The Sultan of Brunei commissioned legendary Italian designer and engineer Pininfarina to design six one-of-a-kind Ferraris. No. 4 of the secret six and the only groundbreaking Ferrari to make it out of the jungle alive, making it one of the rarest and most interesting pieces of the automobile history, can be found at The Marconi Automotive Museum & Foundation for Kids in Tustin, California.
On its travel to Williams Grand Prix, the car blew nearly 30 clutches making the 200-mile trip. Each FX has a custom seal to represent each royal relative they were originally commissioned for in Prince Hakeem’s family.
This 1996 Ferrari has a top speed of 205 mph and can get from 0 – 60 in 4 seconds. Talk about hair raising!
The Verge did a beautiful piece on the museum’s Ferrari FX. Here’s a snippet:
The order came from the Sultan of Brunei’s nephew. It was 1994, and Prince Abdul Hakeem, then 20 years old, had inherited two things: access to a $40 billion fortune, and his family’s penchant for spending it.
In the ‘80s and ‘90s, the monarchs of this tiny, oil-rich nation in the South China Sea bankrolled a fleet of special custom vehicles, ordering the most coveted cars in the world by the half-dozen or more.
Their notorious collection — located in nondescript concrete garages, surrounded by razor wire, and patrolled by armed Nepalese soldiers known as gurkhas — numbered in the thousands. Visitors described rows and rows of warehouses, filled to the brim with luxury cars, sometimes organized by make, model, or even color.
In his online newsletter, Ferrari broker Michael Sheehan described one floor dedicated solely to black Mercedes SL500s, another to red Ferrari Testarossas, and yet another to bright yellow Bentleys and Lamborghinis. One particularly star-studded showroom included a Ferrari 288 GTO Evo, F40 LM, F50, and three McLaren F1s.
Several of the cars in these warehouses were one-of-a-kind, built specifically for Brunei, and could be found nowhere else in the world. For his next order, Prince Hakeem again wanted something special: a Ferrari with a semi-automatic transmission. At the time, the technology didn’t exist on any street-legal vehicle in the world. That didn’t give him any pause. Prince Hakeem was used to getting what he wanted.
If you’d like to read more about the history behind The Secret Six, click here.
This is only one of the many exotic, rare, and beautiful cars housed at the Marconi Automotive Museum in Tustin. Plan your visit, today! Your donation to tour the facilities helps us help children in need.
The Marconi Automotive Museum is a class 501 ©(3) nonprofit located in the heart of Orange County. A portion of the net proceeds from booked events goes to various at-risk children charities throughout Southern California. We are open to the public for museum visitors Monday through Friday 9:00am – 4:30pm, double check ourevent calendar before visiting.
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