3 hours Ago By Jordan Mulach
Brunei may not be one of the first countries you might think about when someone mentions car culture – Japan, Italy and the US are arguably the most well-known contenders. However, the Sultan of Brunei, the leader of the small Southeast Asian nation, is famed for his massive car collection, which has long been kept under wraps. A trove of photos has now been released, giving us a look behind the curtain at a collection worth more than the GDP of some nations.
Instagram accounts brunei_cars_2001 and taffy_c_s_145 were the first to upload some images, before more became available through a massive Google Drive folder, detailed across 15 makes and two sets of ‘miscellaneous’ photos, with even further model and variant details. 100s of new car deals are available through CarExpert right now. Get the experts on your side and score a great deal.
Browse now . Before you go on saying “why do the images look so old?” – it’s because they are, with multiple reports claiming these pictures were taken in 2001, providing a snapshot of the collection from more than two decades ago. Regardless, there are some proper oddities in there, such as a Bentley Dominator, a bespoke SUV commissioned by the Sultan more than a decade before the British brand made the mass-market Bentayga .
Among the tens of supercars are a huge number of luxury vehicles, again with many made by request of the Sultan. There’s even the surprise inclusion of an Australian car: a HSV VN SS Group A, built to homologate Holden’s racing Commodore. All up, the collection was rumoured to include approximately 3000 to 7000 cars at its peak, mostly made up of vehicles which were limited production and uber-expensive at the time.
Unfortunately we don’t know the fate of most of these cars, as much of the collection – which was understood to be jointly owned by Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah’s brother Prince Jefri Bolkiah – was reportedly abandoned after the royal family faced financial difficulties. Sadly, many of the Sultan’s cars – of which many were rare or bespoke models – were reportedly left to decay over the years. If you want to have a deeper dive into the 2000s-era collection – as we simply don’t have the time to upload every image – you can view the Google Drive folder here .
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