Bentley Dominator to Ferrari F40: A look at some of the most expensive and rare cars owned by sultan of Brunei

What do you do when you’ve got billions of dollars in your pocket? You treat yourself with a fleet of ultra-luxury cars. The 29th sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah ibni Omar Ali Saifuddien III, is doing the same.

As per reports, he has over 7,000 cars in his garage from the most expensive makers. The price of the cars is not known as the sultan likes to be notoriously secretive about his wheels.

Wondering how he has so much money? Well, Brunei is a tiny Asian nation that has some of the world’s largest oil and gas reserves, and the Sultan’s control over this valuable resource is the reason for his immense wealth.

For the unversed, one of the sultan’s cars, the 1990 Pininfarina Ferrari Testarossa Spider was sold at auction for US$1.7 million earlier this month, according to RM Sotheby’s.

Let’s take a look at the 76-year-old’s top five rarest and most expensive cars:

Bentley Dominator

Built in the 1990s, Bentley Dominator is unique – Bentley never made SUVs in that decade. No carmaker was interested in paying millions in research and development for a vehicle that might not even return sales, Motor Biscuit reports. However, according to Bentley Spotting, the sultan believed in the idea and commissioned a total of six Dominators, with each of them reportedly costing around US$4.6 million. He saved Bentley from bankruptcy at that time, as per Autojosh.

Ferrari Testarossa F90 Speciale

This one is Sultan’s custom-made creation. As per Slash Gear, six prototypes of the F90 were built and all six versions were sold to him in 1988.

In an interview with Speedholics, Enrico Fumia, who was the deputy director of Pininfarina at that time, said that Prince Jefri, who was the sultan’s brother, had approached him and asked for a custom-made car. He offered a huge amount. The project was supposed to be done in secret, however, Fumia was not willing to build the cars without Ferrari’s knowledge, but eventually agreed to do so, Slash Gear stated. The cars were secretly built and tested during nights, then they were shipped off to Brunei into the sultan’s garage.

BMW Nazca M12

BMW Nazca M12 is one of the most revolutionary cars made by BMW – it’s a supercar with the original prototype under the label’s ownership. Having said that, the sultan had bigger plans in mind. The car that was originally supposed to remain only a concept but the sultan wanted to purchase it. As per Slashgear, he approached Italdesign, the famous studio that was responsible for the car’s design, to create a version just for him in 1991. Reports suggest that he owned the car until 2011 when a car dealer auctioned the M12 along with many other cars . However, whether the car was actually sold or the sultan still owns it is unclear, stated Slash Gear.

McLaren F1LM

According to Road and Track and Hot Cars, the F1 LM by McLaren was launched only with five versions to honor the five F1 racing cars that finished the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans. The sultan bought three of them, which left only two for other buyers. As per Motorious, the fellow buyer is believed to be the famous fashion designer, Ralph Lauren.

In 2009, during the Monterey Car Week, one of these McLarens was sold in California for US$19 million, which means that the sultan’s F1 LM collection could be roughly around US$60 million.

Ferrari F40

One of the best Ferraris ever made, the company only made 19 versions of the Ferrari F40. The Sultan’s love for cars made him order quite a few customized F40s and F40 LMs, Jalopnik reported. As per which car, the sultan wanted to keep his supercars dotted around the world to use during their travels, so two out of many F40s that were ordered were shipped somewhere else other than Brunei. As per Slash Gear, it’s estimated that the sultan could have between seven to 10 such cars.