If you’re reading this website, and you know anything about the tiny southeast Asian nation of Brunei, it’s probably that its ruler – the Sultan of Brunei – has one of the biggest, most valuable and secretive car collections in the world.
Well, sort of – the collection is usually attributed to the Sultan, Hassanal Bolkiah, who’s presided over the country since 1967, but the bulk of it was actually amassed by his playboy brother, Prince Jefri.
Thought to number somewhere around 2000 cars, at its peak the collection reportedly included 10 of the 106 McLaren F1s ever built; 11 Ferrari F40s, many with totally unique specs and features; and a whole host of special one-offs or extremely limited run cars – one possibly apocryphal tale says that Bentley was singlehandedly saved from bankruptcy in the 1990s by the Brunei Royal Family’s commissions.
Unsurprisingly given the family’s secretive nature, details and images of the collection have always been hard to come by – until now. An Instagram account by the name of @brunei_cars_2001 has popped up and started posting previously unseen images of some of the collection, all seemingly taken in the many storage units likely owned by the family. If you’re quick, at the time of writing, the account’s Instagram stories feature a link to a huge Google Driver folder with hundreds of images of the vast collection.
Per the account’s bio, these images were all taken in 2001, and according to The Drive, they belonged to a group of individuals who were close to the family, with their public release apparently prompted by a recent falling-out.
Posted so far have been shots of most of the collection’s McLaren F1s and Ferrari F40s, as well as multiple Porsche 959s, several Porsche 962 Group C cars converted to road-spec by Dauer, and multiple Bugatti EB110s. Based on what’s included in the Google Drive folder, we can expect plenty more images to come.
There are also fresh images of some of the Bruneian coach-built Bentleys. These include the Dominator, a Range Rover-based SUV that predated the Bentayga by almost 20 years. The family also commissioned saloon, estate and convertible versions of the Ferrari 456, which were built by Pininfarina. These too are all pictured on the account.
In more recent years, the collection’s status has been a bit murky. Among many controversies attached to the Bruneian Royal Family were accusations that Jefri had embezzled nearly $15 million from the government, and ex-Brunei cars pop up for sale every now and then. It’s thought that most of the collection is still sitting gathering dust in Brunei, though.
Even when these images were taken in 2001, it seemed that much of the collection didn’t see regular use, perhaps unsurprising given Brunei covers an area of just 2,226 square miles. Nevertheless, it’s an unprecedented look into a near-mythical collection of metal during its peak.
