LA COLECCIÓN DEL SULTÁN DE BRUNEI...

[Rocketman]

Como fiebres que somos, la mayoría nos acordamos desde los 80's (bueno, los más rocos, jaja...) de la colección de carros del Sultán de Brunei. Para aquellos que no han escuchado al respecto, se hablaba de que el mae tenía como 5000 carros, y obviamente nada de Corollas ni Sentras. Puros supercarros. El mayor cliente de Rolls Royce, tenía (debe tener todavía...) docenas de Ferraris, muchos de esos de los cuales solo existían uno o dos, Lamborghinis, Aston Martin, en fin, se pueden hacer una idea de lo que estoy hablando.

De vez en cuando se ha visto alguna foto por ahí supuestamente de dicha colección, no se me olvida hace muchos años que vi una en alguna revista en que salía un F40 blanco, varias 456 station wagon, en fin. Luego uno se vino a enterar de que el hermano del sultán de quien se dice que mandó a correr un edificio porque no pasaba en un Hummer, era dueño de muchos de esos carros, desfalcó al gobierno de Brunei por chorrocientos mil millones de dólares, lo echaron del país, lo demandaron, en fin, un puro despuche. El mae tenía un Yate que se llamaba Tits con unos dinghys llamados Nipple 1 y Nipple 2, jajaja, la clase de estrella!!!

Bueno, mucha hablada, sorry que esté en inglés, read and weep.


Posted on lunes, 14 de marzo de 2011 09:06:40 p.m. by Mr. Mojo

Few collections of supercars have garnered more interest than the massive cache owned by the Sultan of Brunei and his brother, Prince Jefri. Michael Sheehan, a broker who owns Ferraris Online, has seen its shocking decay. — Ed.

Brunei is an oil-rich nation of only 388,000 people on the north-western coast of the island of Borneo, slightly bigger that Long Island, but less than half the size of L.A. County. A tropical rain forest, Brunei exists mainly because of massive oil and gas reserves. An Islamic Sultanate dating back to the 14th century, Brunei is ruled by Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, an absolute monarch who has ruled since 1967. Forbes has ranked the Sultan as the world's wealthiest monarch for decades with an estimated fortune in the range of $22 billion.

While much had been written of the Sultan of Brunei's car collection and there are no lack of spy photos on the internet, (most of which are incorrect), the cache of 2,500 cars are not the Sultan's, but belonged to Prince Jefri, the Sultan's third brother, other Princes-brothers and various nephews. No one really knows which cars belonged to whom as there are no real records.

Even billionaires can go broke

As the Minister of Finance for Brunei (until 1997) Prince Jefri controlled the revenue from oil and gas. Thanks to the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Prince Jefri's investment firm collapsed under $10 billion in debt; audits later found Jefri himself had received $14.8 billion.

Much of the money went into a private life that included five wives, 17 children and a harem of about 40 women kept in a palace next to the car collection. The women in the harem were paid up to $20,000 a week in addition to opulent shopping excursions, or trips aboard Jefri's 180-foot yacht christened "Tits."

In 2000, Prince Jefri settled lawsuits against him by the government of Brunei and began to return assets to the state including more than 500 properties in Brunei and abroad, more than 2,000 cars, 100 paintings, five yachts, and nine world-class aircraft. His records revealed he spent $78 million at Pininfarina SpA for coach-built Ferraris, and $475 million at Rolls Royce.

In early 2002 I was offered a package of thirteen very special Ferraris and McLaren F1s from the collection by an importer into Brunei. After the usual negotiations I agreed to buy two McLarens, an F40 LM and a 288 GTO Evoluzione for clients, with an option to buy another sixteen McLarens and Ferraris, all of which I had pre-sold.

A study in wretched excess

In May 2002 I flew to Brunei and was there for three days staying at the Empire Hotel. Commissioned by Prince Jefri and built at a cost of $1.1 billion, the Empire Hotel offers a 120-ft high atrium supported by gold-leaf covered marble columns. There are seven four-star restaurants, a golf course, a beach, a massive pool, a cinema, a bowling alley and anything else one could have on an unlimited budget. With 500 opulent rooms and 66 even more opulent suites, I never saw more than a few dozen people in the hotel at once, and then only at breakfast. (Brunei doesn't get many tourists, in no small part because of its Islamic laws banning alcohol.)

