Spied! A Ferrari station wagon!
Sharp-eyed Autoblog reader Neil spotted this rare Ferrari station wagon roaming the wilds of London - Oxford St. to
be exact.
Call it a station wagon, an estate car or a shooting brake, this is a rare Ferrari 456 "Venice," a limited edition
series designed and built by Pininfarina (who penned the 456
GT) in 1995 at the request of the royal family of the Sultanate of Brunei. The station wagon featured a 20 cm longer
wheelbase and four doors.
While Neils cameraphone snap at right doesn't quite do it justice,
shooting-brake.com (you can find anything on the net…) has a
gallery (see example below) and brief history of this exotic Ferrari.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Chris 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
WTF! This is so wrong. It makes me wanna gouge my eyes out with a broken twig. Who would do such a thing? Why don't they just build an SUV and get it over with?
Say it ain't so!
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Devin Lussier 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
Holy hatchbacks, Batman! I want one!
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Ethan 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
The ultimate MILF mobile! Put one in the garage next to the E55 Wagon!
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Papercutninja 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
Could there be a vehicle more irrelevant than a 4 door Ferrari? That's why it's so perfect! This is a logical everyday supercar.
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vin 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
I saw this model in a Car & Driver story about the Sultan of Brunei's car collection a few years ago. Does anyone have more info about his car collection? I've heard it's pretty amazing.
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Nathan Jones 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
Jeez, it looks like a Ford Probe from the front end! Not impressed.
NJ
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Rocket Punch 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
1995!!!!!! WOW, Ferrari is really ahead of the game! Take that, Porsche Panamera!
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Djivy 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
Lovely site; only one rather special omission...
http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=51289136&size=o
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Aaron B 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
Djivy, that's just a Nissan Stagea wagon with a front-end conversion. The Stagea actually is a "Skyline wagon," powered by the RB25DET and some versions by the RB26DETT, as well as the Skyline GT-R drivetrain.
http://www.fantasycars.com/sedans/html/stagea.html
Masa Motorsports makes this front-end conversion:
http://www.masamotorsports.com/car/image/m34_l.jpg
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Dude 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
The tagline for that thing will be
"0 to loser in 4.3 seconds"
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Oolon Coluphid 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
I just don't understand why people hate station wagons. I like it.
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Justin Bell 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
It looks so wrong but it looks so right!
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010111 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
"The tagline for that thing will be
"0 to loser in 4.3 seconds""
yeah. i bet the Sultan of Brunei has a *really* tough time getting laid.
the Venice has been one of my favorite wagons for some time now. it's bad ass. if you think having a 'wagon' somehow affects your masculinity you got some issues. and for christsakes! *this* wagon is a freaking 456M. jesus.
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Craig Thomas 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
I saw it last night on Park Lane - one of those real double-take situations. I have to say, it looked pretty smart.
Just goes to show - if you're a multi-billionaire, you can get anything...
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Mark Kenworthy 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
I used to live in brunei (1997-2000) and a friend of mine was a daughter of the Sultan's brother (Jefri) and she used to be driven around in the black one, one of the other princesses had the yellow one. The others probably just lived in Jefri's extensive garages. Interestingly Jefri and his family were told to leave the country following the miss america scandels... They moved to london....
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