Roland Gumpert founded Gumpert Sportwagenmanufaktur in Altenburg, Thuringia in 2004 using Audi Sport Group support and a turbocharged 4163cc twin-turbo Audi V8 engine producing between 530 and 700 horsepower depending on specification. The Apollo's carbon-fibre body over an aluminium spaceframe was designed to generate sufficient downforce at speed to theoretically drive inverted through a tunnel, and in 2009 the Apollo set a Nürburgring Nordschleife production-car lap record of 7:11.57. Heritage Icons renders the Apollo in the overhead plan view — the only angle from which its full aero intent is legible: the rear wing at maximum height, the front splitter width, the engine visible through polycarbonate panels, and the sheer breadth that marks a car designed by a motorsport engineer rather than a stylist.