My inspection had been pre-approved and I was picked up at the hotel by an ex-New Zealand special forces (SAS) officer working as professional mercenary/bodyguard for the Royal Family's security detail. Nothing of importance is more that a few miles away from anything in Brunei and so the collection was only a few kilometers down the coast from the Empire hotel. The compound was heavily guarded and surrounded by a high wall topped with razor wire wrappings and with a "bomb proof" front gate, much like a maximum security prison. Once inside we were led to the guard-house and had to turn in our cameras and passports.

We first went through eight two-story buildings each about 250 ft long by 60 ft wide with each level holding about 120 cars. Each level of each building had a semblance of a theme, and so the first level of the first building was mostly late-model Porsches from 959s up to the very late 1990s when the money ran out. Another floor contained mainly 1996-1997 Mercedes-Benz 500 sedans, all in black on black while another floor in another building contained mainly coachbuilt Rolls, Bentleys and Astons. Yet another building contained mostly late-model Ferraris including a few dozen 456s and 550s with several 550s fitted with experimental X-Trac automatic gearboxes. About half a dozen were painted in radar absorbing matte-black and fitted with infrared cameras for night driving, high-tech stuff when built in the late 1990s.

Yet another lower floor featured rows of Testa Rossas, 512 TRs and another half-dozen 512Ms Spyders. Yet another floor in another building contained mainly coachbuilt Ferraris with three or four 456 four doors, four 456 Venice Cabriolets, more 456 Venice station wagons, five FXs, a pair of Mythos and an incredibly ugly one-off called an F90. For those dreaming of rows of early Ferraris, the solitary Enzo-era Ferrari was a RHD 275 GTS s/n 7795.

Between the eight large buildings was a glass-walled building much like a modern car dealer showroom. It contained three McLaren F1s, a 288 GTO Evo, an F50 and an F40 LM. The F40 LM was painted black with a full black leather interior with red piping. It was fitted with A/C, power windows and like every car in the collection was right-hand drive. The Brunei sun was slowly cooking these cars as the glass showroom acted as a very efficient greenhouse. Like most of the buildings the A/C was turned off so the combination of heat and humidity was doing none of these cars any good. Underneath this building in a windowless blacked-out theatre-type setting was a row of F40s with a trio of 288 GTOs and a smattering of other cars.

300 Mercedes to build a reef

Near the back of the compound were two long, two-story buildings set about 50 feet apart. Stretched between the two buildings was a corrugated tin roof on an elaborate trellis which offered some protection from the blistering sun but not from the rain. In the shade of the overhang were another 300 or so cars, mostly 1995-97 500 SELs and SLs, all black/black, many with the windows down, all rotting into oblivion. All were right-hand drive, none had airbags and none had duty paid, so... not viable to sell to England, and because of the no-airbags, difficult to be sold to Australia or New Zealand. Many were AMG specials with very nice wood or carbon-fiber trimmed interiors, big motors, etc. We referred to this group as "the reef," as that was probably their ultimate disposition.

A late-model (1997 "ish") Rolls convertible was stored next to the Mercedes, but under a real roof and better protected. When I opened the door I saw that the car had gotten so hot with the windows up in the Brunei summer that the foam padding in the steering wheel had melted and had formed a puddle of melted foam in the front seat. The leather wrap was still on the barren steel rim of the steering wheel and hung down like a used condom. The entire interior and even the dash had "gone off" in the tropical heat and humidity and so the leather interior was fuzzy grey with mold.

Different sub-buildings housed cars for different members of the Royal family, with one single story building holding 60 or so unusually weird cars, almost all in a very bright yellow including a row of yellow four-wheel-drive Bentley station wagons. This building also held a dozen or so late-model Lamborghinis, most in yellow, with a few non-yellow cars such as a black 456 Venice wagon with mirrored side windows. Yet another smaller building had a room full of high-end motorcycles. An adjacent room was filled with hundreds if not thousands of empty Rolex, Cartier and Patek Philippe watch presentation boxes. Outside and behind one of the very long buildings was a row of a dozen or so "lesser" cars including the collection's token Corvette, all absolutely destroyed by the sun and rain. In 1998, when the money stopped the large mechanical staff was let go so the collection was like a vast tomb, patrolled only be a few Gurkhas with dogs.

