Forgotten movie cars - Apollo GT alias Thorndyke Special
11/05/2013
Many people have seen the movie " The Love Bug" from 1968. And, of course, almost everyone remembers Herbie, the great VW Beetle, who can hold his own against far more powerful and race-ready sports cars in the tough American racing circuit.
But hardly anyone can remember the most important opponent Herbie faces. In the movie, the car is called the Thorndyke Special, but in reality it was an Apollo 3500 GT.
These fast two-seaters were manufactured in Oakland (California) between 1962 and 1964. Intermeccanica manufactured the aluminum bodies in Turin, and V8 engines and other technical components from Buick were then installed in the USA. The conventional chassis consisted of longitudinal and cross members. The body design came from Ron Plescia, an American, but before series production began, Bertone's Franco Scaglione revised the shape. 42 vehicles are said to have been built between 1962 and 1965, with a few more added later. Naturally, the Apollo GT remains a rarity to this day.
In the Disney film "A Great Beetle", the Apollo appeared in yellow paintwork with a dark longitudinal stripe and ultimately stood no chance against the great Beetle. In reality, however, it did quite well. Road & Track magazine drove an early Apollo GT in 1963 and ran the headline "One more for the road than the track". 104 miles per hour (or 167.3 km/h) was the speed of the 200 hp Apollo (with too short a gear ratio) in the 1963 RT test, and it completed the sprint from 0 to 96 km/h in 8.4 seconds.
