Chassis Number: ZA9V16T00MMD38101
Given the Cizeta’s cost and exclusivity, it is no surprise that each V16T produced has an interesting backstory. This car, chassis 101, is no exception. After Brunei became an independent country in 1983, the Sultan of Brunei and his family used a portion of their vast oil wealth to build the largest car collection the world had ever seen.
Commissioning approximately 2,000 cars from all different manufacturers, the royal family singlehandedly kept many luxury brands in business through the tough years of the 1990s. Their search for the most exclusive and technically advanced cars money could buy led them to Cizeta. The royal family purchased three of the nine Cizeta V16Ts built: this blue example and two black examples.
Chassis 101 was shipped from Modena, Italy, to Asia in March 1993; for unknown reasons, it remained with Hong Seh Motors in Singapore for over 25 years and was never delivered to Brunei. Pininfarina subsequently heavily modified the other two V16Ts purchased by the royal family with Ferrari flat-12 engines and irreversible structural changes. One of those cars remains in an incomplete disassembled state, while the other is displayed in the Marconi Automotive Museum in Tustin, CA. Chassis 101 is the only V16T from the Brunei royal family’s collection to have escaped this fate and today remains just as it arrived in Singapore.