One of the former Rolls-Bentley service staff commented that in the 1990s Bentley's revenues were kept in the black thanks to "Blackpool," the Sultan of Brunei whose stable of luxury cars used the only highway in the country. The staff keeps a Rolls-Royce out front with the engine running 24-7 ('just in case' he ever needs to break and run for the airport). The Rolls-Bentley staff prayed in case of revolt the natives would torch the garage, otherwise the used Rolls-Bentley market worldwide would have been flooded for years to come.

Of the 2,500 cars in the collection less than 100 were Ferraris and only a few hundred cars in total were commercially viable. All had minimal mileage but all were poster children for deferred maintenance. None had been started in five years (and that was back in 2002) and so over 2,000 lesser cars were simply beyond saving. Our offers were cheerfully accepted by the importer who had offered the cars but none came with any service records. Even worse, none had titles and getting a bill of sale or an export documents was almost impossible as the mid-level Bruneian bureaucrats were paralyzed by indecision or the fear of making a "political" mistake and issuing export paperwork.

We were not allowed to visit any of the many other palaces belonging to the various Princes/brothers, sons or nephews, but each has its own underground car park and private collection although only the Sultan has more than a few hundred cars. Being the Sultan the money never ran out, so the Sultan does have all the latest and greatest collectables. Alas we were not allowed to see them as there was no chance they would ever be for sale.

The bitter ends

My trip to Brunei was an amazing cultural and automotive experience, but we were never able to buy a car out of the collection and eight more years in a rain forest has certainly not helped any of these cars. The local officials have no plans to save or to sell the collection and no interest in turning it into a tourist attraction as that could prove to be politically embarrassing. They simple do nothing.

Over the last eight years less than a dozen significant cars have left, most as gifts to well-connected ex-pats. Another few hundred more pedestrian Mercedes have been given to Brunei locals but the bulk of the collection is still there and will die there, rotting into oblivion, a massive example of wretched automotive excess and a total dismissal of beautiful automobiles.

Tomado de: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2688892/posts

The Rocketman
How about that Rockets?

[mclaren]

[Luifer]

Ohhhhhhhh!!!! Que basureada!

[Rocketman]

Si quiere libros de colorear pídaselos a la muchacha en McDonalds... jajajajaa.

Si LEE se dará cuenta de que al mae NO lo dejaron tomar fotos. Sorry si usted solo lee libros con dibujitos, no todos traen!!

The Rocketman
All in fun Rockets

[pmontero]

Si quiere libros de colorear pídaselos a la muchacha en McDonalds... jajajajaa.

Si LEE se dará cuenta de que al mae NO lo dejaron tomar fotos. Sorry si usted solo lee libros con dibujitos, no todos traen!!

The Rocketman
All in fun Rockets

mae si al carajo lo hicieron dejar hasta el pasaporte confiscado para entrar a ver la colección ( snif, o lo que quedaba de ella ) cómo tutas hace McLaren para pedir fotos???

[Rocketman]

Para los que se se les acabó la ritalina, jajajaja.















Galería acochis...

The Rocketman
Happy now Rocket?

[Luifer]

UY MAE!!! Tuve un accidente en mis pantalones...... Que chuzos!!!

[OscarF21]

De estos cuantos hay en el mundo? Porque es primera vez que veo uno

[Tripper]

La verdad... que tristeza! Como dijo Rocketman en otro tema... "Una historia de Terror!!!" y concuerdo con su firma... "Infinite Sadness!"

[jarce]

hay unos bien feos....pero por exclusivos se ven chuzos...

