VIN: the Sultan of Brunei McLaren F1 chassis 008
History of chassis 008
In total, ten McLaren F1s were delivered to the Brunei Royal Family.
Of these, five were standard F1 road cars (chassis 002, 004, 005, 008 and 014), one was an F1 GTR (chassis 09R), three were to F1 LM specification (chassis LM1, LM4 and LM5) and the last was a long tailed F1 GT road car (chassis 054).
This astonishing consignment formed part of a much wider collection that, by the mid-to-late 1990s, comprised around 7000 vehicles. Of these, a good number were rarely seen exotics to include an array of bespoke coachbuilt machines.
The Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah, and his brother, Prince Jefri, began to acquire high end automobiles in large numbers during the late 1980s. Their seemingly unlimited funds came as a result of Brunei’s vast natural gas and oil reserves. By the early 1990s, the brothers were reputedly spending an average of £500,000 every day with Europe’s top manufacturers.
Chassis 008 was the ninth F1 road car built, one of 25 completed in 1994 and one of the five F1 road cars delivered to Brunei.
Uniquely, it was the only F1 ever painted Cobalt Blue. The interior is believed to have been a mix of dark blue and black leather with a dark grey alcantara upper dash.
Upon delivery to Brunei, 008 was registered BN73. A few years later, pictures of the car emerged looking somewhat tired with light damage to the right-hand door, sill and roof. Since then, we understand the car has been brought back to its original condition.
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: McLaren - https://www.mclaren.com
