Sultan of Brunei's Car Collection

Wassup bro Basman. It has been quite some time since we heard from you. Another awesome update on the Brunei car collection.

 

The Royal Brunei car collection's story usually is a nineties one, but there have been a number of classics as well. Here are five of these classics, excluding limo's like Royces and Bentley's.



1972 DeTomaso Pantera - 1 picture

A newer (taken late 2007) picture of the sad Pantera that mr. Kirby Schrader photographed in early 2004 in Brunei. This picture isn't the greatest, but the car seems to be moved to a private garden. Maybe someone is going to try to fix it up?

DeTomaso gallery page: http://www.*************/gallery/129612/976/15.html



1971 Maserati Ghibli 4.2 auto - 1 picture

I don't have much information on the history of this Ghibli. If it was bought new from the factory it could have been bought by the then 25 year old Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, the 17 year old Prince Jefri Bolkiah or their father Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien. It could also very well have been bought on the 2nd hand market, but it's nicer to think it was a family piece At one point in it's life, probably nineties, it has been restored for the Royal Brunei Household without regard to cost by Bill McGrath Limited in the UK. It was sold in recent years with only 500 miles on the odo.

Maserati gallery page: http://www.*************/gallery/129612/976/22.html



1968 Lamborghini Miura P400 - no pictures

Sold new to Sultan of Brunei in 1968. Then in 1970 it was imported to UK and registered (as an S) ELU 137J to dealer Alan Day Ltd in London. The car is currently with a UK enthusiast and has had S upgrades, but I've never seen pics of this car If anyone has pictures of this car, please post or contact me



1968 Jaguar E-Type S1 4.2 Roadster (S/N 1E1967) - 2 pictures

The history of the car, as supplied by a previous owner who used it in competition and then converted it for road use, is fascinatingly documented in the accompanying history file. According to his research the first owner was none other than the Sultan of Brunei (that's right! not the Prince!), a true connoisseur and collector of motoring exotica. The car then passed to the second owner, David Harris of Bournemouth, who converted it to 'mod sports' specification for competition use. The third owner was Nigel Bourne who hillclimbed the car during which period it boasted a Forward Engineering power unit and V12 brakes. In 1973, it was acquired by Oliver Walker who used it in hillclimb events until 1977 when it was converted back for road use again. This included bodywork being entrusted to respected specialists RS Panels, the engine by Forward Engineering and trim by Suffolk & Turley. The car was then owned by Peter Hampton before being sold through Nigel Dawes in 1983 to Victor Gauntlett, the former boss of Aston Martin. Subsequent owners read like a who's who of eminent collectors as it passed to Sir Anthony Bamford, respected historic racer Frank Sytner who described it as 'a D-Type for the road' before being purchased by the current owner in 1997.

Some info on the current specifications:
The specification of this highly developed E-Type includes a Forward Engineering 4.5-litre engine developing over 320bhp, stainless steel 'bunch of bananas' exhaust, uprated braking system, Spax shock absorbers, lowered suspension, reolica Dunlop alloy wheels, Synchromesh gearbox, Kenlowe fan, replica 'lightweight' E-Type seats, ventilated front discs and organic clutch. In the current ownership the improvement and development of the car has continued with a bare metal respray by RS Panels in 2000 costing in excess of £8,000, modification to accept unleaded fuel and an engine overhaul by the original engine builder Ron Beatty and uprated rear discs by Alan Collins. The car has been regularly maintained by Marcus Barclay and recent replacement parts include the alternator, distributor and brake servo.

Jaguar gallery page: http://www.*************/gallery/129612/976/7.html



1965 Ferrari 250 LM - 23 pictures (including pics from the 2002/2003 restoration and the 1973 crash)

Chassis 6313, built in 1964, started life in 1965 with a number of races in the Ecurie Francorchamps team (1000km Monza, 500km Spa, 1000km Nuerburgring, 24h Le Mans, 12h Reims, Angola GP). After '65 it had a number of owners. Interesting things from this period are that it crashed in 1973, it was mistaken for 6023 in 1976 (owner discovered that it was 6313 during restoration in 1980) and the prices paid in 1975 ($25k) and 1990 ($5.5 million). In the early nineties 6313 was in Japan (including at Art Sports). Then in the summer of '92 it was auctioned by Coys for $1,7 million (!). The buyer could have been Prince Jefri. The only info I've got on this car from 1992 untill 1999 is that PJ was the registered owner in 1996. In the summer of 1999 the car got sold again for $1,95 million at Christie's at Pebble Beach.