[mclaren]

muchas de esas fotos de Pedro NO son tomadas en Brunei, por ejemplo un grupo de carros los sacaron y los subastaron, como un par de CLK GTR, el Cizeta, el Nazca, etc etc

Oh my Jalopnik, Im going to hell dirty sinner !





ahora, que hay muchos blogs q sacan y sacan fotos supuestamente de la coleccion, pero quien sabe si son realmente de ahi

[pmontero]

muchas de esas fotos de Pedro NO son tomadas en Brunei, por ejemplo un grupo de carros los sacaron y los subastaron, como un par de CLK GTR, el Cizeta, el Nazca, etc etc

Oh my Jalopnik, Im going to hell dirty sinner !


ahora, que hay muchos blogs q sacan y sacan fotos supuestamente de la coleccion, pero quien sabe si son realmente de ahi

cuales fotos mías perro yo no he hecho nada!!!

Ahora vas a decir que es culpa del "quote" del foro... pero no le diste quote!


RVA es vara.

[Luifer]

muchas de esas fotos de Pedro NO son tomadas en Brunei, por ejemplo un grupo de carros los sacaron y los subastaron, como un par de CLK GTR, el Cizeta, el Nazca, etc etc

Oh my Jalopnik, Im going to hell dirty sinner !


ahora, que hay muchos blogs q sacan y sacan fotos supuestamente de la coleccion, pero quien sabe si son realmente de ahi

cuales fotos mías perro yo no he hecho nada!!!

Ahora vas a decir que es culpa del "quote" del foro... pero no le diste quote!


RVA es vara.

Jale jale revoltoso!!!! Jajajajajajajajajaja!

[Tripper]

Algunos numeros...
(sin fotos)

Motor cars

The Sultan is famous for his vast automobile collection. In 1998, the British car magazine Autocar published undercover photographs of the Sultan's cars, which included unique modifications of Ferraris and Bentleys. It has been said that he has 3,670 cars[4] and has bought over US$789 million worth of high-performance cars.

The number purchased by his business interests and the number actually used by himself and his family differ greatly. According to Guinness World Records the Sultan's personal private collection has 230 Rolls-Royces, 325 Ferraris, and 20 Koenigseggs — the largest collection of that marque in the world.[4] During the 1990s, his family accounted for almost half of all Rolls-Royce purchases, bulk buying slightly modified vehicles for diplomats and adding unique cars to their own collection. He also owns the very last Rolls-Royce Phantom VI, a 1992 state landaulette. The Daily Mirror (UK) reported on 26 October 2007 (updated on 21 February 2011) that the Sultan owned 230 Rolls Royces, 983 Mercedes-Benzes, 325 Ferraris, 441 Bentleys, 267 BMWs, 205 Jaguars, 222 Porsches, and 47 Lamborghinis.[4]

Among his collection are the Porsche Carrera GT, Lamborghini Diablo Jota, Porsche 959, Bugatti EB110, Bugatti Veyron (regular and Pur Sang edition), Lamborghini Murcielago LP640, Maybach 62, Jaguar XJR-15 and six Dauer 962s. He is also the owner of six models of the Ferrari FX, the original red show model of the Bentley Continental R, the only Porsche Carma made so far, the only Koenigsegg Agera CC GT, two fully operational versions of the Ferrari Mythos concept car, both of the Ferrari 456 GT Sedans, the only right hand drive Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR in the world, five McLaren F1s including both black LM models and three Cizeta-Moroder V16T cars, 10 out of 77 made Aston Martin One-77s, the only convertible Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato. He also possesses a Formula One car as driven by every Formula 1 World Drivers Champion since the 1980 Formula One season, particularly the ones driven in the last race for each season. A prime example of this is Jacques Villeneuve's Williams FW19 which still bears the collision damage courtesy of Michael Schumacher in the 1997 European Grand Prix.

He has a special interest in buying one-of-a-kind cars, including the Bentley Java and Bentley Dominator 4x4, whilst leaving slightly more common race cars such as the Aston Martin AM3 or the modified Mercedes-Benz 300SL to his brother Jefri. The collection of vehicles was for the most part stored and serviced in five aircraft hangars, where specialist teams from the various manufacturers would maintain the collection and be paid a large sum of money. He has bought a Tata Nano made of platinum and diamonds, worth $10 million.

