Autoblog

Close your eyes and imagine working at AMG, Mercedes' own in-house tuning division that should by now be familiar to everyone. Now go back a decade and imagine being in Affalterbach then. As part of the AMG team, you've had your share of kicks developing monster engines and shoehorning them into otherwise ordinary luxury sedans, and now you've just developed an even crazier engine for the Pagani Zonda. You're looking at the supercar engine, and you're looking at a big ol' S-Class sedan. So tempting, if only someone would give you the budget to put the two together.

Enter stage left the Sultan of Brunei, a monarch with a penchant for crazy cars and the money to make them reality. So in you shoehorn the 7.3-liter DOHC 48-valve V12, all 565 horses worth, and create a monster of a super-sport-sedan. While you're at it, why not fit a special exhaust, brakes, suspension, wheels and full custom interior. Oh yeah, and just for kicks, why not make it a wagon while you're at it. The result: the cartoonishly sinister S73 T AMG.

The Sultan was reported to have originally ordered 15, then decreased the commission to 10 (the oil business must have been slow that year), and sources estimate that a total of 18 were built, with three remaining in AMG's custody. Suddenly the more recent idea of dropping a Lamborghini V10 into an Audi sedan doesn't seem quite so crazy, does it?

[Source: Autojunk.nl]

When you're a sultan, you can't just buy a car off the lot. You have to purchase one (preferably using gold bars as currency) and then have a custom coachbuilder turn it into a one-off fit for royalty. The Sultan of Brunei is the current owner of this stretched Range Rover, for instance, which has had a full four feet of wheelbase added by the British coachbuilder Townley, according to Coolbrit.net (we couldn't find any mention of Townley on the interwebs, so perhaps it's not around any longer).

Adding all that extra room wasn't necessarily done just so the sultan could fill his party bus with more people. No, his Range Rover still seats only five, but the three rear passengers now have a lot more legroom. Rather than keeping a bench back there, the coachbuilders installed two forward-facing buckets and a third seat that faces sideways. In the back there are two TVs (old school ones, not flat screens), a VCR, nice stereo and a laundry list of items that any self-respecting should limo should have. A Ranger Rover in size XXXL like this one would cost you around £139,000 new back in the day, but it's headed for the auction block of H&H Classic Auctions in March, so perhaps some lucky sultan-in-training can pick it up for a song.

[Source: Coolbrit.net]

The Sultan of Brunei is our kind of monarch, having spent considerable sums of money from his country's vast oil revenues on his extensive car collection. Stories are told of special cars made just for him by the likes of Ferrari and Mercedes-AMG. The extent of his personal garage has remained a secret for years, but as details have been emerging recently we bring you this shining example: a special Jaguar XJ220, customized for his royal highness by Pininfarina.

During the XJ220's heyday in the mid-90's, it was one of the fastest cars on the road: the XJ220 hit 60 in 3.8 seconds on its way to a top speed of over 212 mph, motivated by a 550-hp twin-turbo V6. At nearly five meters long, though, the XJ220 was an absolute boat of a supercar, so Pininfarina crafted a shorter body for the sultan's car, which also helped it shed a few pounds off its 3025-lb curb weight. Pininfarina also replaced the pop-up headlamps with fixed units, and affixed a double-vane rear wing. Curiously, while the wheels are usually the first to go when customizing a car, the sultan's specials usually retain their rolling stock, making it easier for drooling car nuts like us to identify their roots. You can bet it underwent extensive wind-tunnel testing and development, much like the famous Italian design house did for its latest custom supercar, the Ferrari P4/5.

We don't know much else about the XJ220, but you can bet he paid a few million, and probably ordered at least two. Other custom rides in the royal motor-pool include the Ferrari FX based on the F512M, the Venice Estate station wagon based on the Ferrari 456GT, the Ferrari Testarossa F90 Speciale, several custom Aston Martins, the Bentley Dominator SUV, and road-going copies of the Pininfarina Mythos and Bentley Java concept cars, not to mention a host of "ordinary" supercars including eight McLaren F1s, six Dauer 962 LMs, a unique right-hand-drive Mercedes CLK-GTR, and dozens of Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Porsches. With a garage like this, who needs a flying carpet?

Click here for the full jaw-dropping list of the Sultan's complete 5000-car collection.

[Source: Supercars.net via Jalopnik]