During the 1975-1990 Lebanese wars, 3,641 car bombs were detonated.

 

The only car part that usually survived the explosion was the engine. Landing on balconies, roofs, or adjacent streets, the engine was projected tens and sometimes hundreds of meters away from the original site of the bomb. Forensic investigators closely examined the car bomb engines in the hope that the engine’s number would reveal the car’s owner and the identity of the guilty party. But almost all the cars used as car bombs were stolen cars, which meant that their owners were hapless victims. But time and again, Lebanese politicians would pose for photographs with the engine to convince their constituencies that they were doing everything they could to find those responsible for the crimes.

 

Of the 3641 cars used as bombs, almost half were German-made: BMW, VW, and Mercedes-Benz. Lebanese authorities habitually shipped the surviving engines to Germany for additional forensic analysis and, time and again, conveniently forgot to follow through on the German findings. By the end of the Lebanese wars, hundreds of engines and forensic files sat in a warehouse in Stuttgart awaiting repatriation.

 

In 2004, the German state auctioned the engines in Hamburg, though the forensic files were withheld. I acquired twenty-three Benz engines, one of which is now on permanent display in Beirut, beside a photograph taken shortly after the detonation, showing politicians and others posing around it.