Ferrari Part 2 gallery page: http://www.*************/gallery/129612/976/21.html
(Ferrari Part 1 gallery page: http://www.*************/gallery/129612/976/6.html)



Same post on SCN: http://www.*************/PitLane?viewThread=y&gID=2&fID=0&tID=104217&bottom=570#post577


Enjoy

 

Let's do a picture update on the ex-PJ Vector M12. I've found alot of pictures of this car and then I came across Fqogil's Vector archive, so I had even more pictures. I first made a selection of the best pictures and the ones that show interesting details, but then I realised that there are a handfull of people out there that want to see all pictures of this car and since it's the only Vector on that gallery page I just uploaded all of the pics (all 82 of them :nut).

This black 1998 Vector M12 (VIN: 1V9MB1224X1048010) was one of PJ's Vegas kept cars. It was sold to Dr. Briney with 1,300 miles on the odo. Dr. Briney took the M12 to the Crystal Cove meetings a few times. Today, while still in the hands of Dr. Briney, the car is kept amongst it's Brunei brothers at the Marconi Automotive Museum in California.

Thanks to Patrick Shim for the info on this car

Vector gallery page: http://www.*************/gallery/129612/976/13.html

 

I wonder if the spending is considered less profligate now as a percentage of revenue.

 

The first REAL photo has surfaced of one of the Black McLaren F1 LMs!

Unfortunately the car isn't complete in this shot, but the image does positively confirm the cars existence (it's been denied on multiple occasions) and that indeed they looked like the artist's rendering that we have had for quite some time.

Here's a link to a slightly larger version of the scan seen below.

I'm so happy to finally have this, but what's funny is that it came from a scan out of a June 1996 issue of AutoWeek Magazine of all places. I probably have that exact issue buried in a box in the garage from when a friend was tossing out his magazine collection and I saved them. I don't think I have looked at them in more than six years, but one of the few McLaren related items that I've been constantly searching for was effectively right under my nose all this time. I can't believe it.

Giving credit where it's due, this image was first posted here by ArchangelGTR:

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=5768479&postcount=18

>8^)
Erik
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This is a post I have been waiting years for. Great to know that one of them exist there!

 

Great. I've been wanting to see that pic! That car really exist! Great job!

 

Yes, I feel exactly the same as both of you. I must say though, that personally it has been years since there was any doubt in my mind that the Black LMs existed. Of course I have had access to first hand accounts from reputable (sometimes anonymous) sources which up until now I have only been able to relay along, but I had a lot of faith in them. It is so nice to have real proof now.

In fact when I shared this image with one of those sources he said something along the lines that he was waiting for the apologies from all the people who accused him of talking out his rear before.

Another great thing about that photo in my opinion is that it proves this was how the cars were originally finished, as some doubters in the past believed the Black LMs may exist, but felt that they could have been repainted for the Brunei Royal Family after they were built. Seeing one at the factory in build puts that theory to rest as well.

Cigars all around boys!

>8^)
ER

 

I feel the same way

What a victory!!

 

Fantastic. It's nice to see that they do really exist.

 

Brunei cars, but not in Brunei spec yet/anymore.

Sometimes I come across some really interesting pictures of cars that have been in Brunei, but have just not yet undergone their conversion before going to Brunei or have allready been sold of and are allready in a different specification. I have decided to make a seperate page for the ones of you who are interested in these pics (posting them on the normall pages will get confusing). I will not go wild here posting everything I get my hands on, but just those few cars that are of extra interest

Here's the url of this page: http://www.*************/gallery/129612/976/23.html



Ferrari 288 GTO - 2 pictures
First up are two new pictures + one picture that was allready on the Ferrari page of GTO S/N 55671.

I have posted about this car before, but I want to ask you guys again if you can help me find the article that was written about this car. It was first delivered to Ron Stratton in England who drove it back there from Maranello with a journalist riding shotgun to document what they were like to live with. It was on the plates "C224 EUL" when owned by Stratton.

After a conversion by Pininfarina it appeared in Brunei as:
FER F288 GTO BM9988 ZFFPA16B000055671
Dark Slate with Red Stripe (instead of the standard black stripe). It has a black interior with red piping on the seats.
It's hard to tell wether this is the same car that I've got allready a picture of in the gallery (the one next to the yellow Venice Estate).

In 2007 this car has found a new home with it's 3rd owner in New Zealand.



Ferrari F40 - 11 pictures
Here are 11 pictures taken this year + 5 pics from a few years back that were allready on the Ferrari page of the famous Talacrest F40. The new pics were taken by Paul Bryant.

