I hadn't noticed that for the sale Legends of the Road through Bonhams, there are few cars presented for the moment (but there is an old 1937 Bugatti that is worth a look. I'll try to present during this week). So, I take advantage of the Parisian sale of RM Sotheby's to talk about a little known German car brand (at last for me), Isdera with this prototype car Commendatore 112i :

It'll be a great opportunity to make a reminder about this German automobile manufacturer Isdera and its founder, Eberhard Schulz.

Quite an unique style, especially with the iconic periscope rear view mirror

History of Isdera Commendatore

We'll start by presenting Isdera and its founder Eberhard Schulz. Fascinating life ! In 1971, Schulz wanted to work for Porsche or Mercedes so he goes to his job interview with a car he built himself, the Erator GTE, a replica of the Ford GT40 :

Erator GTE (source : topcarrating.com)

Porsche is hiring him but Schulz wanted to design a successor to the Mercedes 300 SL. And to do it, he joined B&B GmbH (Frankfurt, Germany) to finish the protoptype Cw 311 presented during the 1978 International Motor Show at Frankfurt.

< Cool sketches of the Cw 311

In 1982, Schulz founded his company Isdera that stands for Ingenieurbüro fur Styling, DEsign und RAcing in order to create a road version of the Cw 311 : the Imperator 108i, a spyder with gullwing doors and a Mercedes 5 litre V8 engine. Only 20 examples were built between 1983 and 1991, 1 year of work for each car !

Imperator 108i (source : Wiki) >

In 1993, he presented the Isdera Commendatore 112i, tribute to Enzo Ferrari, il Commendatore with a new Mercedes motor and new chassis. Schulz wanted to participate with this car to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Only a limited production was planned with 6 months of construction for each car.

But with the economic crisis in Japan, financing dries up and the dream is coming to an end with the restructuraion of the company. The development of the car reportedly cost a total more than € 4,000,000. In 1999, the concept car is still presented during 1999 Frankfurt International Motor Show under a new name The Silver Arrow.

This unique car was sold to a Swiss collector in 2005 before being acquired by Isdera in 2016 in order to put back its 1993 specifications.

Specification

The Isdera Commendatore 112i is equipped with 6.0-litre Mercedes-Benz M120 V-12 engine (same engine of the Pagani Zonda) mated to dual overhead camshafts producing 408 hp at 5,200 rpm. As Mercedes hadn't planned a manual gearbox, Isdera installed 6-speed Getrag manual by RUF Porsche in order to reach 342 kmh (or 200 mph).

The bodywork is made of GRP (Glass-Reinforced Plastic) installed on tubular steel spaceframe chassis to be as light as possible. In order to reduce drag, Schulz installed a special windscreen wuper and the iconic periscope mirror. The drag coefficient in wind tunnel was only of 0.306.

This unique model is finished in artic silver over a Recaro blue interior (I'm not fan, a little too smurf 😀) with golden BBS wheels.

Unique 90's supercar !!! Did you know the model (maybe you did if you played Need for Speed II) ? What do you think about it ?

Sale

Model :	Isdera Commendatore 112i
Where :	RM Sotheby's Paris
When :	13 February 2021
Estimated Price :	Unknown

Sources

RM Sotheby's Paris
Lot : Isdera Commendatore 112i

Wikipedia :
Isdera Commendatore 112i

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