I grew up in the Middle East (Bahrain) in the 1970s-80s, and became accustomed to the high end strangeness in the school carpark (driven by the pupils; eg hunter conversion Range Rovers, a lot of Koenig-type S-Class Mercedes Mk2 Golf convertible conversions when Europe still had the Mk1 convertibleetc). We started off wth a modest Datsun 140J, and ended up with a ex-Royal Family Rang Rover (it wasn’t that fancy, but the owner had it all retrimmed in stripey blue velour to match the blue paint which somehow melted in the sun). Around where I lived, which was in one of then villages, there was an abandoned orange E-Type sitting in the street. I think there were a few reasons why expensive cars came to be abandoned. Firstly, there is a tradition in the Gulf, especially among ruling families, that houses belonging to deceased senior members, were just abandoned. So, towards the south of Bahrain, as you drive past Awali to the now grand prix circuit, there are a few abandoned palaces. The same might also apply to some cars.
Another reason was, at the time, abysmal spares support from (mostly) Europe. The family Range Rover needed a new brake proportioning valve; a long expensive wait from the UK. In the local village, we found a fella who made a new valve using a bolt and a drill.
And finally, for some, they really couldn’t be bothered to get the car fixed. More of a Kuwaiti thing though.
I’ve been assembling a few photos that bring back memories, as well as basically high end cars in “distress”.
Here is a selection
This is quite evocative, a Range Rover on a dhow, probably being smiggled over to Iran or Pakistan. Before the 4-door Range Rover came out, there were a lot of stretched ones in Bahrain, with te front door shortened, and a new rear door made from a front door, with the distinctive grab handle being shortened. Thought it looked better than the Marina handles used.
This car is not a Aston Martin. Its a completely rotten Mercedes SEC with a Lagonda-looking front end grafted on. In Bahrain, I used to see a number of Range Rovers with the lights and bumper off Rover SD1 V8S (the rare ones with the black bumpers) grafted on. They looked impressive. Less impressive were the Range Rovers with a Ford Granada nose (ironic as Ford was blacklisted at the time).
This looks like a Land Rver catalogue shot. The Range Rover was pretty identical to ours. And we drove ours off road, every day, on account of the engineers failing to build a road to our accomodation. At one point, we shredded through 3 sets of Michelins in 6 weeks, before switching to cheaper Firestones sourced from the local village. After 5 years, the Raange Rover was in bad shape. The fancy retrimmed interior was shredding from heat damage. The Webasto fabric sunroof; no one dared open that up. The bonnet catch was profen, so the only thing holding the bonnet down were some wing mounted spring catches of the type seen on a rally car. The dash was completely different from how it left the factory. At some point, it was fitted with a British aircon unit, which meant half the dash was chopped out, and a new fitted with extra gauges. It didn’t work, so the windows were always left open. The sliding rears could never be closed as te catches had rotted away. The front passenger floor; there wasn’t one, as the leaking aircon had rotted it away (so some sheets of galvanized steel did the job). The rear hatch was held in place by a couple of household bolts. Yes, Bahrain was an island.
Stretched hunting Range Rovers, there were lots, for the Falcons.
A Lagonda in its natural surroundings
This Datsun pickup isn’t some sort of poor man’s limo. I used to see a lot of stretched Datsun and Toyota pickups being used by the oil companies as crew trucks. I’m not sure if they were a special order from Japan
Some dude in a Saudi Ferrari garage. It wasn’t much better in Bahrain. The local agent for Land Rover also handled Lotus, Ferrari, Rolls Royce and others. The garage (not the shiney showroom) was a dingy set of sheds in downtown Manama, with open roofed lifts. The Range Rover spent a month in there getting new shocks etc, and when picked up, it made it a mile down the road, befoe boiling over, on account of the radiator cap being left off. But it was nice also to acquire a dozen tools that had been left under the bonnet.
One of the Royal converted hunting Range Rovers. In the Gulf, the notion of “Royal family” is different from here. Its a clan, and it can be extensive. I think one fifth of Bahrainis were in the Royal Family. Hence we brought a 1978 Range Rover off an Army Lt who was in the Royal Family. Not so wealthy, but he loaned us a 1980 7-series for a while while he retrieved his Royal plates off the car. A lesser member got a 3 digit plate, and you were supposed to let them pass (for a while, we had cars pulling over for us). More senior members got 2-digits. Serious senior, like the Crown Prince, or Prime Minister, got 1 digit. The Amir of course just got the Bahraini flag. I think this mob might be Qatari. Notice how they did te extra door.
Young Princes liked the topless 2-door Rangies. This one with a folding screen looks cool
“Cheapo” conversion stuck to the gunnels
There were also Royal Guard vehincles, like this one with a GPMG on the back
The chap on the bonnet sitting in a throne apparently is a poet. So some sort of reading going on. How they got him up there I don’t know.
Coloured coded Mercs were common. This is colour coding to the extreme
The ubiquitous “1000SEL”. Sometimes there were Mercs with a serious amount of kit. Sometimes it was just a badge. Didn’t mean they were 10 liter V8ss
Not always Range Rovers. This is a GMC/Chevrolet truck (probably started out as a suburban) used by theSaudi Royal Guard. Stutz did the conversion, including that grill
This seems the ultimate in Suburbans
Proper stretched Suburban. The Amir of Bahrain, Sheikh Isa, used to cruise around in one of these, in fire engine red.