One Of The Mysterious Supercars: The 1993 Isdera Commendatore 112i, Mid-Engine V-12 Supercar.
Hand-built 1993 Isdera Commendatore 112i, the only unit built, outfitted with an iconic Mercedes-Benz’s M120 V-12 engine.
The story of Isdera starts sometime in 1971 with founder Eberhard Schulz and his home-brewed Erator GTE supercar. After showcasing this mid-engined project to managers at Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, the Porsche hired him on into its design department. Schulz left Porsche for the “bb” tuning company headed by Rainer Buchmann, where he completed the so-named CW311 prototype that later became the Isdera 108i after he left bb to start the aforementioned Isdera company. The Isdera 108i is best considered a roadworthy and semi-production evolution of the CW311, incorporating a downsized version of the prototype’s AMG-fettled 6.8-liter V-8 and smoothing out some of the CW311’s wackier tech and user-unfriendly features, though the 108i retained the periscope-style rear-view mirror and gullwing doors from the CW311.
Schulz’s dream was always to make a modern version of the Mercedes-Benz 300SL, and Isdera’s first car explored what the coupe might look like in the 1980s. Its second model, the Commendatore 112i, was developed to be more extreme than its predecessor in every single way, ranging from design to performance. Instead of a V8 engine, Isdera borrowed the 6.0-liter V12 that Mercedes-Benz put in the S-Class (W140) and the SL (R129) — and that later ended up in the Pagazi Zonda — and stuffed it right behind the passenger compartment.
Isdera wanted a stick-shift, and Mercedes-Benz didn’t have a suitable transmission, so the young carmaker sourced a five-speed manual transmission from famed Porsche tuner RUF and added a sixth gear to it. When all was said and done, the 400-horsepower 12-cylinder sent the 112i to a top speed of 211 mph.
A Swiss consortium rescued the Commendatore 112i, featuring it at the Frankfurt auto show in 1999 as the “Silver Arrow.” There, the shiny gold two-piece BBS wheels were ditched for five twin-spoke alloys and its unique periscope mirror was ditched in favor of Mercedes CLK-GTR-style wing mirrors. Isdera reacquired the car in 2016 and returned it to its original spec.
