I wonder what model it is?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060519/ap_on_re_us/iraqi_car_seized_2


edit: damn, you make a typo in the subject and your screwed

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green 85 300SD 200K miles "Das Schlepper Frog" With a OM603 TBO360 turbo ( To be intercooled someday )( Kalifornistani emissons )
white 79 300SD 200K'ish miles "Farfegnugen" (RIP - cracked crank)
desert storm primer 63 T-bird "The Undead" (long term hibernation)

http://ecomodder.com/forum/fe-graphs/sig692a.png

I don't know but it has pretty cool options. The side flame throwers are a must!!!
If i was saddam i would run either in a Grosse 600, or a Maybach.

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Aquilae non capunt muscas! (Eagles don't hunt flies!)


1979 300SD Black/Black MBtex239000mi
1983 300TD euro-NA. White/Olive Cloth-MBtex 201000mi. Fleet car of the USA embassy in Morocco
1983 240D Labrador Blue/Blue MBtex 161000mi

I saw a picture of Saddam on the internet, his entourage had arrived in a caravan to visit a city in Southern Iraq to order retaliation against some people there who had done something he didn't like. It consisted of three white W126 sedans, with Saddam in one of them, and a few other cars, I think one was a W123 sedan. So this particular car might indeed have been one of them.

Would be hard to tell without books and records!! Unless the maintenance books came with them, and someone called up the shops that stamped the books. I'm sure that car would have been remembered when S. or the Republican Guards brought it in for servicce!!

When Baghdad was liberated by the US troops, they found an underground parking garage that had maintained a group of collector cars that Saddam had; unfortunately local looters got there first and made off with most of them, but (per a photo in Time magazine) a '58 Ford Fairlane, a Model T, and a '57 Chevy and a few others were left behind, and the US commanders ordered these destroyed. I would suppose US policy applied towards any other Mercedes cars found.

Also, in the first Gulf war, Kuwait was looted of its desired Chevy Caprices, pickups, Cadillac Fleetwoods, and Mercedes by Iraqi soldiers. Not all were destroyed on the "highway of death" by the US bombing attack. There was a photo shown of a group of dusty new Kuwaiti Cadillacs at the home of the late and unlamented son of Saddam, either Uday or Qusay...

What has become of Saddam's palace fleet has never been fully known. Probably some cars are being driven, others still hidden away.

Anyone else have an idea?

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1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)

The way the iraqi's drive, all the other cars were considered Weapons of mass destruction and so ordered destroyed by the US of A.

Hmmm,

You see a lot of 126's in that part of the world. Its really a shame they would destroy the cars and seize them. Political agenda's asside the cars belong in a museum as Saddam will be a historacal figure in the future because of the war. Its a shame that dumb thugs with decision making power guns and a grudge are allowed to destroy historical items like that.

Politics always gets in the way of historical preservation. The American government is almost like Benito Mussolini who would try to destroy the very existance of his enemies.

I think it's a 500 or 560SEL. I remember hearing it was a W126 for sure.

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

its a w126 560 SEL
http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/05/19/saddams.ride.ap/index.html

LOL if it was his car, he will never see it again.

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1981 300D 147k
1998 VW Jetta Tdi 320k
2001 Dodge Ram 2500 141k
1979 300D 234k (sold)
1984 300D "Astor" 262k(sold)
Mercedes How-To and Repair Pictorials
I love the smell of diesel smoke in my hair

It would be a gray market car for sure. But if he got the US customs pissed off or tried to sneak the car into the USA, the poor car is D O O M E D.

He would need to get the car bonded within 30-60 days of its arrival at the US docks, before he could start converting it to conform to EPA/DOT standards. as a 1988 car. It sounds like at this point no insurance company would issue the needed bond at this point.

The car sports no number plates - on the front anyhow, Iraqi or U.S, and from the news report here it looks like he REALLY must have upset the US government, who may consider the car something that "MUST" be destroyed, maybe because if not, it could be exhibited or promoted as "Saddam's Mercedes" and become an icon of some kind. Like swiping a sword from one of Saddam's palaces.

