Gumpert Apollo #31: King of the Ring

Every now and then, a car comes along that needs very little introduction. The Gumpert Apollo is one of them.

Long before hybrid hypercars and active aerodynamics became commonplace, Roland Gumpert built a road car with a singular purpose: to be as fast around a circuit as possible. Comfort, practicality and elegance were never part of the brief. The Apollo was engineered around performance, and in 2009 that philosophy paid off when chassis #31 lapped the Nürburgring Nordschleife in 7:11.57, setting a new production car record.

The opportunity to photograph that very car came courtesy of its owner, Michael Rausch, whose enthusiasm for the Apollo is as infectious as it is genuine. Rather than keeping such an important piece of automotive history hidden away, Michael enjoys sharing it with fellow enthusiasts and preserving its story for future generations. If you don’t already follow him, you’ll find him on Instagram as @iamrausch.

Whenever I photograph a significant car, I try to forget the numbers for a while. Horsepower, lap times and auction values are interesting, but they rarely make a photograph memorable. What matters is whether you can capture the personality of the machine.

The Apollo has plenty of that.

Seen in daylight, it’s an uncompromising design. The huge rear wing, deep front splitter and exposed carbon fibre leave no doubt about its intentions. Nothing has been softened to make it more attractive or more commercially appealing. Every vent, every surface and every angle exists because someone believed it would make the car faster around the Nordschleife.

Working in darkness changes the way you see those details. Instead of taking in the whole car at once, you discover it gradually as the light moves across the bodywork. The reflections become part of the composition, revealing one line while hiding another. It forces you to slow down, and in doing so you begin to appreciate just how purposeful the design really is.

What struck me most during the shoot was how little the Apollo has aged. More than twenty years after its introduction, it still looks unconventional. In an era where many modern hypercars are becoming increasingly digital and refined, the Apollo remains unapologetically mechanical. You can almost understand the car simply by looking at it.

Knowing that this was the Nürburgring record car certainly added something to the evening. Every photographer enjoys working with historically significant subjects, and chassis #31 has earned its place among them. It represents a moment when a relatively small German manufacturer proved that determination and engineering could compete with companies many times its size.

It’s easy to focus on the record itself, but records are temporary. What endures is the car, the story behind it, and the people who keep that story alive. I’m grateful to Michael for trusting me with the opportunity to create these images, and I hope they do justice to one of the most remarkable performance cars ever built.