On Sunday, two Instagram accounts began posting peeks at perhaps the largest, most secretive car collection in history. The thousands-strong trove belonging to the royal family of Brunei is thought to include more Rolls-Royce automobiles than any other—though it contains far more than British luxury cars. The collection’s been largely kept from the public eye for decades, save for a few images circling the web here and there. Now, it’s out there for all to see.
These photos were all taken in the early 2000s, so we’re seeing the collection as it sat roughly 20 years ago. As we at The Drive understand it, the images were held by a close-knit group of individuals until a recent falling-out prompted a member of the group to make them public. Petty squabbling strikes again; this time, we all benefit.
The collection was amassed by Prince Jefri Bolkiah and his son throughout the 1990s. Jefri was later caught embezzling billions from both private and sovereign wealth funds. As part of his restitution, a large portion of the collection was relinquished. Some cars from the collection eventually wound up for sale (likely to cover a related debt), but absent a few noteworthy examples, we know very little about where these cars have landed.
The fleet was widely known to include many bespoke models, including vehicles commissioned explicitly and exclusively for the Sultan himself. One of the most noteworthy examples was the Bentley Dominator, seen above. This early Bentley SUV neatly previewed the Bentayga decades before it would eventually arrive for the masses.
But if that doesn’t impress you, how about a Ferrari 456GT Estate? You and your friends can just walk into Ferrari dealerships and spec any model this way, right?
This 1993 Bugatti EB110 SS was one of four delivered to the Sultan and the only one in this spectacularly ’90s finish. This is a well-documented car and one of three that reportedly remain in the collection.
If those whet your appetite, there are dozens more like them on two profiles: brunei_cars_2001 and taffy_c_s_145. While it seemed like we’d be treated to a drip feed of such images for a very long time, at some point on Monday, the former profile shared a Google Drive link to the entire set in its story. It’s hard to say if it represents the whole collection in full, as many cars have seemingly come and gone, but it’s undoubtedly the widest look at the stash that the public’s ever had at one time.
By the way, if you download that folder, be warned: it’s huge. It measures about a gigabyte in size and is organized by make and model. It’s actually pretty surreal to navigate because, as we’ve said, some of these cars weren’t widely known about until now. Clicking on sub-folders describing strange re-bodied Bentleys with cryptic names like “Buccaneer” and “Imperial,” you never know what you’re about to see, and that makes it all the more exciting. It works the other way, too; one folder titled “AA Unknown Exotic Car” leads to none other than a black example of BMW’s 1991 Nazca M12 concept, styled by Italdesign. Happy digging!
Update Nov. 25, 2024, 4:10 p.m. Eastern: This article was updated several hours after publishing to note that all of the images have now been shared on a Google Drive.
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