GUDERMES, Chechnya -- The white Rolls Royce, plowing through ankle-deep mud in this grim Chechen town, looks about as out of place as the Eiffel Tower would in the middle of a Bronx junkyard.


Its price tag is pretty unusual as well -- a steal at $120,000. Owner will also swap for a large quantity of green Russian-made grenade launchers.


If cash is a problem, a BMW is on the trading block for a mere $15,000, or one Stinger anti-aircraft rocket.


Well-heeled Chechens are renowned for their love of sleek road machines. Until fighting broke out two months ago, the latest $150,000 European sports car often competed for space with donkey-drawn hay carts on the breakaway republic's potholed roads.


Now some of the car owners are ready to part with their expensive toys to raise money for the war with Russia.


"We've got others. A few more Rolls Royces, a couple of Mercedes -- there's a Jaguar too," said Shaghim, a smooth Chechen middleman, who is doing his bit to help Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev's separatist troops by hocking the vehicles.


"The Rolls Royces have been in garages in the mountains. Now we are short of weapons. We've got to find ways to raise the money.


"We thought you journalists might want to buy one of them," Shaghim added.


Chechen irregulars, usually fighting with little more than grenade launchers, aging Kalashnikovs, and anti-tank guns, have inflicted heavy losses on Moscow's vaunted military machine, which has used much of its arsenal against them.


Yet little by little they are running out of even these relatively rudimentary weapons. The Chechens constantly complain of shortages of ammunition.


"We know how we can buy grenade launchers from Azerbaijan. They cost $1,500 a piece. Getting them here is no problem, but the money is," said Shaghim.


For Dudayev's fighters, the real dream weapons are American-made Stinger anti-aircraft rockets, the bane of the Soviet Air Force during its disastrous 10-year intervention in Afghanistan.


Russian warplanes have been punishing Chechnya in often indiscriminate bombing raids on civilian targets since President Boris Yeltsin sent in the troops on December 11 to crush the region's independence bid.


Chechen fighters have tried with little success to shoot down the screaming jets with conventional anti-aircraft guns or hand-held machine guns. Last Saturday they brought down their first plane.


"Stingers. Now that would be a dream," says Shaghim, his eyes lighting up. "We can handle everything else, but we don't have defenses against the planes. We got one shipment of them before the Russians came, but they were defective."


Scruffy Chechen irregulars often greet Western reporters with only half-joking entreaties to "send arms" from their native countries. The easy-to-use shoulder-held Stingers are often specifically mentioned in their wish lists.


"Well if you know anyone who might want to buy one of the cars, let us know," whispers Shaghim.


"After all, what good are Rolls Royces in battle?"