Most of the car collection of the Sultan of Brunei, in total neglect for years now

The Sultan of Brunei’s car collection is a subject of its own fascinating, which we wrote about not long ago on the occasion of the sale of some of them. However, in the small Asian country, not everything that glitters is gold, and the real condition of the car collection is disastrous, with many of them no longer even able to be restored.

In an article published in Ferraris OnLine, it is reported that for several years now, most of the cars have been left in a state of total neglect, exposed to the ravages of heat, humidity and rain. The facilities that once had air conditioning and maintenance staff are now silent places, filled with abandoned cars, rusted and completely unusable.

The Asian financial crisis of 1997 forced Brunei’s royal family to come back down to earth. After auditors reviewed the spending over a ten-year period, they found that in the good times, the sultanate received invoices for 78 million dollars from Pininfarina for customizing Ferrari and expenses for Rolls-Royce of some 500 million, in addition to purchases of aircraft and yachts.

Of the more than 2,500 vehicles the collection held, it is said that only a few hundred cars that had been well kept and well cared for could be saved. Others had been given away to certain people in Brunei in recent years, and the rest suffered a slow death under the sun (there are reports of melted steering wheels on the seats).

This data dates from 2002, the year in which FerrarisOnLine made its last occasional visit to Brunei. That was 9 years ago. Imagine the state those cars are in today.

Via | Ferraris OnLine