2004 Mercedes ML 270 Diesel Burns on the Nurburgring: Jurassic Park?

The first thing we noticed is that it's registered in Britain and obviously has the steering wheel on the right side. People often import them into Poland and other countries because old cars are cheaper in the UK. But this ML 270 CDI has a paid tax and MOT until the spring of 2017.

So it's unlikely that it's been imported for the sake of Nurburgring racing. Somebody really did drive to the famous German track and decided to do some motorsport in a truck.

What did we mean at the beginning of the story about hating SUVs a decade ago? Well, this thing makes a Dacia look decent. It weighs just over 2 tons yet it 2.7-liter diesel engine only produces 163 horsepower. When it was in mint condition, the ML 270 CDI reached 100 km/h in 12 seconds and had a top speed of 185 km/h.

The fuel economy isn't great either, as despite using diesel it got 12.4 l/100km around town. So why would you ever consider taking one to the Nurburgring? We can only imagine that the owner only had one car and wanted to do everything with it, from accessing rural Scotland to racing in Germany.

For some reason, we really want to connect this ML to the ones used in Jurassic Park 2. Not only are we talking about roughly the same model, but the connection has continued to this day. In Jurassic World, they also used various Mercedes off-road vehicles, while the trailers for the AMG GT R seemed to suggest wild animals were loose around the Nordschleife.

Maybe that's why this guy crashed and burned: some raptors bit it and fuel spilled onto the hot engine. Who knows!