1963 Ferrari Apollo 3500 GT Coupe
The 1963 Apollo 3500 GT Coupe is of significant historic importance, it’s the very first production Apollo that was built. It was sold new in 1963 to John R. Niven of Atherton, California. More recently it was sold by Apollo historian and marque authority Robb Northrup to Steve Shook and George Finley requiring a total restoration.
The Apollo 3500 GT is one of the most remarkable American GT cars of its age, it’s largely unknown by many due to its relative rarity, but this hand-built car showed that the Americans could design a vehicle just as capable as those from Aston Martin, Ferrari, Jaguar, and Maserati.
America has a long history of turning out interesting automotive entrepreneurs – men like Preston Tucker with his Tucker 48, John DeLorean with his DMC-12, Carroll Shelby with his Shelby Cobra, and Milt Brown with his Apollo 3500 GT.
In the early 1960s it was the Europeans who led the world when it came to the design and construction of sporting GT cars. The Americans had built a number of excellent gran turismos of their own of course, including those rare examples built by the likes of Briggs Cunningham in the 1950s, but it was generally accepted that if you wanted a modern GT car you’d likely be buying something from Britain, Italy, or Germany.
