Isdera a forgotten German supercar manufacturer

 A German Supercar few would know ever existed

The Automotive industry in the 80’s and early 90’s witnessed the arrival of many small supercar, sports car and other exotic cars as well. This one car company that was founded in Germany is truly unique. Most people do not associate Germany to be the first country to have founded a supercar. The company is called Isdera, a small engineering company, Ingenieurbüro für Styling, Design und Racing ( in English Engineering office for styling, design and racing) in short Isdera. 

Eberhard Schulz

The story behind the company 

Isdera was founded by Eberhard Schulz, the company still remains known by very few people despite having been started in 1982. The origin of the company starts early in 1966 when Eberhard Schulz decided to build his own sports car to have as a reference while looking for jobs as he had dropped out of mechanical engineering. The design reference for him at the time was a Ford GT40. He built the tubular space frame at his own driveway and in order to make the car road legal he had to register it to a company. Hence he started the company Ednilreg Automobil Styling und Prototypenbau” (Automotive Styling and Prototype-development”). The car to be built was called Project 004. Eberhard Schulz built the car with a welded steel space-frame, with a glass-fibre body glued onto it. The engine initially was out of a Volkswagen 1600LE, a flat engine, that sent this 756 kg car to a top speed of 175 Kph. He later performed a surgery and now the car had a new heart, a Mercedes Benz M117 derived racing V8, the car was now 100 mm wider and the dry sump system allowed the car to be lower by 20 mm. The car now weighing 960 kg could launch from a stand still to 60 mph in 4 seconds and could hit a top speed of 315 kph. The car was eventually renamed  Erator GTE Mark 3, and Eberhard Schulz drove it to Porsche and Mercedes Benz in search of a job. He was later hired by Porsche and worked in the concept-department. 

Erator GTE Mark 3

Start of creating cars that would create history 

Whilst working at Porsche Schulz found the free time to build what he envisioned as a successor to the 300sl Gullwing. Along with the owner of the tuning company bb Auto Exclusive Service KG they started development from the year 1972, the car had a space-frame with fibreglass body panels glued to the frame. The car was developed under the brand b&b for Mercedes Benz in 1978, called the CW311 named after the cars low drag coefficient of just 0,311. 

The CW311 was fitted with a V8 known as M100 it was a 6.8L V8 that had been reworked by AMG. The large powerhouse was mounted right behind the seats with the exhaust pipes exiting from the right side. The engine produced 370hp and according to Schulz it was good enough to send the car to 320 kph. The first prototype had a lowering front nose while driving to allow more air flow into the radiators; the car went to the extent of adding headlight lens covers that had to be manually removed in order to use the headlights. In 1978 the car was presented in a pearl white paint job and had a lot of positive response. In 1979 the car was transported to the Salzburgring in Austria where it was tested for high speed handling by the F1 driving legend Nikki Lauda. The car would remain a study making only another public appearance in the movie “Car-napping” a 1980 comedy movie. 

Then onwards 

As the car was never officially a Mercedes it was surprising to see the car wear the star on  the front  grill. It was perhaps allowed by Mercedes seeing the positive response the car got, otherwise it was a product of Eberhard Schulz and Rainer Buchmann under the company B&B. 

Schulz would often tell car magazines that he wanted his cars to look like a classic car but be modern, and he also said that, "My design had to beat all common sports car brands in terms of performance. It should look like a Mercedes, even if there wasn't a famous star on the vehicle. Yes, it had to look like a Mercedes, even if it didn't come from the factory", Emphasises Schulz. 

B&B went bankrupt in 1982 and it would be the same year that Schulz founded the company we now know as Isdera. 

Overview of all the models 

The first car manufactured under Isdera was the Isdera Spyder 033i in 1983, the car had the same chassis construction, but it is believed that the first Spyder concept had a modified VW Golf GTI engine. The customer cars were fitted with a 16 valve in-line four cylinder engine from Mercedes Benz putting out 182hp , the car definitely carried a lot of Mercedes design elements such as the SEL tail lamps and the same low slung grill similar to the CW311 was present here as well.  Later on in 1987 it was upgraded with a 3L Mercedes inline-six cylinder engine producing 185hp and was introduced with fuel injection. The Spyder with the 4 cylinder engine is called 033i and the six cylinder version is called 036i. The Spyder would receive one final revision in 1991 with 24 valves delivering 220hp. 

