A Romping Royal Range Rover

Range Rover ‘coffin car’ limousine originally used by the sex mad Prince Jefri Bolkiah of Brunei for sale for 94% less than its original £323,000 total cost

As we’ve reported before, Jefri Bolkiah – the Sultan of Brunei’s black sheep of the family brother – is best known for having had a total of five wives and eighteen children. He likes sexually graphic statues and spending money in a fashion that makes Elton John look modest and now an example of his extravagance is about to be auctioned.

Offered for just £18,000 to £24,000 – less than one tenth of the supposed £165,000 (or the equivalent of £323,000 today ) it originally cost to buy and stretch from a 1994 Range Rover Classic LSE into a lengthy limousine – the vehicle to be sold took some nine months for Townley Cross Country Vehicles to convert at the behest of the Sultan for his ‘Playboy Prince’ sibling.

Previously offered at auction by H&H Classics in March 2007 for £24,000 to £28,000 and sold by Bonhams to a Danish buyer for just £8,280 in April 2014, the lavish right-hand-drive limousine is described in the Silverstone Auctions catalogue for their NEC Classic Motor Show 2019 sale as being:

“Based on an end-of-the-line, soft-dash 1994 Range Rover Classic LSE… Townley stretched the chassis and body by 40″, incorporating two additional fixed Range Rover doors in the centre and a roof raised by 8″. They also installed a laminated sunroof together with darkened windows and a one-piece opening tailgate. Interior features include a full electric centre division with glass panel; three rear seats (two electrically operated); full air conditioning; stereo/CD player and two remote control 8″ television monitors with a VHS recorder. The exterior was painted in Rolls-Royce Mason Black and the interior trimmed in black-piped Oxblood Connolly hide with Wilton carpeting and Burr Walnut embellishments.”

Little used by the royal himself it seems, the Range Rover – registration L23 PWT – subsequently transported Mike Tyson around Scotland when he fought Lou Savarese at Hampden Park, near Glasgow in June 2000 and was then sold for £40,000 by a local dealer in August 2015, according to a lengthy article published about the car in Land Rover Magazine.

Silverstone Auctions will sell the “sexually charged” 4.2-litre ex-Prince Jefri of Brunei 1994 Range Rover LSE limousine at 2pm on Saturday 9th November. One can only imagine what sort of debauched antics will go on in the back of it during its next chapter, though the auctioneers more innocently simply suggest it to be perfect for simply “taking your extended family out to lunch.”

The Numbers – The ex-Prince Jefri stretch Range Rover

November 2019 – To be auctioned with an estimate of £18,000 to £24,000 ($23,100 to $30,700, €20,900 to €27,800 or درهم84,700 to درهم112,900) by Silverstone Auctions at the NEC Centre in Birmingham.

April 2014 – Sold by Bonhams at the RAF Museum, Hendon for £8,280 ($10,606, €8,608 or درهم38,951). At this time, the auctioneers noted the car as having an expired MOT and that: “The brakes will require attention.”

March 2007 – Offered for sale by H&H Classics with an estimate of £24,000 to £28,000 ($23,100 to $35,900, €20,900 to €32,500 or درهم84,700 to درهم131,800). At this time, it was described as being in “A1+ condition.”

June 2000 – Sold by Waterside Classics of Glasgow for £40,160 ($51,457, €46,607 or درهم188,979) to someone named Tom Shanks from Stonehaven.

1994 – Cost of conversion by Townley Cross Country Vehicles reported to be circa £135,000 ($173,000, €156,600 or درهم635,200) or the equivalent of £264,000 today ($338,000, €306,000 or درهم1.2 million).

1994 – Approximate cost of a standard 1994 Land Rover Range Rover 4.2-litre LSE was circa £30,000 ($38,400, €34,800 or درهم141,000) or the equivalent of £59,000 today ($75,600, €68,500 or درهم277,700) according to the FT’s ‘How To Spend It.’

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