S/N 91283 was one of the Brunei specials. After being built by Ferrari it was send to Pininfarina to be fitted with a special interior in the style of the Testarossa with leather everywhere, carpets, electric windows, conventional seatbelts and a sound system. It got repainted in a fantastic grey colour with red stripe. And mechanicly it it received a different exhaust and was converted to RHD.

Aparently it was first delivered in Spain before it got transported to Brunei. In 2002 it first appeared in the Talacrest showroom. After it got sold by Talacrest the new owner send the car to Terry Hoyle Racing Engineers for an 18 month restoration. It was brought back to rosso corsa, the TR interior was stripped and new seats were placed. However the electric windows and sound system remain. The engine appeared to be in perfect condition btw.

The then owner then stored 91283 with Duncan Hamilton for some period and attended one photographed (1 pic in the gallery) Ferrari meeting in the UK.

Interestingly enough this F40 appeared on the market again with the comeback of Talacrest on the 1st of april this year after a 5 year sabbattical. It was on the market for only a short period. John Collins has confirmed to me that it was sold during the last days of april/early days of may.

Again I have to say that I think it's an incredible shame that this car has partly been converted back to normal F40 spec

Pictures of this car in Brunei specification canbe found on the Ferrari page: http://www.*************/gallery/129612/976/6.html



McLaren F1 - 6 pictures
And lastly I'll post a few pictures of how S/N 014 looks today. This car has relatively been covered alot, but I thought it's too interesting not to post

This originally yellow F1 ended up after it's Brunei time, via the UK, with the New Yorker Gaery Schaevitz. In november 2005 it was for sale in the Silicon Valley Auto Group showroom in Los Gatos, California. SVAG did receive bids for the car, but they didn't sell it untill august. In august 2006 014 was auctioned by RM Auctions at Pebble Beach. It was auctioned of at $1.55M + premium to Marvin H. Schein. Schein sent the car back to McLaren in the UK to get it painted white with black LM-style wheels and to get the High Downforce package.

The repaint also meant that the 1996 Michael Schumacher signature was gone. This got 'replaced' with Lewis Hamilton's signature in 2007.

Pictures of this car in Brunei specification canbe found on the McLaren page: http://www.*************/gallery/129612/976/9.html




Another 'regular' update will follow very soon (when time allows me)

 

What an amazing find! Truly a piece of McLaren history now confirmed, imo.

 

Ferrari 400i Spider - 13 pictures
Say hello to yet another special conversion: the Ferrari 400i Spider by Pininfarina. This car has been confirmed by D. Giordannio, Specialised Projects Division, to have been built for HH Prince Jefri.
The entire history of this car is not known to me, but I do know a few things. It's a 400i completely brought up to 412 spec (both looks and mechanical). This conversion took 2 years. I don't know why this conversion took such a long time. One explination for this is that it was first converted by another company who didn't do a perfect job and then it was brought to PF who redid the whole job and by that time two years had passed. This seems plausible since there has been at least one other Ferrari 400i convertible in Brunei, but that car's trim and rear side windows were really bad... (This bad conversion was done by a company in Wales that also did Daytona's)
According to Simon Campbell Pininfarina are only known to have converted one left hand drive car, chassis number 73011. However I can't say for sure of this is that car.
In 1999 this car went to the UK and ended up with Cars International for a period, after wich it ended up on the market with another vendor.



Ferrari F90 - 9 pictures
After years and years of waiting the old photo's of the 1988 Ferrari F90 have finally and for the first been officially revealed in the 2005 Ferrari Yearbook. That is 18 years after the F90 was made!!! The F90 is based on the Ferrari Testarossa and was designed by Enrico Fumia, head of the Pininfarina Research and Development department at that time. The most striking styling cue was the 'edge design' on the nose, grille, the sides and the tail. It also boasted a removable see-through sunroof, a highly unnovative feature for the time. Like in good Brunei fashion the wheels were left stock. The F90 had a front radiator rather than two side ones and a Prodrive steeringwheel mounted gear paddle. It was powered by the 4.9 litre flat 12 mid-engine wich delivered 390 HP. Six F90's were made and reside in the Royal Brunei car collection. Their S/N's are: 86626, 86784, 87195, 86390, 83096 and 88171.
It's interesting to note that official modelcars were brought out before this car was officially recognised by Ferrari.



