German engineering and Italian styling usually make a pretty good combo.
Never heard of the Bitter SC? Don’t worry, neither had I until about a couple of hours ago. The Bitter SC was the brainchild of German racing driver and businessman Erich Bitter and only 461 SC coupes were ever made. You can now buy one of those 461 coupes, as this super clean 1985 example is currently for sale on Cars and Bids.
The Bitter SC first launched in 1979 and, while its design had gone through a few iterations before it went into production, its final design was penned by Giovanni Michelotti, the man behind countless gorgeous Alfa Romeos and Lancias. Its design is often compared to the Pinifarina-designed Ferrari 365 GT4 2+2 and once you see it, it’s hard to unsee. It’s almost a carbon copy of the ’70s Ferrari.
However, its underpinnings aren’t so exotic. The Bitter SC was built on the Opel Senator chassis and shared most of its suspension bits. Under the hood is a 3.0-liter Opel-sourced straight-six engine, with 177 horsepower. There was a stroked 3.9-liter straight-six available when it was new, which made 209 horsepower, but the car on sale has the smaller engine. That straight-six is paired to a five-speed manual and rear-wheel drive, so it should still be plenty fun to drive. Sadly, due to the late ’70s oil crisis, the Bitter SC dropped the 327 cubic-inch Chevy V8 of its processor, the Bitter CD.
This specific car only has 33,900 miles on it and looks to be in near-perfect condition. Its red paint looks spotless, its squishy looking leather chairs are flawless, and there are very few mechanical issues with the car (its few issues are acknowledged in the listing).
It isn’t completely stock, though, as it has a Magnaflow muffler, which gives it a deep, burbly exhaust note that sounds good, even if it doesn’t sound exactly like it did from the factory. If you’re looking for a numbers-matching collector’s car, that might be an issue.
There are still two days left on the auction and the bid is at $10,500 (at the time of writing this). So now is your chance to snag an incredibly rare, Italian-styled, German built coupe, with a straight-six engine, five-speed manual, rear-wheel drive, and popup headlights.
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