The Spyder was a bizarre car with an aerodynamic body that had a short front overhang and a long rear half with doors but no roof or windshield, with the driver being made to sit at almost the tip of the car. Schulz designed this car with the intention of making it feel more like a motorbike rather than a car, only 17 samples were ever made and the starting prices are unknown. 

The Isdera Imperator 108i launched in 1984was initially presumed to be the same old car with a minor list of changes, but they would be wrong. This was intended to be manufactured and sold in higher numbers when compared to the Spyder. The 108i had grown 120mm in length, 55mm in width and 25mm higher as well. The wheelbase was now 80mm longer in order to allow for a bigger engine and more cabin space. The design changes also came with a revised front end, the old popup headlights were out and in its place were fixed headlights with a lens cover. The car was offered with 2 V8 options. The prototype had a 5L V8 putting out 235 hp and 565 nm torque sending the car from a stand still to 60 mph in 6.8 seconds and a top speed on 262 kmh. 

The road cars had either a regular Mercedes V8 or the upgraded version which had a tuned AMG V8.  The Isdera’s fitted with BoschKE-Jetronic  fuel injected 6L AMG V8 could reach speeds of 308 Kph, with a power output of 415 hp and 540 nm torque. The Isdera had a 5 speed ZF manual transmission.

 

The Imperator was produced in two series, the first series consisted of roughly 17 cars and almost half of those cars were optioned with more powerful AMG engines, as the standard engine option never did justice to its supercar looks. However the Imperator was positioned more as a grand tourer with a plush interior, high end sound systems, air-conditioning, and two luggage compartments. The car also had ABS as an option, an in-car phone, and a limited slip differential. 

Between the 2 series there was a small gap, during this gap there was a special Isdera Imperator EVO 1, which had all the updates that were coming up with the series 2 cars. One customer even had a car built with all the demands to meet the FIA-2 championship regulations. 

In 1992 the first Imperator Series 2 left Isdera’s workshop with some significant changes, both aesthetically and mechanically. Changes such as new mountings for the suspension, new exhaust system with side pipes, and the CW311 like pop-up headlights made a comeback, and the car also got conventional side mirrors. The car was launched in 1992 but got additional changes in 1993 when they added bigger brakes, a bigger fuel tank and engine options were now reduced to two Mercedes V8’s. Isdera sold 13 “Series 2” Imperators, raising the overall number to 30 cars. The relatively higher number lead to this being considered a ‘mass production car’ according to Isdera. 

The V12 with a six speed manual 

The car that got my interest to learn more about the company was the Isdera Commendatore 112i. This was a car that Isdera had under development for 6 years and was presented in 1993. The 12i in the name refers to the fuel injected Mercedes-Benz V12, the gearbox was a Getrag six speed manual taken from a porsche 911 Turbo. The 6 V12 was sourced from a S600 the same engine found in the Pagani Zonda S. The car could achieve 100 Kph in 4 seconds and hit a top speed of 340 kph. The second engine option was a 6.9L V12 which made 620hp and allowed a cool top speed of 370 kph. What made this a true spectacle was the way the car looked. The car had gullwing doors not just to get into the car, the engine bay was also split in the middle and was opened using a Gullwing door. Schulz was a true fan of the Gullwing doors and the tubular chassis which helped lower the car by 76 mm at high speeds. The active suspensions and an electronically controlled rear deflector which helped increase the braking effectiveness. On the prototype the rear-view mirror is a periscope like the Imperator 108i that preceded it. 

It was planned as a limited series but shortly after, like many small engineering companies Isdera went bankrupt. A wealthy swiss investor bought the company allowing for a road worth 112i which arrived in 1999 with side rearview mirrors and the gold BBS rims were swapped for silver Mercedes rims. The car did not have any Isdera badges, instead it had a 3 pointed star on the front. The car also had odd round headlights borrowed from a porsche 968 that would pop-up 4-piston brakes from Brembo. This took care of deceleration along with a wing that acted as an airbrake moving up to an angle of 80 degrees. The car weighed just 1,750 kg. Isdera claimed that the car still had an ergonomic interior with a luggage compartment that held up to 200 L. There is no evidence as to how many prototypes  were built and the best part is that there is no indication of Isdera ever really “retiring” the car meaning that one could still order a 90’s supercar hand built hypercar.  

(Top prototype, Bottom Road car)

Currently Isdera is focused on providing servicing and repairs to their customers from all over the world while working on a new development called the “Twin Cycle”, Which has been released in 2016 as a concept.

The Isdera 116i

The Isdera 116i has a V16 derived from combining Two V8's from a Mercedes W126 S-class. The body is based on an old Mercedes Benz 500k.