It looks like a Ferrari 365. But not that 365. It's underpinned by a German luxury car. But not those German luxury cars. It was even briefly sold at Buick dealerships in North America. Yes, that Buick. Hopefully our Find of the Week this week won't leave you feeling sour. It's a 1984 Bitter SC.
Modern supercars are as much about luxury as they are about performance. Supple leather interiors, comfortable seats, good ergonomics, air conditioning that works, and lots of other things we take for granted. But they weren't always that way. Until the 2000s, supercars were bare bones, stripped down single-focus cars. Go fast, look like sex, and damn things like comfort and reliability.
In 1969, Opel Stylist (and later GM VP) Charles Jordan designed a coupe version of the Opel Diplomat sedan. It was stunning, but even then head of Opel Bob Lutz couldn't make the case for production.
Enter Erich Bitter. Bitter started out as a racing driver in Germany. In 1971, another Opel employee, Dave Holls, convinced Bitter to build the production-ready CD (Coupe Diplomat) on his own, with some Opel support.
The car, built and assembled by longtime coachbuilder (and the company that would later build and assemble the legendary Porsche 959) Baur.
The Bitter CD debuted at the 1973 Frankfurt auto show, where 176 orders were taken. Right before an oil crisis that lead to most of the orders getting cancelled.
The production wasn't a huge success, but they sold 395 cars in six years. Enough to want to keep going. But the Diplomat was going out of production, and Bitter couldn't have an entire chassis built.
Opel had a new full-size luxury sedan on the way. The Senator was on the way. So Bitter designed a new model. The SC for Senator Coupe. It rode on the all-new platform and had new styling to go with it. This time it took inspiration from the Ferrari 365 GT4 2+2 (later the 400 and 412).
In 1984, Bitter announced that GM would sell the cars in US dealers. But the cars sat alongside Buicks, and only at a handful of dealers, so the plan didn't go well.
In the few years of production, Bitter built 461 coupes, 22 convertibles, and 5 of the surprisingly good looking sedans.
So the car. Like I said, it's got styling that borrows heavily from some of the least desirable Ferraris. But it looks better than those cars. It seems to have aged more gracefully as well.
Inside, this is a full-size luxury sedan. It has Italian made leather seats that look like lounge chairs, and are reportedly extremely comfortable. Even the dash and glovebox are covered in leather. Everything worked when the cars were new, rare for some something with such low production numbers.
The powertrain comes largely from Opel. It's a straight six, with 3.0L of displacement. That means 180 hp and 179 lb-ft of torque. Good for a then-quick 8.3 second run to 100 km/h and a top speed of around 210 km/h. Four-wheel drive was offered, although it appears it was Europe-only.
So it's a German sedan that looks like an Italian exotic. It's absolutely rare, it's cool, and for sale in Surrey, BC. This Bitter SC is our autoTRADER.ca Find of the Week. And it could be yours.
