Ferrari F90 designer created a custom F90 for the Sultan of Brunei and it was kept a secret from Ferrari and the public for decades

This was a story kept under wraps for decades – the Ferrari F90 designer worked to create a custom F90 for the Sultan of Brunei.

It wasn’t just the public who were kept in the dark either, as Ferrari didn’t know either.

Back in the 1980s, Enrico Fumia received word that the brother of the Sultan of Brunei wanted an exclusive supercar.

It was to be based around the chassis and mechanics of a Ferrari Testarossa, but would feature a completely different design.

The story of how the Ferrari F90 ended up in the garage of the Sultan of Brunei

In an interview with Speedholics, designer Enrico Fumia retold the story of the Ferrari F90.

Prince Jefri – the brother of the Sultan of Brunei – approached Pininfarina through a Singaporean importer.

Commissioning an exclusive supercar through the Italian design house was no small feat – Ferrari weren’t even allowed to be in the know.

Pininfarina accepted the commission due to the amount of money being offered up by the Brunei royal.

Out of several options presented to the Prince, it was Fumia’s that was chosen.

The name chosen ‘F90’ was an acronym for ‘Ferrari for the 90s’.

The project began as one car, but soon grew to six units.

And inexplicably, they still managed to keep this all under wraps, even down to testing conditions.

“We tested mostly at night, without the Prancing Horse emblem and with the bodywork completely camouflaged to make it unrecognizable,” Fumia recalled.

The car had a whole different look, with pointed ellipses on every side o the car, and the front grille replaced with Testarossa’s side radiators.

Elongated headlights were also brought in – incidentally, similar designs would go on to be used for future models like the Enzo.

What was Ferrari’s reaction when news of this supercar got out?

Things were kept quiet, until 2002 when a photo of the F90 sitting inside the Prince’s garage leaked online.

But it wouldn’t be until 2005 that Ferrari would officially acknowledge it.

An Italian journalist wanted to feature the F90 in a Ferrari annual publication, which led to Fumia confessing the full story to Ferrari’s communication manager.

You might have expected the manufacturer would be seriously ticked off about the whole thing.

But that’s not quite how it panned out.

“[They reacted] Better that we could ever have expected,” Fumia admitted.

“In fact, after consenting to the publication of the photos in the 2005 annual, which the clients would have received in 2006, Ferrari officially recognized the F90 as an authentic car, without ever having seen or touched it.

“And of course, as the father of the design, I was over the moon.”

What’s the current condition of the F90s?

It’s not quite clear, but it’s anticipated they’ll still be in Brunei somewhere among the royal family’s vast collection.

And we’re not exaggerating when we say vast.

The palace already boasts a garage capable of homing 110 cars, and even that’s not enough store all 7,000 cars in the collection.

Ferraris are particularly abundant – in fact, he could give one away to every resident of the Vatican City and still have 200 left over.

Weird metric to measure car ownership by we know, but it speaks volumes.