Bitter Cars
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| GmbH | |
| Industry | Automotive |
| Founded | Schwelm, Germany (1971) |
| Founder | Erich Bitter |
| Headquarters | Schwelm, Germany |
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Area served
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Europe |
| Products | Automobiles |
| Website | [1] |
Erich Bitter Automobil GmbH (Bitter) is a premium sports-luxury automobile marque produced in Germany and later Austria. Founder Erich Bitter, a former racing driver turned automobile tuner, importer and ultimately designer began crafting his own vehicles after business ventures with Italian manufacture Intermeccanica ended.
Bitter specialises in rebodying other manufacturer's vehicles and its initial production was between 1973 and 1989, selling vehicles in Europe and the United States. Thereafter, several prototypes followed with an eye on resuming low-volume production, but none of those plans came to fruition until the launch of the Bitter Vero in 2007.
The Bitter CD, a three-door hatchback coupe featuring a 227 hp (169 kW) Chevrolet V8 with a 327ci displacement, was built between 1973-1979.
The CD was first shown in prototype form on 9 September 1969 at the Frankfurt Auto Show, as the Opel Coupé Diplomat ("CD") derived from the sedan version. It was designed by Charles M. "Chuck" Jordan (Opel's Design boss between 1967-1971 and later vice-president of General Motors (GM)) with the assistance of George A. Gallion, David Holls, Herbert Killmer and Hideo Kodama, as well as Erhard Fast (Director of the Opel Designstudios 3 for Advanced Design from 1964). The tail was inspired on a proposal by Erhard Fast's for the 1969 Opel Aero GT.
Thanks to the positive reaction to the CD prototype, Opel considered developing a production models. The doors would adopt a conventional opening system and the bumper bar, windshield wipers and other parts would be derived from the Opel Diplomat in order to facilitate production and maintain costs. Robert "Bob" Lutz, who was the Head of Opel at the time and was keen to produce the car, commissioned Pietro Frua to advance the concept and produce two road-going prototypes.
In 1971, it was David R. "Dave" Holls (Opel design boss since 7/1971; previously assistant to Chuck Jordan) who encouraged Erich Bitter to build the Bitter CD. As a result, Bitter GMBH was formed in 1971 to market the CD. He based his company on a 1-acre (4,000 m2) site in his home town of Schwelm, Germany.
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Wikipedia