Tech Specs

HIGHEST REPORTED SALE

$6,000,000

Past / Present

1996 Ferrari FX

The 1996 Ferrari FX

A Rare 1 of 6 Cars Produced

The Ferrari FX…The Ferrari you’ve never heard of that was destined for a collection no one has ever seen, but never made it there. Of the 6 cars ever produced, this is the only one that escaped its fate of being secreted away into the Sultans collection. But much like the Brunei royal family’s collection of cars, there is precious little information available about his car or its siblings. However, as the only museum on earth that has a Ferrari FX available to view, we want to share all the information we have about what is inarguably one of the rarest Ferraris on the planet.

The Ferrari FX started its life as a Testarossa 512M before a custom run was requested by the Brunei Royal family. Pininfarina was no stranger to custom requests from the family at this point, but the FX would turn out to be one of their most ambitious projects yet. Among the family’s collection was a common theme: most of the cars were right hand drive and automatic. If they weren’t right hand drive, they were often converted, the same goes for most manual transmission cars. The FX was no exception to this preference, but with one small request: The Sultan wanted it converted to a paddle shift system. There was only one problem, the technology didn’t exist yet. Or rather, it did exist but only in the form of shifting systems in F1 race cars of the time. But none of that mattered, the Royal family wanted it and that is what they were going to get, regardless of the cost. 

The first 3 FX cars were fitted with a Prodrive pneumatic button shift system, however when the cars were tested they performed comparatively poorly and suffered many issues trying to adapt the clutch to the new shifter design. With this in mind, Pininfarina enlisted the help of the Williams Grand Prix F1 team for help finishing the last 3. Making use of their proprietary hydraulic shift system (and over $1,000,000 in R&D) they managed to adapt it for use in this heavily modified Ferrari. However, for reasons unknown the full run of cars was never completed, and so this is the only Ferrari FX to receive the new Williams Racing paddle shifters. Which effectively makes FX No.4 the first domestic car to ever receive a paddle shifting system. The rest of the car’s body and interior was equally impressive, if slightly overshadowed by the bleeding edge shifting tech. The interior of the car was entirely custom fabricated by Pininfarina, including hand stitched and dyed Connelly leather seats and dash. 

The FX also represented the first time Pininfarina had worked with carbon fiber on such a scale, so they went to extreme lengths to make sure the carbon was molded and mounted absolutely perfectly. As such, the car’s body is made up of some of the highest quality carbon body work of the time, easily rivaling the modern carbon work of today in weight and craftsmanship. Each FX was also a different color, with ours sporting a deep pearlescent, yet somewhat subdued blue, with interior dyed to match. Regrettably, the true name of this color was a secret lost to time, as is the case with so many custom Brunei cars. To top it off with what is possibly the most iconic part of this mysterious car is the engine cover, which is made up of a single massive piece of transparent Plexiglass.This viewing window is perforated with 12 smooth vent holes representing the cylinders within, which gives you an unobstructed view of the V12 beneath, along with its custom valve covers, emblazoned with the stylized FX logo. All in all, its origin makes it one of the most fascinating and mysterious Ferraris ever made, as well as one of the rarest to ever exist.