Isdera Fades Into History — A Brilliant Madness Remembered

In 1982, a Porsche engineer named Eberhard Schulz woke up one morning and thought to himself: “I could be doing something much more unhinged.” And so he did. He created Isdera—a boutique, niche supercar manufacturer so obscure that even James Bond would’ve had to Google it to figure out what it was.

Now, more than four decades later, that peculiar legend has been reduced to a few cold lines in the commercial registry. Isdera has filed for bankruptcy, and when the court gets around to stamping the paperwork, it will mark not just the end of a chapter, but the closing of the whole, gloriously eccentric book.

Isdera’s glory days? Look no further than the Imperator 108i—a car that looked like someone tried to draw a Lamborghini in the ‘80s after half a glass of Riesling and with their eyes half shut. And then, of course, the Commendatore 112i—a car named with a word even Germans can’t pronounce. It was wild, it was powerful, it was borderline insane… and most importantly, it existed.

Every Isdera was powered by a Mercedes-Benz engine, because if you're going to build a car with more air intakes than actual customers, you at least want to be sure it starts. And then there was the utterly bonkers Autobahnkurier 116i—a vehicle with not one, but two V8 engines, yoked together like oxen on caffeine.

Then came 2016. Schulz, perhaps realising he wouldn’t be building any more unicorns, sold the brand to a Chinese company called Sinfonia Automotive. One might assume the name implied harmony and light. In reality, they operated more like a classic ghost—taking on commissioned projects quietly and keeping their name almost entirely out of sight.

The final flicker of ambition came in the form of the Commendatore GT, an electric reinterpretation of the iconic original. A project that was meant to reboot the legend for the modern age but instead remained stuck in the limbo of broken promises—“I’ll start my diet on Monday”-level promises. The car never entered development. What we got were a few press shots and a lot of questions.

And yet, as the company draws its final breath, its older models continue to fetch millions at auction. Yes—millions. The brand is gone, no new models are coming, and yet these relics of madness now cost more than a brand-new Ferrari or a three-bedroom flat in the middle of the metropolis.