A Ferrari Wagon?
About a year ago, I came across a clip on Instagram of a car that really caught my eye. It was a Ferrari station wagon. There’s something so wrong about it that makes it so right. And I’m not talking about the FF and the GTC4 Lusso. Though they can kinda be called estates, they would technically be shooting brakes. The car I saw had 5 doors and I was 100% sure it was some sort of hack job done by a wealthy person who wanted to haul their family, but after a bit of research I found out the real story behind the car. So here it is; the Ferrari 456 GT Venice.
Ferrari 456 GT Venice
(via Autoweek)
So the Ferrari 456 was originally offered only as a coupé but the Sultan of Brunei decided to commission Ferrari to build a station wagon version of it. The Sultan was extremely secretive regarding his car purchases, so very little is known about this beautiful wagon. What we do know is: it was based on the standard 456 and carried over the same 5.5L V12. There were a total of seven cars made, of which the Sultan of Brunei only bought six. The last Venice was bought by a private car collector in the UK. The standard 456 was around $220,000 back in the day, but the development costs and exclusivity of the Venice commanded a truly Earth-shattering $1.5 million (approximately... as I said, we don’t know a lot about this car!)
(Another) 456 GT Venice!
(via AutoWeek)
The Sultan of Brunei has a truly MASSIVE car collection, with a supposed 3000-7000 vehicles in his collection. We don’t know the exact number or what all these cars are, again thanks to his secrecy. According to some sources, the Sultan even had a sedan version of the 456 GT! This man clearly had a strong affinity for the 456, which has become a rather unloved Ferrari these days. The Royal Family of Brunei aren’t as wealthy as they were in the 90s and 00s, so rumour has it that most of their cars are rotting locked away, never to be seen…
And the sedan…
(via AutoWeek)
I really love the looks of the Venice and I’m still pretty surprised that it exists at all! Mega thanks to the private collector who imported the seventh car to the UK, without him we would have almost no clear pictures of the damn thing. The Sultan of Brunei’s car collection goes way beyond this beauty, perhaps a topic for further investigation soon…
