VIN: the Brunei Royal Family Ferrari Testarossa Spider chassis EFF113
/ Ben Tyer
HISTORY OF CHASSIS EFF113
Although the onshore Seria field was discovered in 1929, it wasn’t until the 1960s that Brunei became a major player in oil and gas thanks to advances in offshore exploration. Following the opening of the Ampa liquefied natural gas field 13km off Kuala Belait in 1963, the Fairley field close to Ampa followed in 1969. Between 1970 and 1979, three more offshore fields were discovered (Seria, Magpie and Rasau) which increased Brunei’s output to in excess of 250,000 barrels per day.
Having ascended to Brunei’s throne as absolute monarch in October 1967, Hassanal Bolkiah elected to spend some of his country’s new found wealth on a fleet of high end motor cars. The volume of acquisitions then went up a notch after the Sultan’s brother, Prince Jefri, was appointed Finance Minister in 1986. Within a few years, hundreds of millions of pounds had been spent on an enormous fleet of luxury and performance cars, a good number of which were bespoke creations purchased at vast expense.
Included in this were a large selection of cars ordered from Ferrari that the Brunei Royals sent straight to Pininfarina for customisation. Some were subsequently equipped with entirely new types of bodywork while others were transformed into iterations of production models not officially offered by the Maranello marque.
Chassis EFF113 was numerically the last of eleven Testarossas that the Brunei Royals commissioned Pininfarina to convert into Spiders similar to the 1986 car built for Fiat boss, Gianni Agnelli.
Configured in the beautiful combination of Verde with Nero upholstery, chassis EFF113 was arguably the most handsome of all the Brunei Testarossa Spiders. The car is believed to have remained a static exhibit in the Royal Collection since its arrival in Asia.
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: unattributed
