The Bentley Imperial Marches On

The Bentley Imperial.

You can just hear it. Daar Daar Daar, Dar Di Daar, Dar Di Daar.. The Imperial March from Star Wars, the Empire Strikes Back kicks in.

I've nominated that as the theme music for this coachbuilt Bentley from the Royal Family of Brunei.

A total of 6 Bentley Imperial cars were made in 1995 and is a rebodied Bentley Continental R with a removeable hardtop roof.

It was a British affair where it was designed by DRA, Design Research Association from Warwick and built in Coventry by Motor Panels.

The horn plays Darth Vader's breathing sound when pressed.

Here are the details of each car made.

Marque	Model	Numberplate	Year	VIN	Exterior	Interior	Pictures?
Bentley	Imperial	NONE	1995	SCBZH04C2SCH00341	Green	Green	Probably
Bentley	Imperial	BQ11	1995	SCBZH04C4SCH00342	Red	Red	Yes
Bentley	Imperial	BP6116	1995	SCBZH04C6SCH00343			Maybe
Bentley	Imperial	BP3131	1995	SCBZH04C8SCH00344	Grey	Grey	Yes
Bentley	Imperial	BN7117	1995	SCBZH04A1SCH00345	Black	Black	Yes
Bentley	Imperial	BQ205	1995	SCBZH04AC1CH00346	Yellow	Red	Yes

Lets take a look at these Imperials.

Marque	Model	Numberplate	Year	VIN	Exterior	Interior	Pictures?
Bentley	Imperial	NONE	1995	SCBZH04C2SCH00341	Green	Green	Probably

It does have a touch menacing look to it.

The Imperial power is derived from the Bentley L-Series V8, presumably the SuFaCon version.

This is an impressive photograph, such details, not blown out by the flash at all.

An interior fit for a Prince one might say.

This green car pictured might be SCBZH04C6SCH00343, more details below.

Marque	Model	Numberplate	Year	VIN	Exterior	Interior	Pictures?
Bentley	Imperial	BQ11	1995	SCBZH04C4SCH00342	Red	Red	Yes

Her is the red on red spec car.

From this photo you can see that this Imperial is obviously a diplomat, as it is having discussions with a member of another Empire, a Mercedes.

Luckily for this Bentley Imperial, it has a Continental R Estate standing guard in front for protection. 

Bentleys on three sides.

Here you can see the attachment points for the removable roof.

What is the chance that it's just been removed at the factory only?

Marque	Model	Numberplate	Year	VIN	Exterior	Interior	Pictures?
Bentley	Imperial	BP6116	1995	SCBZH04C6SCH00343			Maybe

Now with this car, there are no distinct photos.

There are probably 4 people in the world that care, but this green car above might be BP6116 SCBZH04C6SCH00343.  

That's because this number plate is DPD which is Price Jefri's - however no DPD is listed for the car in the Master VIN List.

There are photos of 5 of the 6 cars, and the Master VIN List has 5 of 6 number plates.

So it was a toss up between the car that did not have a number plate, or one that did have a number plate, but was changed to DPD. 

I chose the one that did not have a number plate to be the green car.

Hopefully another enthusiast Marinus Rijkers might be able to decipher. 

Marque	Model	Numberplate	Year	VIN	Exterior	Interior	Pictures?
Bentley	Imperial	BP3131	1995	SCBZH04C8SCH00344	Grey	Grey	Yes

Let's take a look at the grey one.

It has the standard Bentley Azure 17"wheels.

There is the blue Bentley Pegasus next to it, you can see the head lamps.

That is a Bentley Phoenix to the rear for those playing at home.

I suspect you would need from Troopers to lift the hard top roof off the Bentley Imperial.

Those seats smell German to me.

Marque	Model	Numberplate	Year	VIN	Exterior	Interior	Pictures?
Bentley	Imperial	BN7117	1995	SCBZH04A1SCH00345	Black	Black	Yes

The second last Bentley Imperial made. Black on black.

This car is located in Garage 1 Level 1, along with many other coachbuilt Bentley cars.

Yes, that door trim is for the door, not the front seat. Call for the Storm Troopers.

Marque	Model	Numberplate	Year	VIN	Exterior	Interior	Pictures?
Bentley	Imperial	BQ205	1995	SCBZH04AC1CH00346	Yellow	Red	Yes

Now there is the Big Mac special. The yellow on red.

This Bentley Imperial is located in the Yellow Room.

The Yellow Room is where the Royal Family of Brunei keeps the yellow cars.

That's a Bentley B3 next to it.

With complimentary mould on the dashboard.

Now to to the next episode. 

The Bentley Dominator Dominates

The Bentley Dominator is probably the most famous of the Bentley coachbuilt cars for the Royal Family of Brunei.

It certainly gets popular press and most car enthusiasts would know about the car. 

That's very different to say, a Bentley Buccaneer or the Bentley Monte Carlo, where hardly any would know about at all.

In the 2024 leak of the Dec 2001 photographs from the garages just next to Jerudong beach, some pictures of 3 of the different Dominators made of a total of 6 were photographed.

The are the details of all 6 cars that were made.

