[SnakeDoc?]

I've been clocking up a lot of miles recently. Shared a hundred miles with a gorgeous black and white Veyron in north England and saw two more in London, passed a McLaren F1 which was showing its age...about a million 1ers but only two 1-series coupés.

As I came back into London from a jaunt to Manchester and Liverpool I hit bad traffic. As it eased I opened up the car and caught up with this chap. I was a bit confused, a Ferrari ESTATE? (aka station wagon) Sorry the photo's not great, was slowing from motorway speed and the phone was being a bugger.




With a bit of research, this is the Ferrari 456 GT Venice. According to wiki, only seven were made at $1.5 million each, all for the Sultan of Brunei. Ultimately he didn't buy them all (although he had plenty of other custom-made Ferraris made). So this is probably the rarest car I've seen!

And what you're all keen to hear...how fast was it? Well neither of us were doing anything stupid but did engage in a bit of friendly one-upmanship and I honestly don't think he had that much over my 135. I'd be fascinated to know how a car like that drives.

[Papethova]

Here are 2 more "Sultan" F-cars that I have seen. The first is an FX which has a $1 million gearbox, the second is a 456 Spider "Venice Cabriolet" of which only 2 were made.

[amdmaxx]

1 million for a gearbox?

[Papethova]

Originally Posted by amdmaxx

1 million for a gearbox?

Yes sir....

[Oregon]

Would these Sultans view themselves a tad more special than mere mortals who actually earn their existence? Just asking.:iono:

[MastaMind]

Originally Posted by Surname

Would these Sultans view themselves a tad more special than mere mortals who actually earn their existence? Just asking.:iono:

We are special. We can change our own gears w/o a million dollar gearbox! :wink:

[Italteen3]

Originally Posted by Phiberglass

That's pretty cool I've never seen that before. Although if I had 1.5 million to spend on a car, I would get many other cars than this wagon =p

+1

[atr_hugo]

Ah who wants a trick Ferrari when you could have one of these!

[professor]

out of curiosity did you find out what a million-dollar gearbox does anyway?! a separate liquid-bathed clutch for each gear? nanosecond gear shifts? what?!

[Papethova]

Originally Posted by professor

out of curiosity did you find out what a million-dollar gearbox does anyway?! a separate liquid-bathed clutch for each gear? nanosecond gear shifts? what?!

All i know is it was hand built... supposedly

Maybe its not a matter of the gearbox but the customer. Headers for Vipers were 5k at one point, not any different from mustang headers really which go for 500 bux.

Just like the price of a dyno pull goes up when you pull up in a 200k car.

So if the Sultan comes to you and says make me a gearbox, you say ok its $1million dollars.