http://www.rolls-royce.150m.com/brunei/ http://www.classicdriver.com/uk/magazine/3200.asp?id=10495 http://www.autozine.org/article/brunei/sultan.htm
Dunno. Have you checked the registry? He owns something like 8 McLaren F1s (three? of which are LMs). Peleton can correct me on this.
So anyone got any detials on the different coloured GTO's cos as far as i was aware, all GTO's were red possibly bar 1 which was yellow. I just find it hard to believe that nobody knows anything about these cars or have any pics. Oh to be that rich eh!
8 McLaren F1s, 3 McLaren F1 LM's, and 6 Dauer 962 LM's.. OMFG. that is the most insane collection ever... the Dauer 962 is just a beast.. SIX of them!!! that is ridiculous beyond belief.
The idea of this collection is probably far better than the reality. From what I can tell, they all sit around and rot. We haven't heard of any new purchases in a very long time..
Don't get me wrong, I'd switch with him in a heartbeat. I'm just saying that I think most of us think of a garage lined with gold and multiple examples of the finest and most pristine automobiles ever seen- most likely it's a boring warehouse (as in the pics) with dirty automobiles and quite a few flat tires. I even remember reading something about a bunch of Mercedes enthusiasts trying to save several hundred models that had literally been left outside (in the hot sun) for years.
a few years ago we did a 4 million dollar custom interior on a brand new bell 214 for the sultan, i didnt meet him but met his brother, very polite guy, i was impressed
Let's not forget that he himself is Rolls Royce's best customer. Incidently, I always thought it was his brother who was buying all the cars (the collection includes an estimated 3,000 exotics).
Collecting can be an addiction. Stamps, coins, guns, whatever. Its the scale thats different from most. Dont laugh but pinball is my monkey.
Doesn't the Sultan own a huge collection of winning F1 cars? I remember reading about the car collection in an auto mag years ago and they said something about he buys the winning F1 car from the team at the end of every season for his pivate museum.
I dunno about that but His Crown Prince regularly drives his 911 probably because its the best handling road car.
Big spender? Hasn't his net worth gone down quite a bit, and the oil wealth is in danger of running out?
Its quite a collection of cars i can tell you, i worked with one of the main manufacturers so had the pleasure of spending quite alotta time under the Royal roofs at Jerudong park where the main bulk of cars where kept. The Garage complex is sooo large that the royals even had a small zoo in the center, yeah u did read that right! It was a totally wicked place to work as no day was boring, lots of weird and wonderful cars running around including a few F1's that where tested around the complex....just for the sheer hell of it, i spoke to the mechanic shortly after his run in an elder F1 and i can tell you that this guy had a smile ear to ear, then by mid 98 things went tits up, a story that would put the best script writers confused, i dont speak much about my time in brunei to outsiders as it always seems that iam buming myself up...but honestly you would not believe half the stuff that went on with there toys, having spent alotta time in brunei including plenty of time cross border for alcohol runs i do hear alotta crap from people who think they know the collection esp about their small collection of Ferrari, most of it disjointed from one source to another, the fact is that Pininfarina who where responsible for all Ferrari in Brunei ran a very tight ship and did a very good job keeping things secret, their work which also included bespoke Astons & Bentleys to name a few can only be described as second to none including the RHD conversions to F50's and 288's. I do wonder how those cars look now as i dont think much of the bespoke wonders got sold on, thats one thing about the collection i dont know about, the aftermath of the garage complex when all the manufacturere withdrew there services and even some slung in a few legal proceedings...what state are the cars in now, i shortly left Brunei when things went bad, i got my moneys worth and wasnt hanging in a country that boast's own two climate season's..wet and really wet, so it would be cool to hear if much actually moved outside of brunei or is there still masses of unused cars laying around... they sure in hell aint as rich when i was there..well good things come to an end i guess!
^WOW! How many F1s did you see? Did you get a chance to drive any of them? What colors did he have because I heard of about 10 being there, but only know of 5?
well this is were i can see who was in brunei and who is just bullshi**** and there is plenty of them people, the Secret F1 garage was impossible to get into and i mean impossible, i was very friendly with a chap who ended up running the F1 shop and believe me it took months of waiting to get a special mates pass into the F1 shop, the bruneian royal family where very strict on some areas of access and the f1 shop was one, but when i did get in....WOW...the shop was half empty as things had started to go bad..but their must have been an excess of 25 cars in the shop when i visited, early williams, late Mac's to schuie ferrari with tire rubber rotational marks still on the sidepods,
I heard the family bought one of the F1 cars that ran during its championship run in that season. Do you know if any Brabham cars were there? My mistake on that last part. I thought you meant McLaren F1 (road cars), which is where I heard they had 10 at one point. I now realize you mean the racing F1 cars