Ferrari Testarossa - 5 pictures
Pictures of the yellow 1992 Ferrari Testarossa that was logged in the database as "FER TESTAROSSA BN1881 ZFFAA17C000090960". I've got a few more pictures of this particular chassis if there are people interested (same goes for the grigio titanio 512TR btw)..

And one picture of what appears to be a black or dark green Testarossa (picture taken in Brunei).



Ferrari F50 - 14 pictures
Pictures from S/N 102852. This car popped up in the Coys showroom near april this year. It was auctioned during Brands Hatch in may 2008, but it was a 'no sale' with a top bid of GBP £340,000. It was spotted by TonyH at the Verdi garage two weeks before the auction (thanks for the pics, Tony!). And two days later spotted in Chelsea London by streetsupercars.com.
This car is currently owned by Alan Hanly from Ireland. Seeing as there were plans for a car museum at an hotel of his I'm surprised the car was put up for sale.
This was the 2nd time Coys is offering this car for sale. Coys has even used the exact same text in the ad as they did the first time. So, this is not a new car that came out of Brunei, but has been in the UK for quite some time allready.



Ferrari F40 - 1 picture
Unfortunately only 1 picture, but it really is the yellow RHD Ferrari F40. I have no confirmed chassis number, but it could be 78426.



Ferrari 456 - 20 pictures
One picture that shows three Ferrari 456's in Brunei. I can't tell wether these are standard 456's or Brunei specials (like a pre-GTA automatic for instance).

FER F456 GT BP6969 ZFFSP44C000104023
Another 3 small images from when this green Venice Spider was in the UK at Cars International. This was probably around the year 2000. Eventually it ended up with Dick Marconi in the USA. I've also added a few pictures from the Marconi Museum.

FER F456 GT BN3223 ZFFSP44C000103190
I've added one picture of the green Venice SW from when it was just in the UK, a few pics from when it was at the Coys Historic Festival on Silverstone in 1999 and one picture from when it attended Goodwood FoS (not sure of the year of Goodwood). After these public appearances and after being offered for sale by DK Engineering and by Taylor & Crawley Ltd. this car disappeared of my radar. I'd love to know where it is now and I'd love to see it in real life one day...
An interesting thing to note here is that, while some say this car was never delivered to the Brunei Royal Family, it's chassis number was logged in the car database.

I've also added two more pictures of the silver Venice SW while driving through London. While some say this is the green car repainted silver I think that is not the case. Italtecnica has made a Venice SW ground up that looks exactly like this one. But untill we get the S/N we can't be sure...

I've also added a detail shot of the rear door on the silver Venice Sedan.



The Brunei special Ferrari's can be found on this page: http://www.*************/gallery/129612/976/6.html
And the 'normal' Ferrari's are on this gallery page: http://www.*************/gallery/129612/976/21.html


same post on SCN: http://www.*************/PitLane?viewThread=y&gID=2&fID=0&tID=104217&bottom=600#post624

 

I'm 99% sure its the green car unfortunetley

 

I saw a dark blue/purple Countach today that use to belong to the Sultan. It was neglected and due to be restored. 5,000 miles, I'm sure it was an Anniversary model. No pictures as it belongs to a friend.

regards,

Matthew

 

Here's the Mini pic I was talking about. I also added a handfull of other pics to the gallery



Mini - 3 pictures
I've got three pics of three different Mini's.

First up is a classic convertible in a great green colour.

Then there is this Mini painted with a flower motive. This Mini was made in 1968 by Wood & Pickett. It had black leather seats, tinted windows, a gold en jewel encrusted insignia and of course the eyecatching flower paintjob.

And Lastly there is this new Mini Cooper S wearing registration A1. I think that's a pretty cool combo A1 is, in today's market, a million dollar license plate When it was acquired in 1993 together with 1A, they were both on white Bentley's. BTW, as you might have figured, A1 is Britain's first license plate.

Mini gallery page: http://www.*************/gallery/129612/976/24.html



Jaguar XJS Lister - 5 pictures
Inclduding media pics

Jaguar Daimler - 3 pictures
Pics of 6 or so of these Jag's, included in the pics are:
JAG DAIMLER BG8893 SAJDKAMS3BR806465
JAG DAIMLER BG8912 SAJDKAMS3BR774474
JAG DAIMLER BG8875 SAJDKAMS3BR805919

Jaguar XJR15 - 1 picture
There are two XJR15's on the databse list:
JAG XJR15 KE88 9
JAG XJR15 BN618 46
But if I only look at the license plate this appears to be another one?

