---
title: "Saddam Hussein Once Burned His Son’s Entire Exotic Car Collection"
description: "\"Let that be a lesson not to murder people at dinner, Uday.\""
date: "2017-06-02"
modified: "2021-07-15"
authors:
  - name: "Kyle Cheromcha"
    job_title: "Editor-in-Chief"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/kyle-cheromcha"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/11079/saddam-hussein-once-burned-his-sons-entire-exotic-car-collection"
categories:
  - "Culture"
  - "News"
tags:
  - "Car Collection"
  - "Iraq"
  - "saddam hussein"
---

# Saddam Hussein Once Burned His Son’s Entire Exotic Car Collection

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/2017/06/gettyimages-72903563.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

When the United States invaded Iraq in 2003 and deposed Saddam Hussein, it was hard not to be transfixed by the images of his family's once-ostentatious lifestyle in ruins. Among the ill-gotten treasures abandoned was the [extensive exotic car collection](<https://www.autoevolution.com/news/luxury-cars-belonging-to-saddam-husseins-son-46640.html#>) of eldest son Uday Hussein, which featured dozens of rare cars like a Ferrari F40 and a Lamborghini LM002.

But thanks to a new account of Saddam Hussein's final days [published in the *New York Post*,](<https://nypost.com/2017/06/01/saddam-hussein-loved-mary-j-blige-burned-all-his-sons-cars/>) we now know that collection was once many times bigger—before the former dictator burned the whole damn thing to punish Uday for [shooting and killing several people](<https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/18/world/hussein-family-dinner-politics-and-guns.html>) at a dinner party in the mid 1990s.

![message-editor%2F1496424037902-gettyimages-107553731.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/message-editor/1496424037902-gettyimages-107553731.jpg>)
*Iraqi police pose next to a pink Ferrari Testarossa and a black Porsche, which belonged to Uday Hussein, at police headquarters in Baghdad on December 8, 2010., *Getty Images**

For more on that shooting, [here's a contemporaneous account from the *New York Times* in 1995](<https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/18/world/hussein-family-dinner-politics-and-guns.html>):

*"A quarrel at family dinner that led to gunfire was the crisis that led President Saddam Hussein's daughters and their husbands to flee Iraq, according to Saudi newspaper accounts and reports from Iraqi opposition figures.*

*The dinner, on Aug. 7, was called to discuss the worsening economic and security situation of Iraq. It ended in shooting that left six bodyguards dead and a half-brother of President Hussein, Watban Ibrahim al-Tikriti, seriously injured, according to a front-page account today in Asharq al-Awsat, a Saudi newspaper...*

*The argument was vicious enough that President Hussein asked both his son and son-in-law to leave the dinner, which was held in Tikrit, a large luxurious village reserved for Iraq's ruling clan, while he talked with family elders. When Mr. Tikriti returned home, he and his bodyguards were confronted by armed members of Uday's staff, who attempted to arrest them, the newspaper said.*

*Shooting broke out, leaving at least six people dead and the President's half-brother seriously wounded, the reports said... Iraqi opposition figures have said that Uday Hussein personally participated in the shooting of his uncle, but that has not been confirmed."*

Author Will Bardenwerper talked to several members of the military police squad assigned to guard Saddam in the years between his capture in late 2003 and his hanging in 2006 for his upcoming book, *The Prisoner in His Palace: Saddam Hussein, His American Guards, and What History Leaves Unsaid.* In it, he describes the quasi-friendship that developed between the guards and their charge in the unlikeliest of circumstances.

As both sides whiled away the hours by talking about their families, Saddam shared a story that's simultaneously relatable and completely incomprehensible to any parent out there.

As the oldest son, Uday Hussein was Iraq's heir apparent until his erratic, violent behavior—including murdering his father's personal valet in the middle of *another* dinner party in 1988—led Saddam to briefly sentence him to death before expelling him from the country for a few years. After the 1995 shooting that wounded Saddam's half-brother, the former tyrant concluded that his son hadn't learned his lesson and tried a different tactic—burning his entire car collection, as relayed by the *Post*:

*"'I was very angry with him so I burned all his cars,' Saddam told the guards, referring to Uday’s obscenely large collection of luxury automobiles, including hundreds of Rolls-Royces, Ferraris and Porsches. 'Laughing wildly, the former dictator recalled how he gleefully watched the inferno,' writes Bardenwerper. It reminded one guard of 'a Jerry Springer episode on steroids.'"*

Hey, if that doesn't get your kid's attention, nothing will.

For more weird details on Saddam's imprisonment, including his penchant for Cohiba cigars, breakfast requirements bordering on OCD, and secret love for Mary J. Blige, [check out Bardenwerper's book](<https://www.amazon.com/Prisoner-His-Palace-Hussein-American/dp/1501117831/ref=as_li_ss_tl?tag=drive09e6-20&linkCode=ll1&linkId=3ed641bec80186be0c050ff6850b892c&language=en_US>) when it's released next week.

## Author
Overseeing an expert staff of writers and editors from his lair in Los Angeles, Kyle shapes The Drive’s singular approach to covering the automotive industry and car culture. He’s been with the site as a writer since 2017, taking over as editor in 2019. On a daily basis, Kyle is responsible for directing The Drive's editorial news and car review content strategies, setting special coverage priorities, managing complex reporting projects, and ensuring what you read on the page meets our high internal standards for quality and trustworthiness. He is also the executive producer of The Drive's YouTube channel, which was relaunched in February 2024 to great acclaim and has accumulated over 14M new views in its first year back on the scene. He hosts a biweekly series on the channel where he breaks down fascinating and complicated stories from the automotive world.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/kylecheromcha.bsky.social>)  
[Instagram](<https://www.instagram.com/kylecheromcha>)  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-cheromcha-1550248a/>)