APAL

Apal was a small-scale car company based in Blegny-Trembleur, Belgium, founded by glass-fibre specialist Edmund Pery in 1961. Between 1968 and 1973, about 5,000 glass-fibre bodies were produced for different models of buggies and sports cars, all propelled by VW/Porsche air-cooled engines.

In 1981 Apal started building a 356 Speedster replica, built on a VW Beetle floorplan, under licence from Intermeccanica in Canada.

The Apal Speedster was launched at the 1981 Frankfurt Motor Show and even had approval from Ferdinand Porsche, who thought that the car on display was a restored original.

The Speedster became Apal’s most successful model and some 700 kits and turnkey cars were sold between 1981 and 1994.

The original Belgian company closed in 1998. Apal Gmbh, a German company based in Ostercappeln, bought the rights to the Apal marque, together with all the spare parts, and restarted limited production of the Apal Speedster. As of 2006 the company stopped making cars and only sold spare parts and kits. In 2015 their website www.apal.de stopped working and it is believed that this company is no longer trading.

Marketing of Apal kits and finished cars in the UK was handled by a number of companies over the years and it is believed that around 55 have come into the UK

1981-83: Starborne – approx 3 cars/kits
Tim Dutton was the first importer of Apals to the UK under the Starborne banner.

1985-88: TPC – around 20 cars/kits
In the mid 80s the Apal Speedster was marketed in the UK by TPC of Stratford-upon-Avon run by John Finchman.

1992-93: Speedsters of Tunbridge Wells – approx 12 cars/kits
Paul Woodward test drove a TPC Speedster and liked it, took over the marketing of the Apal Speedster in 1992 with his wife Sandie Woodward and sold 12 cars. Paul Hinchcliffe and Jack