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The new Apollo Intensa Emozione elevates four-wheel exotica.

By Max Prince

Apollo Intensa Emozione Hypercar — (Photo: Apollo Automobil)

There are sports cars, and, above them, supercars. But there’s nothing above a hypercar. These ludicrously fast, bespoke gems from boutique brands such as Pagani and Koenigsegg, represent the hottest trend in automotive exotica. Into this rarified segment rolls the new Apollo Intensa Emozione, a handmade Italian thriller that brings cottage-industry vibes to the bleeding edge of modern high-performance driving.

That starts with the chassis. It’s hewn entirely from carbon fiber, the same lightweight material used in NASA gliders, and built small-batch by composites guru Paolo Garella. The engine, an operatic 6.3-liter V12, receives similar treatment; Autotecnica Motori, the premier tuner in Italy, uses custom parts to deliver an astounding 780 horsepower and 560 pound-feet of torque, plus a screaming 9000-rpm redline. The minimalist interior brings fighter-jet chic, complete with made-to-measure bucket seats, molded to fit each individual buyer. But the really shocking stuff is on the outside.

Penned by Joe Wang, a former McLaren designer, the Intensa Emozione looks downright radical. The exterior focal point is a teardrop-shaped greenhouse with dramatic, upward-opening doors. The intricate network of aerodynamic scoops and vents recalls a Le Mans race car; the buttressed rear wing is so effective above 180 mph, it generates downforce greater than the vehicle’s total weight. Meaning that, at high speed, the Apollo could actually drive upside down and stick to the ceiling.

Production of the Intensa Emozione is limited to 10 units, with customer delivery beginning in 2018. Consider this one of the most desirable machines ever created, a singular convergence of art and science, exemplary of the breed. Because anything less is just a car.

Apollo Intensa Emozione
0–60 mph: 2.7 seconds
Top speed: 208 mph
Price: $2.7m
apollo-automobil.com

The fastest Ford ever built is commemorated with two new watch series.

By Jonathan Schultz

Bradley Price knows the Ford GT supercar in a way that only its builders—and the occasional “friend of the brand”—are allowed to. “I saw prototypes taken apart,” Price, 37, recalls of his visit to Ford’s performance skunk works in Dearborn, Michigan. “I got to see them on a lift. Those sights really stuck with me.”

Not long after the Ford GT blindsided the world’s pleasure receptors in 2015, its maker began scheming on a commemorative wristwatch. The GT nameplate evokes Le Mans, France, where, in 1966, Ford’s GT40 embarked on a historic run of Ferrari-stomping in the French countryside. The new GT, a 647-horsepower, $400,000, hand-built missile limited to just 1,000 examples, would seem commemoration enough, but Ford thought otherwise.

“They reached out to me,” Price says. Surveying his Autodromo brand from its home in Brooklyn, it’s not hard to see why. Autodromo chronographs are steeped in motorsport without stooping to boy-racer clichés like faux-carbon fiber or italicized, blocky type. It also helped that Chris Svensson, now Ford’s global head of design, was a fan.

“He actually wore the prototype of the red-and-white watch, the ’67 Heritage, last summer when they unveiled that colorway of the car,” Price says of his patron.

The LM 2016 Dial is inspired by the class-winning Ford GT that ran at the 2016 Le Mans 24 Hours. It’s even emblazoned with the winning car’s racing number: 68.

The Autodromo Ford GT Endurance series consists of five color and graphics treatments, each intended to evoke not only the GT40s of old, but also the hypermodern GTs. “It’s all about the continuation of the sixties through today,” Price says. “This watch is really about telling that story.” And at $695, it’s a relatively accessible yarn.

But another, more exclusive chapter is baking: a line of Owner’s Edition chronographs limited to buyers of the car. Price is not revealing numbers, though he demurs that they will cost “significantly more.”

“The hour and minute hands are sapphire crystal,” he says of the Owner’s Editions. “When I tell people in Switzerland, they’re like, ‘What?! That’s bold.’”

Purchasers of $400,000 supercars would have it no other way.

Category: CARS

Moon Shot

Time, Accelerated