7/4/2016 The Secret Six | The Verge TH CRT IX A half-dozen groundbreaking Ferraris were built for the Prince of Brunei. Only one made it out of the jungle alive By Ryan ZumMallen | Photography by Paul Barshon The order came from the Sultan of Brunei’s nephew. It was 1994, and Prince Abdul Hakeem, then 20 years old, had inherited two things: access to a $40 billion fortune, and his family’s penchant for spending it. http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/6/11371554/pininfarina­ferrari­fx­first­semi­automatic­transmission 1/19 7/4/2016 The Secret Six | The Verge In the ‘80s and ‘90s, the monarchs of this tiny, oil­rich nation in the South China Sea bankrolled a fleet of special custom vehicles, ordering the most coveted cars in the world by the half­dozen or more. Their notorious collection — located in nondescript concrete garages, surrounded by razor wire, and patrolled by armed Nepalese soldiers known as gurkhas — numbered in the thousands. Visitors described rows and rows of warehouses, filled to the brim with luxury cars, sometimes organized by make, model, or even color. In his online newsletter, Ferrari broker Michael Sheehan described one floor dedicated solely to black Mercedes SL500s, another to red Ferrari Testarossas, and yet another to bright yellow Bentleys and Lamborghinis. One particularly star­studded showroom included a Ferrari 288 GTO Evo, F40 LM, F50, and three McLaren F1s. VRAL OF TH CAR COULD FOUND NOWHR L IN TH WORLD Several of the cars in these warehouses were one­of­a­kind, built specifically for Brunei, and could be found nowhere else in the world. For his next order, Prince Hakeem again wanted something special: a Ferrari with a semi­automatic transmission. At the time, the technology didn’t exist on any street­legal vehicle in the world. That didn’t give him any pause. Prince Hakeem was used to getting what he wanted. According to a Fortune article published in 1999, as a teen Prince Hakeem had decided he wanted to learn to play American football, so the Royal Family paid Joe Montana and Herschel Walker to come to Brunei and teach him the game. No one was allowed to tackle the prince, who scored touchdowns every time he touched the ball. On his 18th birthday, he received $1 billion in cash. For a job like this, Prince Hakeem knew just who to turn to: legendary automotive design house Carozzeria Pininfarina, which had already completed one­off versions of Ferraris, Bentleys, Jaguars, and other historic marques for the Royal Family. It’s estimated that in less than a decade, Pininfarina had built more than 50 cars destined for Brunei. The assignment came to Paolo Garella, Pininfarina’s prototype manager. http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/6/11371554/pininfarina­ferrari­fx­first­semi­automatic­transmission 2/19 7/4/2016 The Secret Six | The Verge Garella’s team would take the Ferrari Testarossa, a pillar of automotive style and performance, and crank up the adrenaline. It was a tall order, but Garella had the experience, talent, and vision necessary for the job. What Garella’s team built would become one of the most mysterious and compelling supercars ever, one that would come to be known as the Ferrari FX. Born and raised in Italy, Garella knew by age five that he would make cars his life’s work. After seeing the Ferrari Pinin concept — the first, and still the only four­door Ferrari ever produced — at the 1980 Torino Auto Show, he committed to becoming an engineer and creating one­of­a­kind designs. He quickly established an enviable career: in the late 1980s, Garella spent five years working at Goodyear, testing prototypes — like, as luck would have it, the Ferrari Testarossa — around its famous Circuit de Mireval in France. He then returned to Italy, developing hybrid and electric racecars for PTI Albatech. In 1992 Pininfarina came calling, and Garella became manager of the Prototype Manufacturing and Engineering Department, working on experimental, often top­secret projects. Photos from the ‘90s show him with the pushbroom mustache and wide, round glasses typical of the era — often, with a beaming http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/6/11371554/pininfarina­ferrari­fx­first­semi­automatic­transmission 3/19 7/4/2016 The Secret Six | The Verge smile. Garella was 35 when the FX project came to him, and uniquely qualified to make the prince’s dream car a reality. Pininfarina opted for the Ferrari Testarossa as the platform for the new car. With its supercar proportions and mid­engine layout, it was the premiere horse in the Ferrari stable. Having designed the original Testarossa in the early 1980s, Pininfarina was very familiar with the car. In fact, they had already been involved in a custom job based on the Testarossa, called the Ferrari Mythos, a drool­ inducing prototype shown at the 1989 Tokyo Motor Show. Ferrari made it clear the Mythos was not for sale. Somehow, two cropped up in the Brunei warehouses anyhow. TH ONLY RQUIRMNT, GARLLA AY, WA TH MI-AUTOMATIC TRANMIION With the platform chosen, Garella and his team could turn to the task at hand. The only requirement, Garella says, was the semi­automatic transmission. Until then, supercars like the Testarossa almost exclusively featured five­ or six­ speed manuals. Semi­automatics came from the world of motorsports, where they began appearing in rally cars in the late 1980s, and Formula One cars in the early ‘90s. Instead of relying on the driver to depress the clutch, manually engage a new gear, and then release the clutch before accelerating, the semi­ automatic used computers to execute shifts — with input from the driver via buttons, paddles, or a lever — in a fraction of the time. Built for quickness and nothing else, semi­automatic transmissions were far too jerky and unrefined for the road in the early 1990s. Pininfarina faced a tall order in adopting one for the FX. Pininfarina turned to British racing outfit Prodrive, a company that had made a name for itself with Subaru in the World Rally Championship in the early ‘90s. Prodrive was already in the process of gauging public interest in a semi­ automatic transmission for the street that could be fitted directly to a manual gearbox; buttons on the steering wheel would shift gears while an electronic control unit worked the clutch. Pininfarina saw an opportunity to collaborate, and assigned an engineer whose sole responsibility was working with Prodrive to http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/6/11371554/pininfarina­ferrari­fx­first­semi­automatic­transmission 4/19 7/4/2016 The Secret Six | The Verge adapt their system for the FX. Prodrive transmission was mated to the stock Ferrari six­speed manual gearbox already in the Testarossa that Garella had picked out. It wasn’t a perfect fit. While the clutch was hydraulic, engaging different gears was pneumatic. "Prodrive had a system that was a little bit complex," says Garella. "It had a number of problems and was not really straightforward." The transmission was going to need continued work, and in fact required constant attention from mechanics to be driveable at all. But it was the best option available at the time. The rest of the FX internals came together without much issue. Pininfarina moved the radiator from the back of the car to the front, to make room for the rear­mounted transmission’s additional electronics, and to capitalize on the increased airflow from the redesigned front end. The engine was tuned, and the exhaust was converted into a snarling straight Tubi system. The catalytic converters on the 4.9­liter V12 were removed, pushing its 420 horsepower northward. Everything else was left stock. With the engineering complete, Garella and Pininfarina turned to what they do best: the exterior design. The result was stunning, if polarizing. Though the deeply inset headlights bring to mind Camaros of the era, and quickly became dated, sculpted dual intakes bring an elegance to the aggressive slope of the front end. Massive, scooping hips presaged the Ferrari 360 Modena — designed, of course, by Pininfarina — that wouldn’t come out until 1999. At the rear, the car’s roofline flows down like cooling lava, smoothing out into a point. Quad round taillights from the Ferrari 355 punctuate a dark mesh grille. From the rear three­quarter perspective, the FX radiates aggression, and tremendous potential for speed. The transparent plastic cover over the mid­mounted engine has twelve portholes — one for each cylinder — that simultaneously invite and distort the view inside; a Ferrari funhouse. A stylized "FX" logo on top of the engine makes it clear this is no run­ of­the­mill Ferrari. It is the only such emblem on the car. Pininfarina tested the design in its on­site wind tunnel, and came away pleased. "The car was definitely better than the Testarossa," says Garella. "And I think it was a quite attractive design for the car at that time." Then­chairman Sergio Pininfarina personally showed the completed FX to Gianni Agnelli, the former head of Ferrari parent company Fiat, who simply said: "We are lucky to have such clients." http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/6/11371554/pininfarina­ferrari­fx­first­semi­automatic­transmission 5/19 7/4/2016 The Secret Six | The Verge Pininfarina built the entire outer shell from carbon fiber, which is lighter than aluminum, stronger than steel, and was, at that time, unfathomably expensive. It was also difficult to work with, as very few companies had experience with the material. Pininfarina went through three suppliers before finding the quality necessary.