Sultan of Brunei's Car Collection

56641 is not the 193rd car.
It is the 183rd GTO built.
Completed 5 April 1985.
Engine #00190.
New to Brunei.

Marcel Massini

 

Grazie!

 

Hi everyone. I've been doing a bunch of research on all of the Brunei cars since we just bought the Dauer prototype car (the yellow one) recently and are going to be performing a restoration / upgrade on it (GT1 engine / sequential transmission). More on that later. To start, I thought I would share all of the information that we've gathered on the Brunei cars. Based upon a ton of photographic evidence, I'm fairly sure we've got the story down correct. If I got something incorrect, please let me know what and which evidence exists to further any differences.

Basically a total of 11 distinct different cars have existed at various times. Five in the Sultan’s collection, one in Sweden, three at Le Mans, and then the both the GT-style road car and the prototype car.

So, the Brunei collection currently has five Dauer 962 Le Mans cars. They are yellow, dark green, silver, red, and black. They have been discussed quite a bit here already, although some of the previously reported info may be slightly inaccurate. I'll summarize them as follows:

Brunei plate: BP962 VIN: TP99620175 962-175 - This car, red, was originally a white race car raced at Daytona in 1991 by the Unser "family team". It can be seen in numerous Dauer brochures and press photos, and has a red/black interior. This is the red car that can be seen in many of the Brunei garage photos.

Brunei plate: KF9911 VIN: TP99620172 962-172 - This is the black car, somewhat a sister car to the red one. This car was also raced at Daytona in 1991 by the Andretti team (black). The car can be seen in photos with a black interior, which seems to have been updated at one time to the "later style" Dauer seats.

Brunei plate: BQ7162 VIN: TP99620141 962-141 - There are a few "141" cars floating around, so we're not sure exactly which chassis is in this one, but presumably, it's the 962-141 chassis or some variation of it (141 had a big accident and then was supposedly repaired). This Dauer car is dark green, and can be seen sitting next to the red car in the leaked Sultan collection photos.

Brunei plate: BQ7523 VIN: TP99620151 962-151 - This is the silver car, the edge of which can be seen in one of the Sultan photos, and it can also be seen in the "glass house" photos as well. Originally raced in Japan, 962-151 was damaged, and then subsequently sold to Dauer for use in a street car.

Brunei plate: BQ126 VIN: TP99620133 962-133 - This is the yellow car. Contrary to what is told on the internet, this is not the yellow show car that was shown in all of the press photos and videos from 1993. The Sultan apparently saw the yellow car and ordered one that Dauer created at a later date. The definitive proof in this lies in the fact that there are very subtle differences between the "show" car and the one in the Sultan's collection. Specifically, the rear taillamps are different and the front headlamps are different too. The Sultan's car was returned to Dauer's workshop in the late nineties where it received some upgrades (transmission and height-adjusting suspension) and also had it's interior changed to red.

The “Bumble Bee” car - Despite the incorrect photo in Auto Bild magazine, this one is not 962-133, but instead it’s 962-8-001 (a spare chassis that Porsche had used at one time to test a 928-type variant engine in the 962). This one was originally seen in 1995 at the IAA show in Germany, and was subsequently sold a few times. It’s currently in a private collection in Sweden.

In addition to the above listed cars, there are of course, the three cars that were at Le Mans:

GT003 – built on spare Porsche chassis 962-176 – FATurbo car – winner 1994 Le Mans. This car was given to Joest from Porsche after the race, and has been displayed in the Le Mans museum. Red banner across the top. The car supposedly exists now in Florida under the care of Kevin Jeannette and Gunnar Racing.

GT002 – built on spare Porsche chassis 962-173 – Shell livery, and perhaps also the unpainted car shown in photos being tested at the track (carbon fiber brown/grey #35). 3rd at Le Mans in the GT1 class, supposedly retained by Porsche. Blue banner across the top.

GT001 – built on spare Porsche chassis 962-169 – Test car at Le Mans. Had the yellow bodywork installed on it for scrutineering and then was converted back from the road car body work into race trim. Was painted white, similar to the Shell car, and had a yellow banner across the top. Following the race, Porsche retained possession of the car and repainted to look like the FATurbo (Le Mans winner) car and is now currently on display in the Porsche museum.

