By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

Even discounting the hardware in the Giovanna Wheels booth—which was so dark I couldn’t get decent shots of anything—there were plenty of killer exotics at SEMA this year. As you can imagine, a car has to be pretty special to get attention here, because while a stock Lambo or Ferrari might turn tons of heads on the street, in this sea of insane customization, a machine has to be pretty special to stand out—regardless of its pedigree. All of these machines jumped out at me, but only one of them can win the exotics category. So what should it be, Pagani’s Zonda R, Gumpert’s Apollo, Devon’s GTX, Underground Racing’s twin-turbo Gallardo or Lexus’ LF-A? Vote now!

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[polldaddy poll="2263559"]

By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

Basically, Gumpert’s Apollo is a race car for the road. It sports a round-tube, chrome-moly chassis, a carbon monocoque, and a 650HP twin-turbo Audi-derived V8 mated to an F1-derived, sequential six-speed transmission. That’s a recipe for incredible performance, and back in August, it set the production car record at the Nürburgring, when it lapped the notoriously difficult course in a blistering 7:11:57. So I figured one of these babies would have been been placed a little more prominently. Hell, I missed it the first few times I walked through the main hall! But while I was disappointed to see that it was shoe-horned into this tiny little space—no room for a walk-around video, I’m afraid—I was still pumped to get to see one in person. More pics after the jump.

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