The American Ferrari: Apollo GT | Jay Leno's Garage 

I love when people bring a bit of back story to the comments, this car is amazing. Thanks for sharing!

For the Era this car was built it's a very sporty car that apparently may have been pretty expensive but, apparently became somewhat popular

And Kurt's dad would have had a right to be proud that his car was being shown on Jay's show

And it's great that Kurt has kept the car up and running

Kurt has earned any praise he gets for keeping his dad's dream alive

The "Thorndyke Special". Loved that car!

Thanks I knew I recognized this

Elvis's 'Spinout' is another like that.

Thanks, all the way through the programme I was trying to remember where I had see it before. I loved that movie for all the cars although I never had much time for VW Beatles.English actor David Tomlinson played Thorndyke and he also played the father in Mary Poppins.

My favorite all time movie

After seeing this video and story, he seems like a great man to meet.

To see a man in his twenties speak with the maturity, eloquence and gratitude for the virtues of another, as you have, is in itself an inspiration. This is the first I've heard of Milt Brown and his vehicle, and from what I'm seeing in Leno's video and in the comments such as your own, his is a story that should be far more widely known and looked towards as a life to exemplify, at the least in spirit if not in kind.

Thanks for your input. Nice background info to have👍

@@ironymatt Thank you for the reply! Videos like this only make me cherish and value his humility and comfort in life’s simplicities even more. One of his favorite places to go to this day remains In-N-Out burger, and I think this small detail really completes the image as to the kind of man Milt Brown is; grounded, down to earth, relatable. Despite all of his accomplishments, he doesn’t gloat or exude an air of arrogance in the slightest. Truly a very special man, and I’m so happy his work is being recognized even decades later.

SORT OF LIKE THE CUNNINGHAM!...

It always amazes me when I hear about someone who owns and drives an unusual, rare, special car like an Apollo and then wonders why they get so much attention. Now assuming you're not racing the driver, cutting them off, tailgating them, yelling at them or other obnoxious behavior...and you weren't so what's the problem? Sir, you bought one of 88 cars ever built. You're going to get attention! I'm glad to hear they offered you a ride. And no...nobody owes anybody anything except just basic respect. There's a lot of grey area between being annoyed and testy with everyone who shows interest in your unique car and feeling obligated to stop and give everyone a ride every time.

Mr. Thorndyke Special! It was yellow with black stripes! Hahahahaha

Conan would disagree

@@dantesiege Lol!

@@dantesiege facts xD but hey we all tussle once you bring somebodies money into the equation you need to be prepared for all business no games.

I heard he kicks small animals...

And sometimes he is funny.😂

Kurt really came across as a nice guy. I'm not at all surprised to read that nice story about the kids in the car. Thanks for sharing.

Mine too, I can't think of too many that I would love to sit down with and talk to, but Jay would be great to hang out with!

Proper blue collar extraction.

@@GT380man what do you mean?

He should have had kids to pass on the legacy.

You're right, the inspiration couldn't be clearer, especially with those Borrani style wheels but there is a big miss in my opinion that separate a good GT of this era from a racy sports car....: V12 engine

That’s exactly what I’m seeing. Greatest hits

There was also a red one used in that movie too

@@CarCrazy12804 The red one you're thinking of was actually in the third film. Herbie goes to Monte Carlo. Used in the Qualifying races shot on location at Laguna Seca Raceway. That one was one of the Apollo 5000 GT's and was fitted with Side pipes. It's still around today , but without the side pipes. It's got two little circular panels welded over where the pipes used to come out of the body.

talk about having a hot dad and a hot mom!

Exactly !

More 275 than Daytona

I would have to agree. It's a timeless design.

I'd say 275 GTB much more than a Daytona. Plus the hood scoop from a 250 SWB.

I dont know if Dean was actually a car guy...but I remember sitting in my parents car at the drive in thinking "That's how to be a car guy". The movie was back in theaters after a 7 years. 1975. I was 8.

@@nascargas I was 7 when The Love Bug came out in 1968. I grew up in SoCal - so there were VW's and especially VW Bugs everywhere. On the way to the drive in me, my older brother, and younger sister all made a game over who could spot the most VW Bugs on the way to the movie. Good times. Until now I didn't know that the yellow Thorndyke Special sports car on the showroom floor in the movie was actually an Apollo GT.

@@Thomas63r2 today's kids still keep an eye out for Bugs. They still play slug bug. They arnt as ubiquitous today as they were back then...even with the new version. But they persist in the lexicon at least. I knew the Apollo was the Thorndyke only after watching the film on DVD with my kids years ago. That flash in the pan car thing I had as a child evolved into a fully raging love of automobiles as an adult. What with the internet I was able to Sherlock Holmes the identity of the car fairly quickly.

@@Thomas63r2 Us kids did the same going to the Falmouth (Cape Cod) drive-in in '68 too in mom's '67 Mustang, at night it was looking for one head light out cars, "Pedittel!"

They murdered an e type for that film

Yes! That's how most folks recognize it

You restored that thing in less than one year? That's making good time.

