In This Story
If you’ve been looking for an ultra-lux family car that looks stately and effortlessly alluring on the outside, but like a Wisconsin Dells water park inside, then this unique Bentley from the collection of the Sultan of Brunei is exactly the one you need. There is enough room inside for your whole family and all of their stuff, plus enough power from the turbocharged 6.75 liter V8 to smoothly waft from coast to coast, or across Europe or wherever you’re headed. This mad machine was ordered new by the world’s weirdest collector, and it has only covered 13,462 miles since 1992. It’ll be coming up for auction on Collecting Cars shortly, so be prepared to bid early and often.
Based on the Continental Turbo R platform, the Val D’Isere was built in extremely small numbers, as just 11 examples were built, all of them for the Brunei royal family. The original sedan shape was modified by Robert Jankel Design, and takes its name from the French Alpine ski destination resort. To go along with the beautiful blue exterior, Jankel fitted the car with bold and brash yellow and teal leather with matching teal carpets. Only the finest of leathers and woods will do for a Bentley.
One of the most peculiar pieces of the Val D’Isere formula is that they were all equipped with four-wheel drive. The front wheels are apparently driven only at low speeds through a series of hydraulic actuators. There is a hydraulic pump that is belt-driven from the transmission’s output shaft, which gives pressure to the front drive mechanisms. It all sounds incredibly complicated, but possibly quite useful if you were to use this as a shooting brake in the old English countryside. Apparently they disengage above 30 miles per hour, making the car drive like any other standard Bentley Turbo R of the day.
The last one of these that sold was listed for around $110,000 in 2015, so if you want this blue and yellow monster wagon, be prepared to shell out for it. But you’ll probably never see another one.