Additionally, the Sultan is known for his taste in high performance sport wagons. In addition to several different Bentleys, the Sultan has also custom-built Ferrari and Mercedes-Benz station wagons. Both the Ferrari 456T "Venice" and the AMG S73 T Kombi are V12-powered cars with over 450 hp that the Sultan has had modified into 5-door wagons. He owns at least six Ferrari wagons and ten S73 T S-Class wagons.

Other assets

Despite his personal extravagance, he has attempted to share the country's oil wealth. In Brunei, mockingly dubbed the "Shellfare State", a reference to the significant influence of the Shell Oil Company,[5][6] Bruneians have free education and medical services. There are neither personal nor corporate taxes in Brunei.

His official residence is the Istana Nurul Iman, with 1,888 rooms, 290 bathrooms, and a floor area of 2,152,782 sq ft (200,000 m²), undisputedly the world's second largest palace after Beijing's Forbidden City (720,000 m²). The Istana is an official residence with offices housing the Offices of the Sultan and Yang DiPertuam, Grand Chamberlain's office, many istana departments like protocol, istana household and finance departments and offices of the Prime Minister's Department. Some offices of the Ministry of Defence and Ministries of Finance are also functional there as the Sultan is the Prime Minister, Minister of Defence and Minister of Finance. The Crown Prince, who is the Senior Minister, also works from offices at the istana. Hyatt Borneo Management Services and HM The Sultan's flight also maintain offices there.

[Rocketman]

muchas de esas fotos de Pedro NO son tomadas en Brunei, por ejemplo un grupo de carros los sacaron y los subastaron, como un par de CLK GTR, el Cizeta, el Nazca, etc etc

Y al principio del artículo dice: "-While much had been written of the Sultan of Brunei's car collection and there are no lack of spy photos on the internet, (most of which are incorrect)"

The Rocketman
Rockets Read Carefully

[lantratukiki]

q rajado ese mae di no se ... tan asi no disfruta fijo el mae. es como el roco de la mansion de playboy fijo fijo ya ni le gustan las mujeres.

mejor que regale esos carritos... y que putssss es RVA??? no soy tan cibermaniaco pero me da curiosidad que signific esa vara?

[Luifer]

y que putssss es RVA??? no soy tan cibermaniaco pero me da curiosidad que signific esa vara?

viewtopic.php?f=77&t=31157&start=200

Hasta junta directiva hay:

viewtopic.php?f=27&t=31189&start=25

[mclaren]

had been written of the Sultan of Brunei's car collection and there are no lack of spy photos on the internet, (most of which are incorrect)"

mclaren escribió:
muchas de esas fotos de Pedro NO son tomadas en Brunei, por ejemplo un grupo de carros los sacaron y los subastaron, como un par de CLK GTR, el Cizeta, el Nazca, etc etc

Oh my Jalopnik, Im going to hell dirty sinner !

ahora, que hay muchos blogs q sacan y sacan fotos supuestamente de la coleccion, pero quien sabe si son realmente de ahi


cuales fotos mías perro yo no he hecho nada!!!

Ahora vas a decir que es culpa del "quote" del foro... pero no le diste quote!

RVA es vara.

oopps diay mae es q tengo dislexia informatica con los QUOTES, sorry peter pan la proxima me acusa con campanita


Ya hablando en serio, el tema se publicó hace uuuu en los tiempos jovenes del foro y es MUY bueno, es increible uno casi pierde la dimension de todo esto ... tooodo lo mejor y/o mas exclusivo esta ahi y practicamente con millaje de venta y traslado.

Yo Con tan solo un pinche serie 8 ya me super requete conformaria

[Tripper]

Ya hablando en serio, el tema se publicó hace uuuu en los tiempos jovenes del foro y es MUY bueno, es increible uno casi pierde la dimension de todo esto ... tooodo lo mejor y/o mas exclusivo esta ahi y practicamente con millaje de venta y traslado.

Yo Con tan solo un pinche serie 8 ya me super requete conformaria

El tema si es de uuuuu....!
Pero la noticia es el deterioro y el pesimo estado en la que se encuentran todas estas joyas en abandono! Realmente triste y doloroso...
Y cuidado es que por esa razon le impidieron ingresar con camara!

