Equipment
300/250hp Buick V-8, 4-speed, Michelin tires, woodrim steering wheel, Jaeger gauges.
Condition
#3 Good
Runs and drives well. Flaws not noticeable to passersby. Most common condition.
Previously owned by Apollo founder Milt Brown. The second to last of just 76 cars built. Largely original and the 4052 miles showing are represented as accurate. Good older paint with a few small cracks in several places and chips around the edges of the hood. Orange peel on the A- and B-pillars. Cracked headlight and windshield gaskets. Reasonably tidy underneath. Heavily wrinkled leather on both seats and stretched on the driver’s side, but otherwise good interior. An imperfect but solid example of this thoroughly Italian-looking but American-powered and American-conceived sports car.
Market commentary
Apollo was the brainchild of three friends in Northern California at the dawn of the 1960s. Milt Brown, Ron Plescia, and Ned Davis wanted to emulate the best of the large sports cars coming out of Italy and Britain at the time but with more car reliable American underpinnings. While at the Monaco Grand Prix in 1961, Brown met Frank Reisner, of Carrozzeria Intermeccanica, who agreed to provide finished bodies for Brown’s fledgling sports car venture. Plescia sketched out a European-influenced coupe body, and designer Franco Scaglione refined the shape. Intermeccanica then got to work on the production bodies themselves, and Brown designed a steel ladder frame with Buick front subframe and front suspension, along with four-link trailing arm rear suspension. Power came from Buick V-8s of either 3.5- or 5.0-liter capacity. The sports car business is tough and Apollo built fewer than 100 cars before folding, making them rarer than many of the Ferraris, Jaguars, and Aston Martins they were meant to compete against. This one sold in Monterey in 2008 (with 2931 miles on the odometer) for $80,850, was a $130K no-sale on Bring a Trailer in 2021, and sold in Scottsdale three years ago for $156,800. It's expensive for the condition compared to other Apollos sold recently, but the ownership history with a company founder and its originality afford it an understandable premium.
