LONDON'Few scandals in recent years have provoked as much anger and dismay across Europe as the saga of Max Mosley, the overseer of Grand Prix car racing who has made tabloid news in a front-page expos?? and accompanying Web video showing him in a sadomasochistic orgy with five alleged prostitutes in a London sex "dungeon."

But beyond the licentiousness of the episode, it was the suggestion of Nazi undertones in the role-playing during the session in a basement in London's fashionable Chelsea district that led to demands for Mosley's resignation as president of the Paris-based F??d??ration Internationale de l'Automobile. Known as the FIA, it is the international governing body of motor sports, and has presided over the expansion of Formula One racing into one of the world's richest sports.

Family history has added to the notoriety: Mosley, 67, is the younger son of Britain's 1930s fascist leader, Sir Oswald Mosley, and the society beauty Diana Mitford, whose secret wedding in Berlin in October 1936 was held at the home of the Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels and included Hitler as a guest of honour.

The tabloid newspaper that broke the story March 30 of Mosley's Chelsea session, The News of the World, described it as "a depraved Nazi sadomasochistic orgy," and said Mosley had paid about $5,000 in cash for the five-hour session.

In a video the paper posted on the Internet but later removed, two of the women wore black-and-white striped robes in the style of prisoners' uniforms. The video showed Mosley counting in German ' "Eins! Zwei! Drei! Vier! Funf!" ' as he used a leather strap to lash one of the women.

"She needs more of ze punishment!" he cried in German-accented English.

One woman appeared to search his hair for lice while another called off items on an inspection list. Mosley, naked, was bound face-down and lashed more than 20 times. Mosley has acknowledged participating in the session. But he has denied that the role-playing had a Nazi motif, and announced last Friday that he had filed a lawsuit against the newspaper, claiming "unlimited damages" for invasion of privacy.

"We absolutely refute and challenge his assertion that we have invented any elements of his depravity," the paper said yesterday. The paper said it will make tapes available to any member federation that asks for it.

In a letter last Saturday to the head of Germany's motoring federation, Mosley renewed his insistence that the Chelsea session was a private matter, and added, in a reference to the FIA's role in promoting road safety around the world: "Had I been caught driving excessively fast on a public road or over the alcohol limit, I would have resigned the same day.

"As it is, the scandal paper obtained by illegal means pictures of something I did in private, which, although unacceptable to some people, was harmless and completely legal."

He has refused to resign his FIA post, appealing to the federation's global network of motoring organizations for support. But denunciations have cascaded from much of the racing world, from Jewish groups, and from FIA-affiliated motoring organizations around the world, including the American Automobile Association, which said in a statement last Saturday that Mosley, as FIA chief, needed to set "the highest standards of ethical behaviour" if he were to represent millions of motorists worldwide. It added: "It would be in the best interest of all concerned if he were to step down."

Perhaps more significantly, calls for his resignation have come from four car companies, each of which owns or substantially controls grand prix racing teams: BMW, Daimler-Benz, Honda and Toyota.

The Sunday Times of London reported in last weekend's editions that Mosley was the target of a setup involving a van with a hidden videocamera parked outside the Chelsea basement flat where the sex session took place, and that a miniature camera was concealed in one of the women's bras.

It quoted Mosley's associates as saying the prison garb worn by the women were "American convict uniforms" and as dismissing the Nazi allegations by saying, "The scenario was more Alcatraz than Auschwitz."

His explanations of the Chelsea session have run into a barrage of condemnation, some from Jewish organizations.

But what may prove to have been a turning point in the affair came in the form of the car manufacturers' statements last Friday. In a joint statement, BMW and Daimler-Benz described the facts outlined in The News of The World as disgraceful. They added, "We strongly distance ourselves from it," and said they would await appropriate action by the federation's governing body. Honda said it was extremely disappointed and urged FIA to make "an immediate decision." Toyota said it did not approve of any behaviour that "could be understood to be racist or anti-Semitic."

Mosley tried to turn the tables on BMW and Daimler-Benz, which manufactures Mercedes-Benz cars.

In addition to building engines for German fighters, bombers and tanks during the Nazi era, they were accused of using slave labour in some of their plants, and, in Daimler-Benz's case, providing Hitler and the German high command with staff cars.

In his statement, Mosley insisted that fault lay with the way in which his actions had been reported by The News of The World, and not with the actions themselves.

"Given the history of BMW and Mercedes-Benz, particularly before and during World War II, I fully understand why they would strongly distance themselves from what they rightly describe as the disgraceful content of these publications," he said.

"Unfortunately, they did not contact me before putting out their statement to ask whether the content was in fact true."

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