sultan of brunei

The Sultan's Ferrari FX: Forerunner Of Flappy-Paddle Shifting

These days, paddle shifters are on everything from hatchbacks to luxury sedans. But not so long ago, they could only be found on certain exotica and racing cars. Some love 'em, but a lot of enthusiasts would rather have a good ol' fashioned third pedal and a stick. So who do we have to blame for this virus of sequential gearboxes? The man at fault may very well be the Sultan of Brunei. Back in the early '90s, his specially-designed Ferrari FX was the first road car to use a modern paddle-shift setup.
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Ferrari wagon-izations and hypercars bathed in magnetizing yellow are just a couple hints the Sultan of Brunei is perhaps the most Jalopnik head of state in the whole world. Like us, he seems to have a maddening obsession with odd cars. However, what sets him apart is his seemingly unending pot of money with which to manifest his wildest automotive fantasies. Although word on the streets of Bandar Seri Begawan is his fiscal fortunes have depleted as of late, before he sold off some of his assets, he and his family created what may be the most impressive car collection the world has ever seen. Although we already knew this, it wasn't until we were surfing the pages of our fave super car photo site that we realized the sheer height of awesome the collection truly achieved. Not only did they gather production cars, they commissioned the creation of entirely new models from manufacturers like Ferrari, Aston Martin, and Bentley. Hit the jump as we walk you through the crème de' le' crème of the massive collection of automotive exotica found in the garage of the Sultan of Brunei. More »

retro

The Sultan's Cat: Jaguar XJ220 Pininfarina

According to Supercars.net, the Sultan of Brunei's custom Jaguar XJ220 Pininfarina surfaced recently — no mean feat considering the Sultan has approximately 5,000 cars to his name. The history of this rare cat traces to sometime in the mid-1990s, when the Sultan and his brother, Prince Jefri, went on a supercar-buying spree, subsequently having the cars redone by the world's top design shops. At the time, the XJ220 was the fastest car in the world, with a tested top speed of 212.3 mph — an obvious choice for a car nut with endless ducats. This particular specimen allegedly sat in a garage amid two McLaren F1 LMs, four bespoke, Pininfarina-designed Ferrari FX models and other such toys. Yes, but is he happy? – Mike Spinelli More »