Isdera Commendatore 112i
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The Isdera Commendatore 112i is a
concept car A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle or show vehicle) is a car made to showcase new styling or new technology. Concept cars are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or may not ...
conceived and developed by the German low-volume automobile manufacturer
Isdera Isdera or ''Ingenieurbüro für Styling, Design und Racing'' (English: Engineering Company for Styling, Design and Racing) is an exclusive small-series car builder and automotive service provider. The company was founded and formerly based in Leon ...
. Introduced at the 1993 Frankfurt Motor Show, the 112i featured a compact and sleek aerodynamic body. It was intended to be the successor to the Imperator 108i, but due to financial constraints, the company went bankrupt, and only one prototype was completed.


History and development

After the Imperator 108i had ended production in 1993, Isdera was working on the development of a new model. In 1989, the first clay models took shape and development work was carried out through 1993. The new car, called the Commendatore 112i, was named in honour of
Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello. Founded in 1939 by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988), the company built Auto Avio Costruzioni 815, its first car in 1940, adopted its current name in 1945, and be ...
's founder
Enzo Ferrari Enzo Anselmo Giuseppe Maria Ferrari (; ; 18 February 1898 – 14 August 1988) was an Italian racing driver and entrepreneur, the founder of Scuderia Ferrari in Grand Prix motor racing, and subsequently of the Ferrari automobile marque. Under h ...
, who was awarded the title ''Commendatore II''. Commendatore means ''Knight Commander'' in Italian language. The sleek design drew inspiration from the famous
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race cars. Eberhard Schultz, the company's founder, engaged engineers and technicians from
Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to simply as Mercedes and occasionally as Benz, is a German automotive brand that was founded in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a subsidiary of the Mercedes-Benz Group, established in 2019) is based in Stuttgart, ...
with approval from the company in the development of the car. There were plans to enter the car in
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racing, which was a reason for the car's elongated styling, but the idea never materialised due to Isdera's demise. The 112i had a 6-speed manual transmission which is a modified 5-speed unit from
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, the ABS brakes (which measured and the front and at the rear) and the suspension system were shared with the
Porsche 928 The Porsche 928 is a front-engine, water-cooled grand touring car, grand touring 2+2 (car body style), 2+2 hatchback coupe manufactured and marketed by Porsche AG of Germany from 1977 to 1995 — across a single generation with an intermedia ...
while the head lamps were shared with the
Porsche 968 The Porsche 968 is a sports car manufactured by German automobile manufacturer Porsche AG from 1991 until 1995. It was the final evolution of a series of water-cooled front-engine rear wheel drive models that began almost 20 years earlier with t ...
. The car has handbuilt fibreglass body work on a tubular steel spaceframe chassis and has 18-inch gold BBS alloy wheels fitted with tyres measuring 255/35 ZR18 at the front and 295/35 ZR19 at the rear. The large side intakes help cool the engine. The engine is a 6.0-litre Mercedes-Benz M120 V12 unit (first used in the
Mercedes-Benz C112 The Mercedes-Benz C112 was an experimental mid-engine concept car built in 1991 by German automobile manufacturer Mercedes-Benz as a test bed, similar to the later versions of the C111. Despite using the same chassis code, it was not related to ...
and later used in the Mercedes-Benz SL600 AMG and the Pagani Zonda S). It was modified to cope with the manual transmission as the original unit only came with an automatic gearbox. The modifications included an in-house developed flywheel and a Bosch ECU. The engine generated a maximum power output of at 5,200 rpm and of torque at 3,800 rpm. The 112i had advanced technologies at the time, including
gull-wing doors In the automotive industry, a gull-wing door, also known as a falcon-wing door, McLaren anhedral door, or an up-door, is a car door that is hinged at the roof rather than the side, as pioneered by Mercedes-Benz 300 SL, first as a race car i ...
, a gull-wing engine cover for easier access to the engine, a velocity sensitive chassis developed in collaboration with BBS and Bilstein which lowered the car by at high speeds, an active suspension system and an electronically controlled airbrake. The 112i retained the
periscope A periscope is an instrument for observation over, around or through an object, obstacle or condition that prevents direct line-of-sight observation from an observer's current position. In its simplest form, it consists of an outer case with ...
rear-view mirror from the Imperator 108i instead of conventional side-view mirrors. It has a flat underbody for improved aerodynamics. The long tail of the car also improved airflow over it. The airbrake raises in an upright position while braking, acting as a wind deflector to help slow the car down (similar to a parachute). The car had a drag coefficient of when tested in the Mercedes-Benz wind tunnel. The interior of the car was mostly custom made and contained two tone blue and black leather upholstery, along with RECARO leather sports seats. The car had wide door sills which housed the two fuel tanks. The dials and other instrumentation (excluding the steering wheel which was from OMP) were from Mercedes-Benz and the speedometer read up to . Isdera planned a limited production run of the 112i like its predecessor and quoted that each car would take six months to complete. The car was not functional when it was introduced. The development of the car reportedly cost a total of €4,000,000. This combined with the ongoing economic recession in South Asia, particularly the bursting of Japan's bubble economy, pushed the company into bankruptcy shortly after the car's introduction as the major investments came from Japan. The company was then bought by Swiss investors, under whom Schultz completed the car in order to make it driveable on the road. Although officially only one car was completed, Isdera completed a second subframe before its closure which was bought by an enthusiast who also purchased the original body moulds and tooling to build another unit of the 112i in collaboration with Schultz. The project was completed within a span of six years. Schultz withdrew from the project over a dispute on proposed design changes and later a re-emerging Isdera would also deny its existence. The second car is finished in a shade of white called Light Ivory and has a light grey interior with most of the switch gear sourced from Porsche. The design of the exhaust system also differs from the original as the car has a side exit exhaust exiting from beneath the doors.


Later use

Six years later in 1999, the car was updated and renamed to "Silver Arrow C112i" by a Swiss businessman. On the exterior, the updated car had conventional side-view mirrors and had silver five-spoke Mercedes-Benz alloy wheels instead of the gold BBS units. The engine was a 6.9-litre Mercedes-Benz M120 V12 unit, which generated a total of . Interestingly, the car featured Mercedes-Benz badging instead of Isdera badging. The Silver Arrow was unveiled at the 1999 Frankfurt Motor Show. The Silver Arrow was bought by Swiss businessman Albert Klöti at a price of €1,500,000. Klöti kept the car for 5 years after offering it for sale on
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for US$3,000,000 in 2005. The car failed to sell, after which it was sold back to Isdera in 2016. The owner of the car, along with Schultz and the Isdera Classic team, then restored the car back to its original form and name and made appearances at motor shows. On 13 February 2021, the Isdera Commendatore 112i was sold at a RM Sotheby's auction in Paris, France for €1,113,125. Isdera AG as the owner of the brand Commendatore has introduced the Commendatore GT in 2018 applying modern tech and redefining the iconic design language of the Commendatore 112i.


Performance

The Isdera Commendatore 112i was claimed to accelerate to in 4.7 seconds and having a top speed of . The Silver Arrow C112i was claimed to have a top speed of during testing.


Other media

The Isdera Commendatore 112i was featured in the 1997
Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...
racing video game ''
Need for Speed II ''Need for Speed II'' is a 1997 racing video game released for PlayStation (console), PlayStation and Microsoft Windows. It is a part of the Need for Speed, ''Need for Speed'' series and is the second installment, following ''The Need for Speed' ...
''. The Silver Arrow C112i was featured in a short documentary on Albert Klöti.


References

{{reflist Cars introduced in 1993 Cars introduced in 1999 Commendatore 112i Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive vehicles Concept cars