In between being a dictator, tyrant and human rights violator, Saddam Hussein had a fairly impressive car collection.
When money is nothing but an object to you and you control the entire country’s wealth, you have ways of getting your hands on some seriously special rides.
Few people know the extent of Hussein’s car collection, but what was recovered following his capture shows that he had a love affair with some classic American cars: a 1930s Packard convertible, a 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air, and a 1970s Cadillac Fleetwood, but all this dwarfed in comparison to his son’s collection.
Saddam’s eldest son, Uday, also had a love for vehicles – often seen sporting things like a pink Ferrari Testarossa, a Ferrari F40, multiple Porsche 911s and some Rolls-Royce thrown in there for good measure. This was a collection measured by the hundreds, mind you.
It was a collection that Saddam burnt to the ground as punishment after Uday was involved in the killing of several people at an economic meeting in the 1990s. “I was very angry with him, so I burned all his cars,” Saddam told his prison guard, which was reported in a New York Times story.
Besides the tiff with his son, Saddam and Uday shared a love for one vehicle: the Lamborghini LM002 – the original Lamborghini SUV.
You can read all about the LM002 in Rob Margeit’s story here, but the tank-like SUV was based on the 1977 Lamborghini Cheetah concept, a hardcore off-road vehicle designed for the US military.
Mobility Technology International (MTI) was tasked with developing an all-terrain vehicle that could be used in military service. In collaboration with Lamborghini, MTI produced the Cheetah.
Unfortunately, the car didn't meet the standards required for military use, but all that development work by Lamborghini didn’t go to waste. By 1981, Lambo engineer Giulio Alfieri had given the Cheetah a new life, this time as a civilian off-roader.
The LM002 made it to production with a 5.2-litre V12 from the Lamborghini Countach Quattrovalvole, pushing out 335kW. A five-speed ZF-sourced manual gearbox sent drive to all four wheels. The off-road underpinnings included a two-speed transfer case, three self-locking differentials, and manual locking hubs.
The LM002 was more like an armoured car than a personal vehicle, making it the perfect choice for a family like the Husseins.
It wasn’t just a car for anyone, either. In 1986, the RRP for one of these “Rambo-lambos” as Sylvester Stallone coined it, was a whopping $US158,000 ($AUD245,000) – adjusted for inflation, that’s almost $AUD800,000.
Only 328 of these cars were ever built, and the Husseins owned four of them – a blue one, an orange one, a black one and a white one.
The destruction of the Hussein Lamborghini LM002
The US involvement in the Middle East saw Saddam Hussein captured and his son killed during separate sieges, which meant that the massive family car collection was sitting completely unmonitored.
It left the collection up for looters, but by the time the US Army got its hands on it, only a few cars were left, likely the ones too hard to steal and the ones Saddam hadn't already burned to the ground.
Being in a war-torn country, the LM002 collection looked a bit haggard, especially the blue one owned by Uday.
In 2004, the American troops dragged this beaten LM002 out of the compound to a field where they stripped out some of the interior and loaded it with an explosive called PE-4, which they described as “similar to American C-4”.
Allegedly, the plan was to experiment and demonstrate what a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) could do to the concrete barriers surrounding the American bases in Iraq.
The video is extraordinary, with the Lamborghini LM002 disintegrating into thin air and turning the ground around it into fine dust. The aftermath is even more amazing.
The entire 5.2-litre V12 Countach engine and front subframe had been completely dislodged from the vehicle and thrown well up the road, yet they were still almost entirely intact – about the only recognisable pieces left of the car.
Differing reports explain why the LM002 was chosen for this experiment. Some say that the car was beyond repair and was chosen because it probably wouldn’t see the road again, while others say that the troops didn’t know how rare the car was until they got home and realised what they had just blown up.
Regardless, there is one less LM002 in the world, and given its condition now, I don’t think it’s open for restoration. The other three LM002s in the Hussein collection are still in Iraq.
Auction prices are now regularly close to the $US400,000 ($AUD595,000) mark, which is more than a brand-new Lamborghini Urus – but after all, only 328 of them exist (actually make that 327).
Zane Dobie comes from a background of motorcycle journalism, working for notable titles such as Australian Motorcycle News Magazine, Just Bikes and BikeReview. Despite his fresh age, Zane brings a lifetime of racing and hands-on experience. His passion now resides on four wheels as an avid car collector, restorer, drift car pilot and weekend go-kart racer.