Jaguar gallery page: http://www.*************/gallery/129612/976/7.html

 

Awesome, Matthew! I'd love to know (and see? ) some more. My pm is allways open for private conversations

 

Hows things chaps, been awhile since i last had a look on here, SO VERY GLAD your missing graphics LM has showed up in picture, cigars to those who kept the faith of its existance indeed, thinking of publishing some unseen pics with history, watch this space or the book shops, have to get some time set out to do such a thing proper, anyways can't recall ever seeing red Mclaren, but then i didnt get to see everything.....but i did see the F1 cars in the underground garage and the F310 did indeed spend time in that garage (still wearing rubber scuffs from that infamous incident), it never belonged to the family as iam aware of but was on loan, shortly after the 98 crash happened all loaded F1's where loaded into air-conditioned shipping containers and like everything else sat in that spot till they could be moved on.

Laters

 

Nice to see you pop back in here. When the Black LM photo surfaced I was thinking of trying to contact you to get your thoughts.

I still think it's rather hilarious that the image many F1 fans had been searching for was published rather openly in a US weekly car magazine with no mention of Brunei whatsoever. I do wonder if McLaren new this photo had been taken or if it made it into print before they realized it had been leaked? Perhaps had someone made a big deal about it back then it might not have been so hard for us to find, even many years later? Maybe AutoWeek's phone did ring, but it was simply too late for them to do anything about it? Guess those questions will remain unanswered, but the big one has been satisfied for everyone now.

McLaren recently published a new book called "McLaren : The Cars 1964 - 2008" and in the few pages covering the LM they didn't specifically mention the black ones. What they did say though, was that "3 of the 5 were to be painted in McLaren papaya orange" which is a noteworthy change to the story they have often told, that all five were orange.

I don't think it comes as any surprise to your unseen pics and history would be extremely appreciated by this group and the wider audience who follows the Brunei saga around the world. I'd imagine print form could be spectacular, but there are many challenges to that approach that can be bypassed easily via the internet. Share at will.

>8^)
ER

 

My latest update about the Brunei Bentley's and Rolls Royces, because it was getting too long I spread it out over 10 posts.

I hope you'll understand it and enjoy it
http://www.*************/PitLane?viewThread=y&gID=2&fID=0&tID=104217&bottom=660#post682
http://www.*************/PitLane?viewThread=y&gID=2&fID=0&tID=104217&bottom=660#post683
http://www.*************/PitLane?viewThread=y&gID=2&fID=0&tID=104217&bottom=660#post684
http://www.*************/PitLane?viewThread=y&gID=2&fID=0&tID=104217&bottom=660#post685
http://www.*************/PitLane?viewThread=y&gID=2&fID=0&tID=104217&bottom=660#post686
http://www.*************/PitLane?viewThread=y&gID=2&fID=0&tID=104217&bottom=660#post687
http://www.*************/PitLane?viewThread=y&gID=2&fID=0&tID=104217&bottom=660#post688
http://www.*************/PitLane?viewThread=y&gID=2&fID=0&tID=104217&bottom=660#post689
http://www.*************/PitLane?viewThread=y&gID=2&fID=0&tID=104217&bottom=660#post690
http://www.*************/PitLane?viewThread=y&gID=2&fID=0&tID=104217&bottom=690#post691

Cheers!

 

Howdy Peloton25

you sure have the best knowledge of Mac's of anyone i know, you should be a store's man at nasa so greasy mechanics like me can ask if you know the part number and location of a zig zig ball rubber flop dop o-ring? Yeah I could publish on the net but have written a few pieces already that just seem to get lost on this ever expanding electronic database, so kinda like something that will deteriorate under UV exposure under a coffee table instead not to mention a nice glossy cover. Anyhows keep up the great work my good man as its always a joy to quiz you on the facts of McLaren, damn it- are you ever wrong?

 

Yes, I've been wrong several times and there are still a lot of things that remain 'unknown'. When dealing with second and third hand info it can be hard to get all the facts straight, but I do try my best. The trick is to gether as many pieces as you can and put them together like a puzzle, then try to fill in the gaps over time. We've still got some large gaps, and a few pieces that seem to fit, but have not been locked in so to speak.

Luckily, I'm not the only one who remains passionate about the F1. I certainly wouldn't know a lot of what I do today without the help of a lot of other great people, yourself included of course. Thanks for the compliment though.

>8^)
ER

 

Cavalino Pic


PHOTO COPYRIGHT OF ITS OWNER. NOT MY PIC
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Let me correct myself. That does look like Monaco flag... but it could still very well be JP...

 

Looks a lot like some of the Brunei palace pics that i've seen