German Car Zone

^^ OMG thats nutts..
the car is like a damn tank..

The car that was hit with an RPG was destroyed, as obvious in the picture. It was able to go a few hundred feet more and get out of the ambush zone, the kill-zone. However, if the RPG hit the glass instead of flying in the engine bay, where the armouring deflected the blow, it would have been a different result.

This armoured Mercedes, 560SEL W126, did not fare so well. Passenger was German banker and he was killed in the rear seat by a roadside bomb.

It is not completely correct, what you wrote 450SEL 6.9. The banker was killed because a part of the door hits a vartery. He died because he lost to much blood. He was not instantly dead. His driver survived the accident.

Damn.

What a waste of a W126. And to think I could have used those rims for mine.

Did this incident occur in the late 1980s? I think I vaguely remember it...

But the door was hit by the bomb, an explosive shaped charge or IED. The door didn't just crumble on its own. You are correct though, the car did do its job quite well. It kept out most of the blast, but a piece of the door did fly rip through the interior and kill Herrhausen.

Actually, most of the reports I read about the incident suggest that he was hit by the copper plate attached to the bicycle at the side of the road and not by a piece of the door.

His bodyguards survived because the device was only targeted to the most vulnerable spot in the car's passenger cell. I'd like to see how today's Guard S600 will hold up to such an attack.

Happened in 1989, Christian. Herrhausen was leaving his house in a three-car convoy and the bomb got it. Some say the copper plated charge attached to the bomb killed it, but other reports say it was part of the door.

I wonder if the incident has really changed the design of armoured cars.

hmm, i don't know what kind of bullets were fired, and i don't think i can tell you before i can find the pics. I'll do a search!

I think I found it. I didn't find what car they used at the Greek Int'l Auto Show, but I found an article on MB Guard at another auto convention. The cars were fired upon with military grade ammunition.

The thing with these cars is that the glass is one armouring level lower than the steel. An armour piercing bullet will not get through B7 steel, but it can get through B6 glass. The glass is not made to stop an armour piercing military grade bullet, but those bullets are so easy to get.

Of course, a .50 calibre rifle is easy to get too and no armoured car can stop that.

Great thread, thanks