Even if they behave like race cars, Roland wants his cars to be reliable enough for daily use.
To be street-legal, these cars must pass strict European tests.
But in the end, everything good is still connected to Audi.

Roland Gumpert:

“I must never forget that I’m building a passenger car.

We do tests for crash, emissions, child safety, side impact, pedestrian impact—everything possible.”

Company goals

Life for a small independent company is not easy.
Developing, testing, and building a supercar costs millions.
Even big players like Aston Martin, Ferrari, and Lamborghini often struggle.
Roland Gumpert knows this well.
He worked for Audi for over 30 years, where he helped create some of the fastest cars on the planet.
But his biggest dream has always been to build his own supercar—free from corporate control.

Roland Gumpert:

“I’ve been developing cars all my life, but this project was about building a factory from scratch, with no limits.”

At one point, he was completely alone.
He had invested a fortune into his small company, located on the top floor of a former Soviet-era sewing machine factory.
It’s in the town of Altenburg, 180 km south of Berlin.
All Gumpert cars are made there, by just 40 people (including the cleaner).
The whole company is packed into a space no bigger than an Olympic swimming pool.
But everything is taken very seriously.
There’s an assembly line, a welding workshop, and a small store.
Right next to them is a design and admin office.
Roland Gumpert has his own separate office.
This may not be the huge facility you’d expect for a supercar, but for production manager Marc Fritzsche, it’s perfect.

Marc Fritzsche:

“Production here is relatively easy to manage compared to other places in Germany.

Also, there’s a lot of skilled workers in the region.
Porsche and BMW have factories nearby, so talented technicians are everywhere.”

“Apollo” is a high form of engineering.
Its creation takes both skill and passion.

Production

For a boutique manufacturer like Gumpert, building just a few cars a year, it’s not cost-effective to spend millions designing and producing parts in-house.
Instead, parts are sourced from 60 European suppliers.
The network stretches from England in the north to Italy in the south.
The company functions as a “factory” spread across Europe.
The Altenburg facility sits at the center of this network.
It’s an impressive logistical setup.

But it hasn’t always been smooth.
Building the right car the right way is only half the battle.
The other half is selling it.
The past years have been difficult, says Bastian Schafer, head of marketing.

Bastian Schafer:

“We had orders, but with the economic and financial crisis, we lost several of them.

If you only sell 20 cars a year and lose 10, that’s half your revenue gone.
It can kill a company this small.”

The company nearly went bankrupt in 2010.
Only investor money saved Mr. Gumpert’s dream.

Their future is still uncertain.
Every single sale matters.
To make their voice heard in the crowded supercar market, the company is planning a new model – the “Apollo.”
It will be lighter, more powerful, and only available in black.
This Apollo will be extremely aggressive.
To match that attitude, it will be named “ENRAGED.”

Roland Gumpert:

“It’s lighter, has more horsepower, a better gearbox, and better cooling.

It will beat even the standard Apollo on track and road.”

To grab the world’s attention, the plan is to unveil the new car at the most prestigious event in the field – the Geneva International Motor Show.

And it all begins… in the welding shop

Like every “Apollo,” the “Enraged” begins its life as 211 individual chrome-molybdenum tubes.
Chrome-molybdenum is a lightweight steel alloy.
It is twice as strong as regular steel.
Its lightness and strength make it ideal for building airplanes, oil rigs, and supercars.
The tubes are laser-cut and welded together to create the chassis – the structural core of the car.

The design is nearly unchanged since racing cars of the 1950s.
It is so effective that modern supercars like the Audi R8 and Lamborghini Gallardo still use it.
The chassis is built from sections.
Each section is made according to precise specifications.

Accuracy is extremely important.
If a tube is not perfectly aligned or welded, it can weaken the entire structure.
Losing speed could be catastrophic.
Once the main sub-sections are created, they are welded together into one frame.
The entire process takes the two welders one month to complete.

As head of maintenance at Audi, Roland Gumpert helped create a legend – the Audi Quattro.

The “Quattro” was revolutionary.
It was the first race car with permanent four-wheel drive.
It blew away the competition, winning four World Championships and 24 World Rally events.

After winning a World Rally Championship, Roland Gumpert wanted to win again – this time on the road.
He quickly realized that stability was the key.
But this time, he would increase grip using aerodynamics.