[Luifer]

had been written of the Sultan of Brunei's car collection and there are no lack of spy photos on the internet, (most of which are incorrect)"

mclaren escribió:
muchas de esas fotos de Pedro NO son tomadas en Brunei, por ejemplo un grupo de carros los sacaron y los subastaron, como un par de CLK GTR, el Cizeta, el Nazca, etc etc

Oh my Jalopnik, Im going to hell dirty sinner !

ahora, que hay muchos blogs q sacan y sacan fotos supuestamente de la coleccion, pero quien sabe si son realmente de ahi


cuales fotos mías perro yo no he hecho nada!!!

Ahora vas a decir que es culpa del "quote" del foro... pero no le diste quote!

RVA es vara.

oopps diay mae es q tengo dislexia informatica con los QUOTES, sorry peter pan la proxima me acusa con campanita


Ya hablando en serio, el tema se publicó hace uuuu en los tiempos jovenes del foro y es MUY bueno, es increible uno casi pierde la dimension de todo esto ... tooodo lo mejor y/o mas exclusivo esta ahi y practicamente con millaje de venta y traslado.

Yo Con tan solo un pinche serie 8 ya me super requete conformaria

Yo con el 959.............. Chuuuuuuuuuuzo!!!!

[mclaren]

cuidado pierde !!

[Luifer]

Maaaaae ese Porsche es demasiado precioso!!!!!!!!!

[haker]

me siento indignado, cuando se metieron a mi garaje y no me entere

[Rocketman]

El tema si es de uuuuu....!
Pero la noticia es el deterioro y el pesimo estado en la que se encuentran todas estas joyas en abandono! Realmente triste y doloroso...
Y cuidado es que por esa razon le impidieron ingresar con camara!

Exacto. El tema no es acerca de la colección, es acerca del abandono. Y pues claro, lo que dice de carros como el 288 GTO Evoluzione, los F40 y F50 LM, los McLaren F1 llevando sol. Lo interesante del artículo es eso. Claro, hay tragedias humanas más grandes, obviamente, y no es el punto tampoco. Es que para uno que realmente aprecia una joya de ingeniería y de historia automotriz como tal, pues no puede uno más que sentirse un poco triste al leer una historia de esas. A mí personalmente me invadió un no se qué de solo pensar en aquellos cohetes pudriéndose, llenos de moho, asoleados, motores sin arrancar durante casi diez años, no sea tan infeliz usted, para mí carros de ese calibre son obras de arte únicas, casi como seres vivos...

Muy probablemente no lo dejaran tomar fotos por lo mismo, claro, no les gusta que sus excesos y errores sean del dominio público.

The Rocketman
Sad, abandoned Rockets

[Luifer]

El tema si es de uuuuu....!
Pero la noticia es el deterioro y el pesimo estado en la que se encuentran todas estas joyas en abandono! Realmente triste y doloroso...
Y cuidado es que por esa razon le impidieron ingresar con camara!

Exacto. El tema no es acerca de la colección, es acerca del abandono. Y pues claro, lo que dice de carros como el 288 GTO Evoluzione, los F40 y F50 LM, los McLaren F1 llevando sol. Lo interesante del artículo es eso. Claro, hay tragedias humanas más grandes, obviamente, y no es el punto tampoco. Es que para uno que realmente aprecia una joya de ingeniería y de historia automotriz como tal, pues no puede uno más que sentirse un poco triste al leer una historia de esas. A mí personalmente me invadió un no se qué de solo pensar en aquellos cohetes pudriéndose, llenos de moho, asoleados, motores sin arrancar durante casi diez años, no sea tan infeliz usted, para mí carros de ese calibre son obras de arte únicas, casi como seres vivos...

Muy probablemente no lo dejaran tomar fotos por lo mismo, claro, no les gusta que sus excesos y errores sean del dominio público.

The Rocketman
Sad, abandoned Rockets

Eso mismo siento yo.... y de verdad y no es por payasear pero me da tristeza que semejantes chuzos estén ahi... sin que nadie les de una sacudida en el asfalto de vez en cuando.... casi que se me escapan las lágrimas...