one of only 77 Apollo 3500 GT made, I've never even seen one before

Built at Intermeccanica in Italy for International Motors in Oakland, CA. The company was started by three fresh-out-of-college kids, who were able to convince General Motors to sell them Buick Skylark rolling chassis (try that today!), which were then modified and sent to Italy for the bodywork.

The body sits on ladder frame construction, paired with a 215 cubic inch aluminum Buick V8 engine, and finally married to the suspension setup found in the 1961 Buick Special, utilizing a four-link trailing arm suspension, with coil springs, on a live axle.

The 3.5 Liter Buick engines were mated to the super smooth Borg Warner T-10 four speed gearbox to deliver sports car performance, after being tweaked to a then-considerable 225 hp.

The company had no money for marketing and only a single dealer in Northern California. The cars, however, were actually pretty good, being favorably compared to Aston Martins and Ferraris in contemporary road tests. The company’s 15 minutes of fame occurred when a yellow Apollo was chosen as the “bad guy’s” race car in the original Herbie, The Love Bug movie.

EXCEPT, there were reported to have been seven cars that were sold off the boat directly and completed by their owners. This occurred when the company ran short of cash and needed a quick infusion. All except one of these cars were completed (five got small-block Chevy motors, one got a small-block Ford) and put on the road after being purchased. This is that car. It was reportedly sold to a sailor in the Merchant Marine, who trailered it to a small shed in a large industrial park outside of San Francisco. He started to disassemble the car in preparation to install the drivetrain, cooling system, steering, wiring harness, etc., when he apparently got a call to duty. He locked the shed and sailed off, never to be heard from again. The car remained in the locked shed where it stayed, without drivetrain, etc, from 1964 until 2004, when the industrial park came under new management. The new management company conducted an inventory, at which time the small shed was determined to have been abandoned and the lock was cut off the door. The Apollo was discovered sitting on jack stands, wheels in the corner and windows rolled up. The paint had suffered damage from the chemicals in the surrounding air, but the entire car was was just as it was left in 1964. The management company took possession of the car in payment for past rent on the building.

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2012/05/09/hemmings-find-of-the-day-1964-apollo-5000gt/