Evaluation: Represented as the second example built. A little dirt and grime under the hood, but mostly tidy and maintained. Good older paint and chrome. Light age to the wheel. The driver’s door sticks out slightly at the bottom. Lightly worn driver’s seat but mostly clean interior. Lightly aged restoration on this rare Italian-American sports car.
Bottom Line: Built in Oakland, California but with European swagger thanks to bodywork revised by Franco Scaglione and built by Intermeccanica in Turin, the Apollo was an ambitious but short-lived sports car that’s far rarer, but also far more obscure than the Ferraris, Jaguars, and Astons it was meant to compete against. Co-founder Milt Brown designed a steel ladder frame with Buick front subframe and suspension, along with four-link trailing arm rear suspension, and power came from Buick’s new lightweight aluminum 3.5-liter V8, usually mated to a Borg-Warner T-10 4-speed.
Priced at $7000, it wasn’t astronomically expensive but still cost more than an E-Type. It was well-received, but lack of capital and cash flow meant building the Apollos, especially shipping bodies from Italy to California, was too much and only a few dozen were built. For a car that looks like a Ferrari and goes like one, too, it’s a good value. Most that have ever sold at auction in recent years brought under 200 grand, except for one $242,000 coupe and $506,000 for an ultra-rare convertible at a 2019 auction. RM also sold this red coupe here four years ago for $134,400, so these cars are still clearly a lot of speed, style, and exclusivity per dollar.
