever decide to sell the car I would give him 1st shot at buying it.

[Motorace]

"Motorace seems to know a lot about these cars."

Thank you for your kind words. My wife & I own a 1969 Intermeccanica Italia Spyder - which has provided not only a source of pride, joy, & pleasure, but also of burning questions to know more about he process that produced this car.

There has been so much conflicting information published about Intermeccanica's products, that I've gone out of my way to collect as many of the original articles as I can find in the hopes of clearing up some of the mis-information and of resolving some questions I am still investigating (like quantities produced, etc.). It's amazing, to me, how that once something that is factually incorrect gets published, it can still live a long life as "the truth" no matter how many articles have been written to refute the misinformation.

I've enjoyed writing some articles here on UCP to correct/improve the record as best I understand it. I hope that anyone having information that can add to the history of Intermeccanica will share it in this forum.

Many of Intermeccanica's records were also lost when they moved their operations from Torino, Italy to California in the mid-1970's, which has contributed to the difficulty in reconstructing the record of their achievements.