1985 Bitter is the incarnation of one man’s seemingly very reasonable dream: Supercar styling with reliable and common underpinnings.
Erich Bitter, a former race driver, was the man with the vision and what we have here is an exotic body and luxury interior wrapped around an Opel Senator executive sedan. The Senator was the largest Opel available in the late 70s through the early 90s. There was nothing fundamentally wrong with the Senator on which this is based, but it wasn’t exactly exciting.
The bespoke design makes this one a coupe (a convertible was also offered) and its styling is remarkably similar to the Ferrari 400i and its 365 GT4 2+2 predecessor. That added visual excitement aplenty, but not mechanical. This is where many of these might diverge from the promise of readily available mechanical parts. The Opel 3-liter I6 put out about 170HP at the time, which was pretty good, but didn’t match the promise of the exotic appearance. Bitter thus offered a stroked, 3.9-liter version of the engine, which was assembled by Mantzel, a German tuning company which still offers for Opels as of May 2022. That brought power up to 207HP, which is pretty impressive for the mid-1980s.
We can’t tell whether the example for sale has the 3.0 or 3.9 engine, but it is rumored that most US cars came with the 3.9 and automatic. Regardless, this one doesn’t run, so the buyer needs to be prepared to find some Opel parts, and hopefully not anything unique to the 3.9. The good news here is that a 24 Hours of LeMons team raced one of these and found that contemporary BMW parts can work, especially when it comes to fuel injection. So, there may be hope out there!
Unfortunately, this car is on need of more than a mechanical refreshment. In fact, this car has needs everywhere. It has rust in multiple places and the interior is very tired. Still, is this hobby really about financial sense or easy work? No! It’s about interesting vehicles, and the Bitter SC is undeniably that.
For sale on eBay for $12,950 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA: Click for link
Text from eBay ad (clink link above for TONS of images – great job, seller!):
A 1985 Bitter SC Coupe. One of only 462 cars built. Green with a grey leather interior. Automatic transmission.
73,000 miles showing on the odometer. Just came out storage, and the car was last registered and driven in 2012. Body is straight but there are some rust bubbles around the wheel arches and moldings/seals and some underneath as you can see in the pictures. Equipped with A/C and power windows.
The original interior is showing its age. There is some discoloration, and some cracks on the dash.
Mechanically the car does not run currently, but the engine turns over freely by hand. Steering column has a play. Comes with original owner manuals, some records, spare wheel and a jack.
An extremely rare car needing restoration.
P.S Where are the HVAC controls? Presumably left of the steering wheel?
