The Ferrari F40 is one of the most revered supercars of all time. It may not be the fastest, the best handling or the easiest to drive, but that Pininfarina shape and its no-frills character have ensured it a place in history.
When its production ended after a five-year run in 1992, 1,315 examples had left the factory. All of them wore bodies in Rosso Corsa paint and, more crucially, were left-hand drive. That’s what company officials told us at the time…
His Majesty Hassanal Bolkiah, aka the Sultan of Brunei, had a special connection with Ferrari, having spent a fortune or three in building a small fleet of them in his vast car collection. Thus, if HM wanted right-hand drive F40s, Pininfarina would oblige and do the conversion.
The Italian carrozzeria would only do so if you had bought at least six cars – so that’s the minimum number of F40s the Sultan had in his collection. According to Jalopnik, some believe that he had at least 10 RHD F40s, going as far as citing the cars’ chassis numbers and paint, while Ferrari specialist Talacrest says that he had seven.
No matter; the point is that the Sultan’s taste was a bit, well, dubious as he ordered one of the cars with the Testarrosa’s interior! Officially, Ferrari had nothing to do with it but Pininfarina, once again, did the job.
He even had a black F40 LM fitted with leather interior, air conditioning and power windows, which is kind of, well, defying the whole purpose of buying this no-frills, hardcore edition.
You know the saying, money talks etc. Whatever you make of the Sultan’s taste, or lack thereof, you have to admit that 91283, the 1992 Gun Metal Grey F40 with the red stripe, which Talacrest said restoring included a “serious conversion cost”, is not bad at all.
Photos courtesy of Talacrest
By Andrew Tsaousis
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