Bentley Silverstone

When information arises about the Sultan of Brunei's coachbuilt Bentley's it is a little exciting.

Very little is actually known about the projects, due the the imposed extreme secrecity, and ecentric exploits that the Sultan and more likely his brother Prince Jefri, when in the 1990's they went on a multi billion dollar spending spree.

A number of posts appear on Bentleyspotting.com about the cars of the Royal Family of Brunei and a summary of the coachbuilt Bentley cars for Royality is here.

Now this is the Bentley Silverstone.

Here is a picture from a garage in Brunei.



From the known Royal Family of Brunei list of cars that details make, model, number plate and VIN numbers it is known that the Number plate BQ9989 belongs to a Bentley Silverstone with VIN SCBZM04A6RCH00304

Decoding the VIN the above car is:

SC = Rolls Royce Motors Ltd;
B = Bentley;
ZM (This is thought to be an error. Most likely ZH)= Sultan Hassanal spec coachbuilt model
04 = 6.75 Litre V8, single Garrett turbocharger, cross-bolted crankshaft, non catalyst, from 1988;
A = Active seat belts;
6 = Checksum Digit;
R = 1994;
C = Crewe;
H = right hand drive;
00304 = Chassis Serial Number.

So the above car is a 1994 Bentley Silverstone with a 6.75 V8

Here is another example, a Bentley Silverstone in red with it's folding metal roof in the closed position.



The Argentina Auto Blog posted a story about George Gaffoglio from the Californian coachbuilding company Metalcrafters who mentioned the relationship they had in the 1990's with the Royal Family of Brunei.

“Fueron 19 autos con mecánica de Bentley y una velocidad máxima de más de 290 km/h”, agregó George, quien envió estas dos fotos para ilustrar.



Unusually it seems that this Bentley was not built in Crewe, or Torino, but California.



A total of 7 are known to have been built.

BENTLEY SILVERSTONE KF8877 SCBZH04A0RCH00301
BENTLEY SILVERSTONE BN19 SCBZH04A2RCH00302
BENTLEY SILVERSTONE BN5995 SCBZH04A4RCH00303
BENTLEY SILVERSTONE BQ9989 SCBZM04A6RCH00304
BENTLEY SILVERSTONE BN68 SCBZH04AXRCH00306
BENTLEY SILVERSTONE KF8809 SCBZH04C3SCH00476
BENTLEY SILVERSTONE BN368 SCBZH04C5SCH00477

Interestingly there seems to be no car of number CH00305.

Here is a high resolution photograph of the interior of the Bentley Silverstone.



Certainly quite unique. Try and quess what the door sill plate says.

This is a video of George Gaffoglio CEO of Metalcrafters talking about coachbuilding.