Photos: The world’s strangest car collection
Mercedes-Benz 1001 SEL
Mercedes-Benz never made a car named 1001 SEL; tuner Gemballa did. Starting with a 500 SEL, the firm added gold trim, alloy wheels plus lavish interior appointments like wall-to-wall leather upholstery, a television and privacy curtains. Other tuners performed similar modifications and the cost of the build sometimes matched the price of the donor vehicle.
Why 1001? It’s not, as the name implies, because the car has a 10-litre engine. Most historians agree that a customer who ordered a tuned 500 SEL concluded the final product was twice as good as what he could get through Mercedes and declared it a 1000 SEL. This led to several variations of the nameplate including 5000 SEL and even 100000 SEL – complete with a matching emblem out back.
Citroën DS
The Citroën DS – a staple in just about every car museum around the world – stands out as one of the few French cars in the Rainbow Sheikh’s collection. He chose a later, fuel-injected model and parked it next to a Traction Avant, its predecessor.
Teilhol Tangara
Rare even in its home country of France, the Teilhol Tangara was a Citroën 2CV-based beach car designed to pick up where the Mehari left off. It was introduced in 1987, the same year Mehari production ended, and it came with a 2CV-sourced 602cc flat-twin engine. The example in the Sheikh’s collection is one of the very few fitted with four-wheel drive.
Teilhol equipped later examples of the Tangara with a four-cylinder engine borrowed from the AX. Production ended when the firm filed for bankruptcy in early 1990.
Fiat 500
The stickers on this Fiat 500 indicate it spent the bulk of its life in Treviso, an Italian town located a stone’s throw from Venice. Peeking inside the car reveals it was originally painted in an uncommon shade of orange. We don’t know when it joined the Sheikh’s collection but it likely received the rainbow treatment after disembarking in the United Arab Emirates.
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