Race cars use aerodynamics to push the car down onto the road.
Roland believed that other manufacturers weren’t using this trick to its full potential.
Downforce is a force that pushes the car toward the ground at high speed.
It is the opposite of lift, which lets airplanes take off.
This pressure gives the car better grip, allowing faster acceleration, sharper cornering, and harder braking

Roland Gumpert:
“My dream was to have a car with so much downforce that, at high speed, it could drive upside down in a tunnel.”

Roland left Audi in 2002.
He asked former colleagues to help him build the ultimate supercar – a car that turned out to be developed mostly by Audi engineers.

Hans-Peter Fischer couldn’t resist the opportunity.
As a child, he was inspired to become an engineer by Gumpert’s rally victories.

To achieve maximum downforce, they had a bold idea.
They would create a race car for the road, instead of a road car for the track.

Hans-Peter Fischer:
“To get the best possible aerodynamics for the Apollo, the car had to be as low as possible.
The entire car is only 1 meter and 10 centimeters tall.
It’s one of the lowest street-legal cars in the world.”

The ultra-low body is just one key element for maximum downforce.
Others include special vents above the fenders, a massive rear wing, and a very specific underbody.

Hans-Peter Fischer:
“At the front spoiler, air enters at a height of just 60 mm.
As it travels toward the rear, the space becomes wider, creating low pressure that pulls the car to the ground.”

As fast-moving air flows under the car, the expanding space from front to rear creates a pressure difference.
This sticks the car to the road.
To keep the low-pressure air trapped under the car, they use an air curtain created by vortex generators.

Hans-Peter Fischer:
“They create a mini tornado effect.
It forms an air vortex along the car’s side that prevents the air from escaping underneath.”

Nürburgring, Germany.
Length: 22.8 km.
Turns: 73.
Fatalities: between 3 and 12 per year.
Nickname: The Green Hell.
Probably the toughest race track on Earth.

It used to host the German Grand Prix until it was declared too dangerous for Formula 1.
Now, car manufacturers use the track to prove how fast their cars really are.
The team’s mission was to prove that this is the fastest road car on the track.

In 2009, Gumpert arrived at the Nürburgring to prove that the “Apollo” was the fastest road-legal car in the world.
With an average speed of 172 km/h, it completed the difficult 23-kilometer course in 7 minutes and 11 seconds.
That was the third-fastest time in history.

A fantastic achievement for a small independent company.
But time flies, and in the supercar business, you must evolve to survive.
To attract attention in Geneva, they now need the “Apollo ENRAGED”.

“AX Lightness” is a company that creates carbon fiber parts for race cars for brands like Audi and Mercedes.
They were given the opportunity to design the dashboard and safety cell for the “Enraged”.
This car is a bit more luxurious than the original Apollo, so even the smallest details matter.
They made sure that the carbon fiber patterns were aligned in the same direction.

The safety cage is screwed and glued to the frame.
The 120-liter fuel tank sits right behind the safety cage.

There’s a good reason for this – weight centralization.
In the “Enraged”, the heavy transmission, engine, fuel tank, and driver are all positioned close to the car’s centerline.
All components are arranged in such a way that, whether the tank is full or empty, with or without a driver, the weight distribution stays the same.
This ensures stability and good handling in any situation.

The crash box is made of a special aluminum that looks like cardboard.
In a crash, it crumples in a controlled way to absorb the impact and protect the passengers.
Most standard road cars have one radiator.
Top-tier sports cars might have two.
This car has three.

One of them is placed inside the crash box, because there’s not much space at the front.
Three radiators + Formula 1-style air intakes are crucial to cool the beastly engine.

• Twin-turbo

• 8 cylinders

• 5 valves per cylinder

• 4 camshafts

Building a new engine from scratch is a massive challenge.
Roland chose Audi’s V8 for his gem.

From the Audi RS6 – this engine normally delivers 450 horsepower.
For the first Apollo, they boosted it to 650 hp.
For the Apollo Enraged, Roland wanted much more.
The team managed to reach an impressive 780 hp of pure power, sealing the fate of his supercar dream.

There’s a good reason why the Apollo series needs such powerful engines.
The cars generate very strong aerodynamic downforce for high-speed cornering.
But that extra drag slows the car down on straight sections.
Downforce improves grip, but the extra resistance requires a powerful engine.

The Enraged has over 4 km of wiring.
The windshield alone costs $1600, custom-made in Switzerland.
It took enormous effort from 60 companies across Europe to assemble the Apollo Enraged in record time.

• 780 hp pure power

• Weight: 1,175 kg

• 0 to 100 km/h: 2.9 sec

• Top speed: 330 km/h

• Price: $1,000,000

Simply put: A race car with license plates.

Author: Ц.Костова