Marque	Model	Numberplate	Year	VIN	Exterior	Interior	Pictures?	# of pics
Bentley	Dominator	BP9669	1996	SCBTH98C5TCH00422	Black	Black	Yes	3
Bentley	Dominator	BQ7667	1996	SCBTH98C7TCH00423	Blue	Blue	Yes	2
Bentley	Dominator	BQ7587	1996	SCBTH98C9TCH00424			No
Bentley	Dominator	NONE	1996	SCBTH98C0TCH00425			No
Bentley	Dominator	BQ7570	1996	SCBTH98C2TCH00426	Yellow	Red	Yes	3
Bentley	Dominator	BS9929	1996	SCBTH98C4TCH00427			No

So we are missing photos from 2001 of 3 of the 6 cars.

From other photos we know that there is a Red Dominator, a Silver Dominator and a Charcoal Dominator.

Marque	Model	Numberplate	Year	VIN	Exterior	Interior	Pictures?
Bentley	Dominator	BP9669	1996	SCBTH98C5TCH00422	Black	Black	Yes

This black car is located on the ground floor, not in Garage 1. From it being parked next to a roller door, it can be presumed that this car was getting use at this time.

There are options here in this photo - should I take the Rav 4 for should I take the Bentley Dominator?

The car is based off the Range Rover P38.

Keys are in the ignition.

It's ready to dominate.

Marque	Model	Numberplate	Year	VIN	Exterior	Interior	Pictures?
Bentley	Dominator	BQ7667	1996	SCBTH98C7TCH00423	Blue	Blue	Yes

This car was described as dark blue in the folder.

It is parked in Garage 1 Level 1 (upper level), as is close to the roller door ro the right, which leads down a circular ramp to ground level.

The blue interior is pretty good. I don't see any Range Rover parts in that!

Marque	Model	Numberplate	Year	VIN	Exterior	Interior	Pictures?
Bentley	Dominator	BQ7587	1996	SCBTH98C9TCH00424			No

There are no pictures of this car that I have seen so far. There is potential it will be noticed in the background of other pictures.

I'll update if so.

Marque	Model	Numberplate	Year	VIN	Exterior	Interior	Pictures?
Bentley	Dominator	NONE	1996	SCBTH98C0TCH00425			No

This car also did not have any pictures taken in 2001. This also has no recorded number plate, so it may not have ever been registered.

Marque	Model	Numberplate	Year	VIN	Exterior	Interior	Pictures?
Bentley	Dominator	BQ7570	1996	SCBTH98C2TCH00426	Yellow	Red	Yes

How can you not love the Big Mac spec?

It dominates the drive thru for sure.

This car is located in the Yellow Room, which is a room for yellow cars of course.

Notice the Big Mac car in front of it? Yep, that's a $20M Mclaren F1.

Yes, correct that is mould growing on the red dash of the Dominator. Pass the Glen 20 please.

Do those seats look Range Rover to you?

Marque	Model	Numberplate	Year	VIN	Exterior	Interior	Pictures?
Bentley	Dominator	BS9929	1996	SCBTH98C4TCH00427			No

Again, no pictures were taken of this car.

It's either a Red Bentley Dominator, a Silver Bentley Dominator and a Charcoal Bentley Dominator.

I just said Bentley Dominator is the same sentence three times.

Interesting fact is that the blue on blue Bentley Dominator SCBTH98C7TCH00423 no longer is in Brunei. 

It was flown to Malaysia, and now reside with the Royal Family of Johor.

Here it is in Johor with the Johor Royal Cypher (Sovereign's monogram) on the numberplate.

So we just need to be born into a Malay Royal Family, then we have a chance to Dominate.

UPDATE:

Another Bentley Dominator has been found. 

This time lurking behind an Aston Martin AM4.

Unfortunately you can not see the number plate - so we do not know the VIN, however I think it's the missing Charcoal Bentley Dominator. 

The car is in Garage 1 Level 1 - same as the dark blue Johor Bentley Dominator.

Bentley Turbo R 4 Door Convertible by Pininfarina.

Have you ever seen a Bentley Turbo R 4 Door Convertible by Pininfarina?

No you haven't, because as of yesterday their existence was not publicly know.

Here are two.

Yesterday a set of photographs from the Royal Family of Brunei garages was leaked. These photos were taken in December 2001.

About 17 years ago an Excel document of a list of all the Brunei cars was leaked that contained the Make, model, number plate and VIN of all the 1000s of cars.

So from combining all this data we can now match the VINs to the specifications of the cars and learn more about the worlds largest and most secretive car collation.

The challenge with identifying coachbuilt cars just from the VIN is that it does not decode if it went to an independent coachbuilder after is was made, like Hooper & Co, Jankel or in this case Pininfarina.

So these special 2 cars were not known to exist.

In the leaked folder, these cars are described as a Bentley Azure 4D Convertible.

So Pininfarina may have called these cars Azure before they started using that name for Continental R convertibles.

You can see from this blue on blue car the dashboard is that of a 30000 Series car.

Here is the second example of this car special 4 door convertible this time in black.

You can see the Pininfarina badges on the lower front wing.

It has a DPD number plates which is the standard for Prince Jefri and not other members of the family.

Looking at the seats, the upper portion is not from Bentley, and contain an integrated seatbelt.  Let me know if you know where the seat comes from.

More Brunei information to come.

UPDATE:

I just noticed in another picture that you can see the rear of the roof in the background of this shot.

Yes, that's of course another Turbo R convertible next to the two 4 door convertibles.