VIN: the Sultan of Brunei McLaren F1 LM chassis LM5
History of chassis LM5
The Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah, was already a serious buyer of high end cars while still Crown Prince of the Southeast Asian kingdom during the mid-to-late 1960s; during studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in England he owned a small UK-based fleet to include a white Maserati Ghibli SS and red Lamborghini Miura P400.
Thanks to his country’s massive natural gas and oil reserves, and as head of state, absolute monarch and head of government, Bolkiah was in total control of Brunei’s funds once he ascended the throne from his father in August 1968. After the Sultan’s brother, Prince Jefri, became Brunei’s finance minister and chairman of the country’s investment agency in 1986, the Sultan’s expenditure on luxury and exotic motor cars wetn up another gear.
In addition to myriad super high end exotics from the likes of Bugatti and Dauer plus all manner of bespoke Pininfarina modified Ferraris, the Brunei Royal Family purchased no less than ten cars from McLaren. This figure included five regular F1 road cars (chassis 002, 004, 005, 008 and 014), an F1 GTR painted to replicate the ‘95 Le Mans winner (chassis 09R) and a long-tailed F1 GT road car (chassis 054).
Remarkably, also dispatched to Brunei were three of the five F1 LM customer cars: chassis LM1, LM4 and LM5.
Whereas chassis LM1 and LM4 were configured in identical black over pale grey colour schemes with blue, yellow and pale grey stripes, this cars, chassis LM5 was Historic Orange as per all other LMs.
Upon delivery to Brunei, LM5 was registered BM2208 and, like LM1 and LM4, it remains in the Brunei Royal collection to this day having covered nominal mileage.
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: unattributed
