SHOOTING THE MOON; Italian-bodied Apollos couldn't fly, but they were still pretty cool.(Revs)

Byline: LARRY EDSALL

Three guys, just a year or so out of college-a business major, an engineer and a designer. A party, and conversation that begets an idea: "Let's create our own car, a European-style sports car but with a dependable, American V8 engine.''

This wasn't just party talk. Before long there would be a sketch and a clay model, a prototype, and a three-year production run spanning nearly 90 cars, their bodies built in Italy then shipped to California for insertion of the American powertrain.

And then it was over. The cars were well crafted, highly praised by auto magazines and owners-some big-name entertainers among them. Yet the three young partners could not find the financial backing needed to sustain the business.

"This wasn't the go-go '90s but the no-go '60s,'' said Ned Davis at the Concorso Italiano, where business major Davis, engineer Milt Brown and designer Ron Plescia got together for the first time in more than 40 years as part of an Apollo reunion that not only attracted several of the cars, but Paula Reisner, widow of Frank Reisner, whose Italian coachbuilding company Intermeccanica fashioned the Apollo bodies.

Davis and Brown had gone to high school together, then met up again later at the party where the idea for the Apollo was hatched.

Brown created the Apache Formula Junior when he was in college. After, he moved to England, and while in Europe met Reisner, who also had built Formula Junior racers.