Then there were the two “prototype” cars / bodies that were produced:

The GT road car from Le Mans - The now famous Le Mans photo of all three cars showed a yellow prototype road car with the newer-style GT bodywork in the center. This body was removed and replaced with “race ready” bodywork in preparation for it’s possible use at Le Mans (supposedly – last night I recovered some info that indicated that this was actually a fourth chassis that was at Le Mans, meaning they had three race cars there plus this road car). This particular body included as part of the bankruptcy sale of Dauer Racing GmbH, and now currently exists on the East Coast of the United States where it is being resurrected back into the Dauer 962 Le Mans road car that was shown in the Le Mans pits. Mike Sapena, from New Jersey, first purchased this Dauer project and is now near completion on his LM GT car.

The Prototype Car - This is the car that we recently acquired. Liquidated as part of the Dauer bankruptcy sale, this still contains the Michelin stickers on the front of the car as it was displayed in Dauer’s showroom. The headlamps and taillamps on this body are completely different from the Brunei car, pretty much proving that this particular body / chassis is the one that was used in the all the press photos and also used to set the world speed record at the VW test track in Ehra-Lessien. While the later cars were manufactured using body molds from Lola Composites, our sources tell us that this first body was manufactured differently, and thus accounts for some of the differences that we can see. We have all of the Lola molds for the later cars, so it’s easy to spot the differences. The car body that we have also has the “hand made” sticker on the rear which matches up clearly to many of the protype photos from the “Dauer archives”.

This is the car that was transported to Singapore and Dubai, and also presumably the one that set the world speed record for the fastest production car. We do not know what chassis was used with this body during this time period, but it may perhaps be 962-169, the one that was used as the test car at Le Mans. We believe that the car was disassembled and reassembled many times during its tenure with Dauer, as it appeared with various updates and a variety of changing interior colors. Originally decorated with yellow leather, the folks at Dauer decided that a bright green interior would look good. We’re not sure what they were thinking. We have this entire green interior sitting on the shelf.

So what are the plans for the car? We intend to put it back together with a nod towards updating it – a la “Singer style”. What does that mean exactly? We will be installing a genuine Porsche GT-1 engine (yes, that’s correct) along with a genuine Porsche GT-1 transmission with a sequential shifter (that means that you push up to shift up one gear or push down to shift down one gear). Dauer’s later-style updates with the “semi-automatic” transmission were not very well received and considered a bit wonky. Likewise, the hydraulic lift systems installed on some of the later cars were less than reliable. We intend to keep the car as close to the original “962 style” as possible, with the obvious nod to the updated and much improved drivetrain. As an added bonus, we are using the later-style GT-1 engine and drivetrain – the same one included in the 1998 GT-1 street car. This advanced drivetrain was only available from the factory and not installed on customer cars. We’re installing all of the original GT-1 rear suspension as well. The work will be done at Katana LTD in the UK with assistance from various shops including Steve Austin’s Austech and Garnet @ Restone Performance Engineering.

So, that’s a total of 11 cars that we can figure out from historical photos and documents. In addition, there was a “wind tunnel model” that was used in the video on YouTube. This one lacks the “962 Le Mans” script on the back, so it’s clearly different from the 11 models listed above. However, this may have only been a clay model (hard to tell from the video) – it doesn’t look too “production ready”.

There you go! I’ll try to post some photos now that are not part of the “standard set” of photos that everyone has seen elsewhere on the Internet. I also have a lot more detailed information in the write-up on our website here: http://dempseymotorsports.com/1993-dauer-962-le-mans-prototype-road-car/

Thanks!

-Wayne

 

Photos time!

Here's the prototype body as it sits today:
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Here is a photo of it in Dauer's showroom, with the Michelin stickers:


The prototype car in testing:
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The prototype car as it sits pretty much today, tucked away, waiting...
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Here's a photo of the chassis vin plate contained in the "Bumble Bee" car:
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Here's the wind tunnel car:
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Cool image of the Lola Composites tag on the molds that we have:
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Here's a photo showing the "hand made" sticker on the press photo and currently on the car we have:
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Some of the Sultan car photos (sorry if they have been reposted before, I will try to pick ones I haven't seen in this thread):
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Here you can see the green car in the background of the Sultan's garage:
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Silver car in corner of this photo (taken in the "glass house"):
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Not sure if this photo has been uploaded yet, it shows the yellow car, the red car, and the green car again all lined up in a row:

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Okay, some photos on the headlamp differences:



On the left side of the image, you can see our car, the yellow prototype. On the right side are the various other cars that came into production thereafter. You can see that the headlamp position is much higher on the prototype car (shown by the green circles), and also the actual shape of the headlamp surround has changed (shown by the red line). This makes it very easy to match the period photos of the car to the prototype body that we currently have.

