Apal
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Phase 1 -APAL - s.à.r.l. Application Polyester Armé de Liège (1961-1998)
Glass-fibre specialist Edmond Pery founded this small automobile manufacturing company in Blégny-Trembleur (Liège), Belgium in 1961. Pery presented his first model, a GT coupe with gull-wing doors, propelled by Volkswagen or Porsche engines at the Salon de BRUXELLES in 1962. In 1965, Apal started producing a Formule V single-seater. Between 1968 and 1973, about 5000 glass-fibre bodies were produced for different buggy models such as Apal Buggy, Apal Rancho, Apal Jet, Apal Avvi, Apal Corsa (having gull-wing doors) and Apal Horizon. The most successful model was named Apal Speedster. It is a replica of the Porsche 356 model, built on a VW Beetle floorplan. Altogether 700 were completed between 1981 and 1994. The last model, named Apal Sport One, based on Pontiac Fiero, appeared in 1992. Edmond Pery also designed an all-road prototype for DAF in 1974 and another prototype for Volkswagen in 1992. The small firm produced and sold all models in limited numbers.
Phase 2 - Apal Gmbh, Germany (1998- to date)
The original Belgian company went down in 1998. Apal Gmbh, a German company of Ostercappeln, bought all the spare parts and restarted production of the Apal Speedster. As of 2006 the company has stopped production of ready-built cars and now only sells kits and spare parts.