From the news reports, I would predict the car will never emerge from US custody and will be destroyed for political reasons, before the EPA/DOT problems can ever be addressed. Too bad.

Not to mention Van Zeal's problems personally. 8 years and a DD?

Jim

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1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)

Except for the "Brazili", as the Iraqis call them, the ubiquitous Brazilian VW Passat 4 door white Iraqi taxi with the orange paint on the fender and quarter panels.

Those junkers are everywhere in Iraq. At one point, a huge shipment of new 1981 Chevy Malibus, especially equipped for Iraqi taxi service, HD equipment, manual transmission, air conditioning, were ordered, but the deal fell through, and GM Canada was stuck with these white elephants, and they were finally sold off at a huge discount to an unenthusiastic Canadian public. Some still around up there...

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1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)

The car will never see the light of day ever again. It will probably be stored in the same warehouse that Hitler's paintings are in. Its really a shame that our government is run by a bunch of idiots who let their political agendas see past the historical value of an item.

I work with antiques and some rare and hard to find antiques are things that you don't advertize you own and if your smart you hide completely. Certain rare items can be taken away from you if someone wants it and the laws are usually bent or blatantly broken in order to accomodate them. The item ends up in someone elses hands and usually for free. If I had bought the car I would have put it into storage for many years preferably in another country where the USA does not have their fingers in everything.

Its pretty amusing actually that Saddam drove a 126. My friends used to poke fun at my 126 because you would usually see them in the news reports with bullet holes in them or partially blown apart.... Personally I see Saddam as more of a Black car guy but white works too....

The flame thrower thing is interesting.... In Africa where they have a lot of carjackings cars are sometimes equipped with a solid metal bar that is spring loaded on a very strong spring..... Inside is a button to deploy the bar and it comes out at such force it usually breaks or chops off ones feet......... The flame thrower thing would sufficently roast someone and make them stay away and is not a "one shot" thing.... I bet its hell on a paint job though!!!!

Only if you want to drive and register the car. A car like that is historical and really should not be driven. There are plenty of other 126's to drive. He got the car into the country without issue. Its quite difficult to destroy something you can't find. A sleazy person might report the vehicle stolen and send it out of the country. A smart person would have never brought it here to begin with.

Many of the SS cars met the same fate that this one did. They were seized and destroyed. The ones that did escape Germany were usually purchased by collectors who recognized the historical value of the cars.

I guess we have some dumb GI and the American government to thank for this destruction of history.

I noticed one thing on the car that was not done properly. The car is a 2nd Generation Euro car, but it has the old style 1st Generation Euro front bumper.

Sounds like he bought it on the up and up. Leave the guy alone!

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Michael LaFleur

'05 E320 CDI - 86,000 miles
'86 300SDL - 360,000 miles
'85 300SD - 150,000 miles (sold)
'89 190D - 120,000 miles (sold)
'85 300SD - 317,000 miles (sold)
'98 ML320 - 270,000 miles (sold)
'75 300D - 170,000 miles (sold)
'83 Harley Davidson FLTC (Broken again) :-(
'61 Plymouth Valiant - 60k mikes
2004 Papillon (Oliver)
2005 Tzitzu (Griffon)
2009 Welsh Corgi (Buba)

[QUOTE=rchase]The car will never see the light of day ever again. It will probably be stored in the same warehouse that Hitler's paintings are in. Its really a shame that our government is run by a bunch of idiots who let their political agendas see past the historical value of an item.

I work with antiques and some rare and hard to find antiques are things that you don't advertize you own and if your smart you hide completely. Certain rare items can be taken away from you if someone wants it and the laws are usually bent or blatantly broken in order to accomodate them. The item ends up in someone elses hands and usually for free. If I had bought the car I would have put it into storage for many years preferably in another country where the USA does not have their fingers in everything.
... Personally I see Saddam as more of a Black car guy but white works too....

The flame thrower thing is interesting...[QUOTE]

I work with antiques too and find it is too bad when things kind of get lost to history when the government gets their hands on it. Too bad.

Yeah, that flame thrower would be so cool. I'll have to do a search on ebay to see if I can find one. They've got everything else.

Cheers,
Bill