Apollo IE at the Marconi Automotive Museum with Ing. Paolo Garella
Photo by Dave Cox shootingdave
A truly exciting encounter at the Marconi Automotive Museum: Ing. Garella, founder and CEO of M.A.T., had the pleasure of presenting the Apollo IE, the hypercar whose first two prototypes were entirely developed by Manifattura Automobili Torino, recounting live the development of a unique project in the global supercar landscape.
The Apollo IE project
The Marconi Automotive Museum houses some of the rarest one-off creations in the world, including several masterpieces built for the Royal Family of Brunei. Behind these projects is the signature of Ing. Garella, at the time Manager of the Special Projects division at Pininfarina, where he supervised the design, development, and production of one-of-a-kind vehicles.
Today, thirty years later, Ing. Garella visited the museum for a moment of rare intensity: presenting and talking about the Apollo IE, the hypercar whose first two prototypes were entirely developed by Manifattura Automobili Torino, within the context of a collection that tells the story of automotive excellence across decades.
Speaking about the Apollo IE project, Ing. Garella says:
“Project has been a true challenge. We haven’t built specifically this car, but we have done all the development, the mold. We have done all what you see has been engineered, has been refined in M.A.T.”
A project developed in record time
The Apollo IE project entrusted to M.A.T. by Apollo Automobil GmbH had a precise objective: to combine the sensations of a GT with the technology of a race car. The challenge, however, went far beyond performance: M.A.T. carried out the entire development of the first two prototypes in just nine months, handling design, molds, engineering, and the construction of everything visible on the vehicle.
M.A.T. managed a continuous development process between designers, engineers, and builders, an integrated approach that M.A.T. has always pursued and which, in the case of the Apollo IE, found its highest expression.
- BODY Carbon fiber monocoque
- ACCELERATION 0–100 KM/H 2.7 seconds
- ENGINE Rear V12
- TRANSMISSION Yuland (M.A.T. development)
- PROTOTYPES DEVELOPED BY M.A.T. 2
- DEVELOPMENT TIME 9 months
The steering wheel that tells everything: carbon, titanium, and 3D printing
Among the most significant technical elements of the Apollo IE stands out the steering wheel, which Ing. Garella describes as a tangible synthesis of the entire project philosophy. An object that can be removed from the cockpit and placed on a desk, containing within it all the technologies present in the vehicle: carbon fiber, 3D-printed titanium, and integrated electronics.
“The steering wheel is something you can remove and place on your desk. Inside it there are all the technologies present in the vehicle: carbon fiber, 3D-printed titanium, electronics. It represents the car.”
A new aesthetic of carbon fiber
Another crucial challenge in the Apollo IE concerns the texture of carbon fiber. For this project, M.A.T. developed a specific weave of the material with the goal of achieving visible surfaces of quality comparable to that of a steel body, a result that at the time required in-depth research and unprecedented solutions.
“The Apollo IE, in the management of carbon fiber combined with this extraordinary design, has probably represented the peak of everything we have done at M.A.T.”
As Ing. Garella himself explains, looking at the cars from the 1990s housed in the museum is indicative and enlightening: thirty years ago achieving that surface perfection in carbon fiber was an enormous challenge, requiring continuous research and solutions. Today the goal has shifted: the perfect surface is taken for granted and the new frontier is creating a unique and distinctive visual weave.
Each project a bespoke one-off
From the one-offs for the royal family of Brunei to the Apollo IE, Ing. Garella has consistently pursued an idea of the automobile as a total work of engineering: every component designed with absolute precision, every material chosen for technical reasons and not only aesthetic ones.
The M.A.T. team does not produce cars in series, but builds experiences: bespoke projects, commissioned by clients and brands seeking Italian excellence in its most authentic form.