@@jiveturkey9993 the car was in exceptional shape, it was literally a new car that had been stored for decades. That said the paint was coming off in sheets, and it had suffered some pretty serious damage to the left fender behind the wheel as a result of poor planning when the car was being loaded for transport from California to Moscow, TN. where my shop is located. Several deviations from original were made principally in the drivetrain, wiring, and climate control. As I posted above we installed a hot 327 and four speed, and I eventually replaced the diff with a 9 inch Ford with 2.75 gears making it much more comfortable to drive. The wiring was sketchy as some attempt to complete the car had been made to install an engine and the wiring had been cut and spliced in several areas. In the interest of reliability and safety we installed a Ron Francis Wiring Works harness, but I left the original fuse box under the hood and arranged the wiring to make it look like it was still operational. My customer was big on driving his cars and the Memphis summers can be brutal so we installed a Vintage Air climate control system. Many of the time consuming issues that are commonly encountered with a restoration were not present on this car. There was absolutely no rust whatsoever, and apart from the transportation shipping damage the body was straight. Now that’s in the realm of hand built car straight, not custom paint straight, but the bodywork was straightforward. The interior was simply cleaned and reinstalled. We “finished” the car a day before it was to go on an enclosed transport to the Concourso. I called my customer and told him that it will start, move under its own power, and it will stop, but it’s full of gremlins, and he was to only drive it from the transport to the show field. When it returned to us we spent a few months working the bugs out, there were serious bumpsteer issues with the front suspension, and there were overheating issues with the car even though I had had a high capacity custom radiator built and equipped it with a tight fitting shroud. The bumpsteer issue was the result of the car never being completed at the “factory”. There was a modification made by Apollo that changed the steering gear angles and created the issue. The fix was as simple as moving the outer tie rods from the bottom of the spindle steering arms to the top. This was done on the cars that were completed and sold but never done on this car. The overheating issue was caused by the small grille opening and lack of baffling in the engine bay. I taped tufts off yarn around the engine bay and lowered the hood as much as possible and discovered that the hot air coming out of the shroud was being pulled over the radiator and back through it. Kind of hard to cool an engine with 200° air! Once panels were built to seal the radiator to the grille opening the car never ran over 175°. You could drop a rag six inches in front of the grille at idle and it would get sucked against the radiator. I could go on and on. It’s an interesting car, Google 327 Chevy powered Apollo if you would like to see pics.

@@Tonysopranoyafinook off topic but thanks to my kids I'm positive Elf is the greatest Christmas movie in the history of film.

@@robertwooley2592 Thanks for the thorough explanation about the car and your process of restoring it. It was really interesting. I checked out the car on google and it looks really nice!

Agree ... I see the E-type influence as well.

Nice to see another person who knows about the AC 428!

Did the 240Z take any cues?

@Martin Cool, I was wondering if anyone else thought the same thing.....

AC428 Frua/Maserati Mistrale? Can’t really see that, the Frua bodies appear much more slab sided to my old eyes… but it is an amalgam of so many early/mid 1960s European grand tourer styling cues. From the Ferrari like front to almost an early 911 rump. Such a pretty, well proportioned plaything. Lucky devils!

I don't know how they all missed pointin' that out.

@@BubbaSmurft Yeah I was hoping to hear that fact put in. Cause you can't be a car/movie nerd an not at least have heard about Herbie and the Love Bug franchise. And for a lot of car guys that was how we first heard it saw some of these cars. Especially if you didn't grow up in California.

as a european, I heard about these thanks to CCSC magazine from the UK, they had a whole article on the apollo GT and the Intermeccanica, both basically US homegrown creations that rivalled the poise and stature of europe's finest at the time. IMHO these cars are awesome since they aren't hybrids (euro bodies, american engine) but pure US cars, which shows that petrolheads with ambition could come up with some awesome things that weren't just straight line pullers. sidenote here: that buick engine ended up being europe's most famous V8 in the hands of Rover xD

@@TheChill001 I did not know that.

@@stephencivic1989 for some odd reason I just read that in Johnny Carson's voice.....😳

The "celebrated" Thorndike Special. Lol

you know what? thats where i saw one of these before! you have a good eye and a great memory. i wonder if they used it cause nobody knew what it was and they could call it what ever they wanted.

@@perry92964 the movie came out in 1968.... was kinda fresh in the market at the time, you just had to be knowledgeable on makes and models at the time since it was never mentioned in the movie as an apollo.... just the Thorndike special that was in yellow with black stripe down the middle. It looked stunning to be honest.

Do you remember ever seeing Disney's The Love Bug from 1968? The "bad guy" who owned a tony high end car dealer in San Francisco owned an Apollo...but for the movie it was called The Thorndyke Special. This was the very first Herbie movie. Not the Lindsey Lohan picture.

You are correct. They made it into all sorts of British stuff.

MGB v8 had a Rover v8

Dark blue would be sharp.

Same with me !!!

YES!!!! I searched the comments to see if anyone else recognized the car. Well done Mike!

The scenes with Thorndyke and Havershaw were hilarious. The original Love Bug was a great movie.

@@michaelconverse5127 It really really was

I am in. I just finished re-reading my copy of "The John Britten Story" by Felicity Price. Amazing vision and engineering.

My friend, I speak from Brazil, can you tell me where I can buy one book about? Also Dare to Dream, John Britten Biography. Thank´s, Cheers.