There are some erroneous reports on the Internet that say that the Sultan of Brunei saw the yellow prototype car at a car show (probably in Singapore or Dubai) and bought it on the spot. We've always been doubtful of this story because as a car manufacturer, one would never want to sell off their prototype that they use for fitment, or for selling to other buyers. Well, it turns out that all of the Sultan's cars have the later-style lowered headlamp, which means that they are not the prototype car that we currently have. One can see the headlamp differences in this secret photo, taken of the Sultan's yellow 962 Le Mans:



I'm going through some more photos I found recently, I'll post them when I get some time.

-Wayne

 

Hello,

i was wondering, is the silver 456 GT Venice in London still owned and driven by BRF?
I noticed that the black 288 GTO with red stripe used plate 3 XO while the 456 GT Venice used 1 XO.

 

also, the Venice Sedan in UK used 1 XX plates

 

"The “Bumble Bee” car - Despite the incorrect photo in Auto Bild magazine, this one is not 962-133, but instead it’s 962-8-001 (a spare chassis that Porsche had used at one time to test a 928-type variant engine in the 962). This one was originally seen in 1995 at the IAA show in Germany, and was subsequently sold a few times. It’s currently in a private collection in Sweden."

I know this car (962-8-001) very well and also its former Swedish owner.
The car was sold to Norway who also bought my 1994 Lamborghini SE30 Jota as seen on picture.
I inspected this Dauer 962 in 2015 at a supercar dealer in Sweden before delivery to its new owner i Norway.

Pictures from Oslo Motorshow 2015.
Its currently for sale in Norway.

More pictures of the Dauer cars in Brunei from public FB:

https://www.facebook.com/Dauer962LM/posts/at-the-oslo-car-show-2015-at-tj-autovia-rogers-car-videos/2021394401282891/

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Cool, I'll update my notes to reflect "Norway" instead of Sweden. Here are two photos from 1995 too- those are certainly some oddball costumes...
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#56655 (full chassis number ZFFPA16B000056655)

In Mr. @joe sackey's "The Book of the Ferrari 288 GTO" this car is described as "Final homologation GTO".

Quoting Mr. @Marcel Massini, this particular 288 GTO was first delivered to its original owner Filea S.p.A. in Cuneo, Italy (not Como as quoted by Mr. Massini) as a regular LHD car painted in Rosso Corsa FER 300/6 with black leather interior Nero VM 8500, engine #00198.

The car had three individual Italian owners from April 1985 until 1993.

In 1993 the car was sold to the Brunei Royal Family and was shipped directly to Pininfarina.

Between 1993 and 1994 the car went through a full RHD conversion and was repainted in Indian Blue (ENG) or Indiana Blu (ITA). It is not confirmed but, judging by the other 288 GTO's shipped to Brunei, this car was most probably also delivered with A/C and power windows.

On March 30th, 1994 the car was finalized and waterproof tested at Pininfarina in Turin, as seen in the photos taken by Ing. Paolo Garella.

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Source: https://www.paologarella.com/cars.php?id=56

Interesting to see that the car had a black painted body divide recess (or stripe).

In July 1994 the car was delivered to the Brunei Royal Family and so does confirm Mr. @Marcel Massini and the photos taken by Ing. Paolo Garella.

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Source: https://www.paologarella.com/cars.php?id=7

In the photo above, taken by Ing. Paolo Garella on July 29th, 1994 you can see both #55671 (Rosso Corsa) and #56655 (Indiana Blu). Note that the car now has the famous red stripe. Painted before delivery? Painted in Brunei? Who knows...

The car was/is registered in Brunei with its number plate BK65.

In October 2018 the image below was posted on Facebook by Mr. Maurizio Corbi. He is an Italian Automotive Artist and Senior Car Designer at Pininfarina. As far as I understand, he was in charge of creating realistic drawings of the future Brunei cars and liveries... a bit like a virtual car configurator nowadays. The drawing dates to 1994, most probably during his time in Brunei. Again interesting to see that the car was drawn with its red stripe. Within the comments under the original post on Facebook, Mr. Maurizio Corbi confirmed the drawing depicts a blue 288 GTO (some may say it could be the black one).

