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If you’re a fan of strange boutique sports cars from the ’80s and ’90s, you may already know about Isdera. Founded by a former Porsche engineer, Isdera built Mercedes-powered machines with radical styling, culminating in the one-of-one Commendatore 112i, a bullet-shaped supercar that never entered production as planned. Isdera spent the next few decades in a nebulous state of existence until, inevitably, its name was co-opted by an EV startup in China. It supposedly has a new car on the way, though we might’ve never known that if one Redditor didn’t stumble across it.
The blue sports car in these pictures is called the L’Aquila, and it follows the Commendatore GT, an electric coupe built in collaboration with WM Motor in 2018. Today, the brand is under the control of Xinghui Automotive Technology, which apparently launched the L’Aquila back in June. Weirdly, though, if you visit that Isdera’s website, there’s zero publicity for this car.
For that reason, I can’t tell you how powerful or expensive the L’Aquila is; I can’t even tell you if it’s driven by electric motors or an engine, as Isdera is courting both segments, according to that press release linked above.
For what it’s worth, I think it looks fine, though obviously quite generic. Before the L’Aquila, this newest incarnation of the company created the Imperator Concept, inspired by the Spyder 033i and Imperator 108i, which first got Isdera noticed in the ’80s. I can see some of that legacy in the side windows, but that’s about it. The original Imperator looked like a supercar from another planet’s future, while this new thing is basically what you’d get if you asked Hyundai’s design team to put a modern spin on the Alfa Romeo SZ.
The new Imperator Concept, at left, and a 1991 Imperator 108i auctioned in Monterey two years ago. Isdera, Broad Arrow Auctions
So, yeah, it’s hard to get a bead on what, exactly, is going on with Isdera nowadays. What’s left of the German side of the company, Isdera AG, filed for bankruptcy in April, two months before the L’Aquila was first shown in China. Isdera AG has its own website, by the way, which is in English and mostly advertises design and engineering consultancy services. It sort of ends the brand’s story at the Commendatore GT, presumably because that’s the last original vehicle this side of the firm was involved with. And it features a soullessly minimalist new logo that makes the failed Cracker Barrel rebrand look like an Art Nouveau masterpiece—but that’s neither here nor there.
Isdera has always fascinated me because everything about the company, from its history to its products, always seemed so enigmatic, and purposefully so. Consider that after the Commendatore 112i fizzled out, it built this twin-V8 monstrosity. I know that today’s Isdera really has nothing to do with the car I’ll forever associate with Need for Speed II, but it absolutely figures that even in this post-acquisition era, we barely have a clue what Isdera is, let alone any idea where it’s headed.
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Backed by a decade of covering cars and consumer tech, Adam Ismail is a Senior Editor at The Drive, focused on curating and producing the site’s slate of daily stories.
