When you have everything, you always want more, even if it means taking risks. Such is the life of Roland Gumpert who achieved everything when he was an employee of Audi, and rather magnificently failed in his independent career.
This German engineer, however, got off to a very good start. A graduate in mechanics, he was quickly noticed at Audi. In Ingolstadt, he rose through the ranks at full speed. Arriving in 1969 as a test engineer, he took charge of this department 3 years later and did not stop there: in 1981, he became director of Audi Sport.
End of career for group B
The rings are not particularly renowned for their sporting record throughout their history? Except in those years where they flew over the rally world, won 25 rounds of the world championship, and won four manufacturers’ titles.
It was the era of Group B, the era of the Audi Quattro that Gumpert developed with his team. These years of glory led him, much later, to appear in the cinema with, in his role, the excellent Daniel Brühl in the film Race for Glory. But the category ended tragically in 1986. So Gumpert joined the car department standard and quickly heading to Asia, again for Audi. At the beginning of the 90s, China finally opened up to Western business and he didn’t want to miss it. He finds himself at the table of the joint venture board of the VW group in China, more specifically responsible for marketing.
Selling cars is good, designing them is better. He then suggested that Audi develop a supercar. Headquarters hesitates to give him the green light, but not one of his former colleagues, Roland Meyer. He has set up his box and is preparing the cars for the rings. The idea of designing a car starting from a blank page, or almost, tickles him. Gumpert embarked on the adventure and the two Rolands founded GMG Sportwagenmanufaktur Altenburg GmbH, always in the purest simplicity of German names.
But when it comes to governance and finances, nothing is simple. In 2004, Gumpert made his putsch and renamed the small company in his name. Especially since the project is already advanced: a name has been found for the car, it will be called Apollo and a design is frozen. It is signed Marco Vanetta who is not likely to win the Nobel for car stylebut it doesn’t matter: Gumpert aims for performance and performance alone. The car is ready, but the money is still not forthcoming.
we will have to wait another year for the Gumpert Sportwagenmanufaktur to be able to produce the Apollo and present it to the public with all its advantages. And it has, despite its rough design. His weight? Less than 1,200 kg. Inside, not the slightest seat, but buckets molded into the carbon cell. As for his engine, Gumpert called his friends at Audi who supplied him with the in-house 4.2 V8 that equips the second generation of RS4. But the 420 hp it develops makes the father of the Apollo smile. So he will stick two turbos on it and leave the choice of power to the customer: 650, 700 or 800 hp, it’s whatever you want.
The announced speed of the machine is 360 km/h and the 0/100 km of 3s, but these figures have never been approved. On the other hand, the car was, in 2012, the fastest lap achieved by the Top Gear comedians, or at least by the less funny Stig. It was, of course, dethroned some time later by the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport.
From repurchase to resale
In any case, the Apollo never placed itself in the orbit of commercial success. In 2013, Roland Gumpert filed for bankruptcy. The company is bought by a Hong Kong investor and its founder leaves the ship. But Apollo Automobil is not doing any better. Four years later, the Asian consortium sold the business to the Chinese Aiways, the same company that produces electric cars.
In 2017, Roland Gumpert was recalled. He takes the helm of the new entity, as an employee, with a new idea: a car equipped with a methanol fuel celljust that. On the menu: 544 hp, 420,000 euros, 500 units and a design still not at the top, but more appreciable than the Apollo. The new car has a curious name, since it is called Nathalie, from the name of its creator’s daughter. A tradition in German automobiles since Émile Jelinek, a major Daimler dealer, in 1902 named the cars he sold after his youngest daughter. Her name was Mercedes.