He also drew images of one of the three Brunei McLaren F1 LM1's (one of the two with the infamous liveries) and a (green?) Ferrari F50. You can see both images in my quote below the image of the blue 288 GTO. Notable mentions go to @Peloton25 and @basman007.

Here is his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/mcorbiartdesign60

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As for #55671 there is at least one more very recent private photo in existence from inside the "Royal garage" in Jerudong, Brunei but it cannot be shared in public. I have seen it and I can confirm it's certainly chassis #56655 and that the number plate BK65 is clearly visible. The car has also the red stripe which is also clearly visible.

In fact #55671 and #56655 are parked next to each other and are surrounded by four Ferrari FX's (red, yellow, black, blue), a matte black Ferrari 456 GT with the roof-mounted RADAR, four or five Jaguar XJ220's and some other cars. Some of the cars are covered under transparent plastic wraps.

The photo in question apparently is dated to 2020. Most probably first half of 2020. This is all I can tell you.

To this day the car appears to be still in Brunei.

More to follow. Stay tuned!

 

56655:
NOT Cuneo.
Filea S.p.A. was domiciled at Viale Giulio Cesare 18 in Como, Italy.
In Cuneo there is no such street or address. There is a street distance of 280 kms between Cuneo and Como and the province is not the same. Maybe a similar sounding name (Cuneo - Como), for some.
And I have the old Italian registration paperwork.
Also: 56655 was not sold in April 1985 but on the 3rd June 1985 only (re your statement of three individual owners from April 1985 onwards).

Marcel Massini

 

As usual, GRAZIE!

 

Hello here are small illustrations that I had fun doing if you have additional information, do not hesitate.

Someone has other photo of the Emerald Green, unfortunately I only know one public and another private.

And anyone has any idea what the Venice Estate is registered BP911 as it appears to be green but not emerald and the other green never went to UK.

Have a good day



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Spotted (not by me, see credits below) this weekend at Marconi Museum! Glad to see fresh pics of this 456 GT Venice Spider.

Credits: https://instagram.com/oldcarsanonymous
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Credits: https://instagram.com/countachfan
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I think you mean "BP9111" instead of "BP911". This should be FER F456 GT BP9111 ZFFWP44C000105382. So this could be car #5 in your list.

456 #7 in your list was to my knowledge initially delivered to Brunei:

FER F456 GT BN3223 ZFFSP44C000103190

Has then probably left the Sultan's garage in Brunei heading to the UK. Car was registered under "CIA4" but there is also a photo of the car circulating with the plate "406 LA". To my knowledge this car has then been repainted to silver and fitted with a tan interior.

The silver 456 (car #7) has first been registered in the UK in April 2005 wearing the plate "1XO" with the VIN:ZFFSP44C000103190

@Lm_spot do you run the instagram account: "brunei_car_collection" ?

 

The second photo, showing the front angle of the 456 does show a different plate than "KR1981". Further, what is with "B1981" and "1PB". Could it be that it always is the identical car just wearing different plates?
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I've always been curious as to how the cars actually get out of the collection?

 

More likely to be 021

 

Found this image of the black 962 Chassis 172 (still in Brunei) being tested on Le Mans maybe?
Credit to supercars .net for the image.
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Photos by Andrew Olson. Seen recently in SoCal.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CNiAyo-FJVL/


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You are right about the BP9111 plate I forgot a number

The 7 never went to Brunei, I had the chance to discuss with Paolo Garella who confirmed to me that she never arrived in Brunei.

In the early 2000s he repainted it in silver and changed the interior

And the 456 Silver from Brunei has changed plate several times, a friend sent me a photo 2 weeks ago where we see it inside the Maju Motors garage for its maintenance so I put the most recent plate.

And the order of the car comes from Paolo I think that the 1 is the first one built then the 2 .....

 

I am doing the same with the 456 Venice Spider.

I have all the information for the Yellow, Rosso, Black and the Green of the US

If anyone can help me complete the last three.

I look for:
Silver: interior color, VIN and Plate
Emerald Green: interior color, VIN and Plate
And the last all impossible to find any information even the color.
For me it would be Titanium like the Estate 4 because there is also a sedan of this color



PS: thank you to the person who helped me to finish the 456 Venice Estate sheets but now they are complete

 

You are reffering to #7 as in VIN: #103190 I guess. So who took delivery of the car if it has never been shipped to Brunei?

Could you post this picture?

Would you mind posting the information sheet on the 456 Venice Estates?