Anybody ever heard of this Italian car with Buick eng?

https://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/cto/d/1967-intermeccanica-vetta/6399485998.html

 

I know of a Buick car with an Italian in it lol

 

That is one sweet ride!

 

There was a thread on the board a couple of months ago about this car. Someone was looking for an Apollo, which is the name of this car. Evidently it’s not only real, it’s quite rare.

 

Prior to Intermeccanica taking over production, it was called "Apollo" & there were 2 versions 1 was the 3500 GT, based on the 215 Buick Aluminum engine & the later 5000 GT that was based on the 300 engine.
Someone here on the board located 1 a few years ago & I couldn't come up with the $$$ to pick the car up in California.
Italian Construction, American Design & power. (I believe it proceeded the original Cobra by a few months)
Unfortunately, Financial problems came to be & if I remember correctly, less than 200 were manufactured, of which I believe 5 were convertibles & the balance GT cars like the 1 in the ad.
Road & Track & I believe Car & Driver did road Tests on the cars. I had a bunch of info on them & I May still have it, but it may have been lost during Harvey.
JR Wills

 

When I lived in IL. Back on the 80's I read about the Apollo. It was I believe coils on all 4 corners and it was admired for the smooth ride. Thanks for the info JR.
Devin.

 

Oh btw, it's way out of my budget. Lol

 

yeah...$142k is some real dough,,,

 

Yep. If it had an LS and some Ford suspension, it would go for about maybe $12,500, tops.

 

Looks like this would be a fun ride, but at that kind of money, who'd buy it?
I love these people who think that just because there's 4 of these things left that they can fund their retirements on it. But I can guarantee you, people probably aren't exactly banging down his door.

 

its italian baby.....theres an a$$ for it ya just gotta find it..the place for that is in europe...i bet theres money to made..even if its just a bird dog fee..

 

Doing a search of previous sales, looks like they go for 100k plus pretty regularly (well, as regularly as they come up for sale)........

 

For $142,000 can I get green the M&Ms vacuumed out of the carpet?

And what's with all the loose wires hanging out of the dash like so much spaghetti? (Or is it vermicelli ?)

 

that's how the Italians roll..

 

...or they don't.
Know what FIAT stands for? "Fix It Again, Tony!" If Lucas is the Prince of Darkness, then an Italian electrical system must be the king. It's usually kibbled together out of half a dozen different manufacturer's bits.

 

That's why the must expansive car ever to be sold at a auction is Italian,Ferrari close to $40 millions.The best Ford ever was Italian also.And competing in Formula 1 is Mercedes and Ferrari,one American car is there also,with a Italian motor. Japan,with Honda is trying,but they are coming up short and Toyota quit Formula 1,with Honda,they just could not compete against the Europeans.Also the quickest car made and sold to the general public is made in France,the inventor is what?Italian! The name is Bugatti,with a $1.5 million you can drive it all over. Lets stick to our Buick's and leave other country's alone,as we have had many cars that were kaput before they were sold. And Happy New Year to all.Bruno.

 

I've got all sorts of fiat experience unfortunately. the wiring is a joke

 

Was the wiring used in Fiats from Lucas co.? They had the crappiest connectors I swear, always corroding, rusting and deteriorating. What a nightmare constantly fixing electrical.


Keith

 

Yeah, they used Lucas, and Bosch, and some Chrysler and some Japanese. Depends who was having a sale and who wined and dined the engineers at that point. This is the thing; the big Italian production cars leave something to be desired. Sure, the Italians can build super-cars. But there's a good reason why they've never gained a foothold in North America with anything they've ever tried to outside of the super-cars, and that's because it's crap. They're all about the lowest bid, and I've fiddled with Maseratis and Fiats and the odd Lancia, and if it isn't rusted out and suffering from what the Germans call a "Wackelkontakt" then it's just poorly engineered in almost as an afterthought. I've seen ATE and Nippondenso stuff in there, along with some AC Delco. The problem is, it doesn't translate well, and you can see that their engineering practices aren't streamlined very well.
And no, I'm not trying to be "racist" or biased either; I have similar issues withe German cars and I've owned more than a few. Bosch electronics are the worst over-rated crap there is; they are just about as bad as Lucas. And if you look at what happened in WWII, you'll find that most English vehicles didn't start and the same argument could be made for the Germans too.
The scariest thing is when you see GM doing it, they load who knows what in their cars now, and it's starting to be the same kind of nightmare. The AC Delco stuff was pretty good, and pretty well engineered, so what happened? They sold off and broke up the company, the end result being is now GM electronics which were quite reliable are becoming an issue again. Dumb move GM...