Burned Out Smart

[Carl242]

German Luxury Arson Victims

Some guy went on an arson spree in Germany, torching luxury cars like Mercs, BMW's, Ferraris, etc. I'm almost honored to see the Smart Fortwo on his list. Do you think that's a 451?

[Smart Enuf]

There's no rear window aft of the tridion, so it does look like a 451. That's my guess.

[sato7]

sacrilege!!! I say!

[Big Panda]

Yep, it's a 451....a sad day in smartville

[jimvw57]

Thats one wy to change the body panels

[Kermit]

Schmitt - over here!! Is that a Doug Thorley exhaust I see?

[mdfortwoguy]

It's a 451 Pure.

[fts1966]

that is down right sad, hope the catch the people that did all of this. they could have really hurt or even killed innocent buy standers or firemen. also the toxins they put in the air from the fire.

[RACNXTG3]

A PORSCHE 911?!?!?! What the hell were they thinking?!?!?! thats wat...

[JPaul]

From "Wired" today:

Torching cars is becoming a pastime in Berlin, where it seems people pissed off about the sorry state of the German economy have taken to immolating automobiles with such frequency that a Google map tracking the arsons is obliterated by pins.
At least 29 cars, a good many of them luxury vehicles from the likes of BMW and Mercedes, have been burned since the first of the year, according to Bloomberg, and at least one-third of the arsons have been deemed "political" in nature.
What the hell?
We caught wind of this via MetaFilter, which is quite possibly the second coolest site on the Interwebs after Wired.com. Word has it 292 cars have been torched since May, 2007 and the Web site Brennende-Autos ("burning cars") is tracking the details with a Google map. For the record, 55 were Mercedes-Benzes and 29 were BMWs.
Bloomberg says "protesters in Berlin rage at their economic plight by targeting the most expensive cars - symbols of German wealth and power," but that doesn't explain the VW Polos, Smart ForTwos and Ford Escorts that have gone up in smoke. A group calling itself BMW - the initials stand for Movement for Militant Resistance in German - has claimed responsibility for several attacks, Bloomberg says. Yeah, guys, that'll go over well. We can see you getting scads of sympathy for your cause. Look how well it did for the guys from Earth First!.

The arsons also are linked to other issues, such as the gentrification of older artist colonies and squats in parts of what once was East Berlin. It seems some people are being pushed by real estate developers, and torching cars is either a way of protesting the expansion or getting the newcomers to leave. Either way, it's crazy. Opposing gentrification is one thing, but you’d think there would be more effective ways to fight it than heading down the road towards flaming insurrection.
Here's a copy of the Google map from Brennende-Autos, but to get the data on where each arson occurred and what was torched, you'll have to check it out live at http://www.brennende-autos.de/.