DREAM INTO ACTION

For one entrepreneur, the lure of Italian beauty with American power was not enough: it needed German build quality, too. The result was the Bitter CD

- Glen Waddington

There’s a fair bit of German logic about the Bitter CD. Plus a smattering of madness. It started life as a concept car and became reality thanks to the drive of a racer turned tuner. It’s stunningly styled, with involvement from a pukka Italian carrozzeria, and powered by a Corvette V8, yet it’s based on a large European executive saloon. And the plan was to build it in some quantity, though the result is now exceedingly rare: you're looking at the only example in the UK.

To understand the car, first you have to consider the man behind it. Erich Bitter is now approaching 90, but at the age of 20 he began a stint as a professional cyclist, having left school at 16 to work in his parents’ bike shop, not far from Diisseldorf. He became one of Germany’s top riders, competing in the Tour de France before he switched his attention to cars.

Bitter raced in the Targa Florio and at the Niirburgring, and drove for NSU thanks to that cycling connection) and Abarth, among others. In 1968 he began a relationship with Opel, driving a 150bhp Rekord nicknamed Schwarze Witwe Black Widow’), setting several class records and getting Bitter noticed among senior members of Opel management.

Meanwhile, Bitter had opened a dealership, selling NSU, Saab and Volvo, and becoming the official German importer for Abarth and subsequently Intermeccanica. He also sold car accessories and tuning equipment under the Rallye Bitter brand, and was instrumental in the development of flameproof Nomex racesuits, after surviving the horror of a fire when he crashed his Abarth at the Niirburgring in 1969, never to race again.