Back in the 1990s, reports abounded regarding the incredible depth and breadth of the car collection belonging to the Sultan of Brunei. The stories that came back from the tiny Pacific island nation seemed almost mythical: tales of Bentley SUVs, one-off super-Ferraris and armies of Mercedes-Benz S-Class AMGs and Rolls-Royces were all commonplace. The garages were off-limits to all but the royal family and a small cadre of employees; pictures of the cars by themselves occasionally emerged, but images of the collection itself were more rare than high-quality UFO snapshots.

Then the Asian Economic Crisis of the late ’90s hit, taking the wind out of Brunei’s sails, and the world stopped hearing about Sultan’s incredible collection. Since then, it’s evolved into a sort of supernatural entity, like Bigfoot or Donald Trump’s bald spot: the occasional hard-to-verify story about it would surface, or every once in a while a piece of evidence supporting its existence shows up—like an odd right-hand-drive exotic popping up in a car dealership—but for the most part, it remained just a legend. No one knew what condition the cars were in anymore.

Until recently, at least. It turns out a car broker named Michael Sheehan flew to the country in May 2002 in order to purchase a small chunk of the Sultan’s rumored 3,000-5,000 car collection, and as part of the deal, Sheehan had a chance to tour the famed garages. He wrote about his experience in this month’s Sports Car Market:

“We first went through eight two-story buildings, each about 250 feet long by 60 feet wide, with each level holding about 120 cars. Each level had a semblance of a theme, with the first building filled with Porsches from 959s up to cars from the late 1990s. Another floor held mainly black-on-black 1996-97 Mercedes-Benz 500 sedans. Another building held coachbuilt Rolls-Royces, Bentleys and Aston Martins.

Between the eight large buildings was a glass-walled showroom with three McLaren F1s, a 288 GTO Evo, an F50 and an F40 LM. The F40 LM was black with a black leather interior, red piping, air conditioning, and power windows.”

Sounds like Valhalla, right? But as the tour continued, he saw that the Sultan’s collection was suffering from a severe case of neglect:

“As in the other buildings, the air conditioning was off, so the showroom had become a very efficient greenhouse, and the cars were cooking away…At the back of the compound were two long, two-story buildings about fifty feet apart. A corrugated tin roof between them offered some protection from the blistering sun, but not from the rain. Under the shade were another 300 or so 1995-97 500 SELs and SLs, all black/black, many with the windows down, all rotting into oblivion…We soon called this group as “the reef” as turning them into an artificial ocean reef was probably their best use.

Behind one of the buildings was a row of “lesser” cars, including the collection’s token Corvette—all destroyed by the sun and rain. The mechanics had left in 1998, and nothing was in drivable condition. What had once been the planet’s largest collection of coachbuilt and high-end exotics was now a vast automotive tomb, patrolled only by a few Gurkhas with dogs.”

This was nine years ago. Since then, we’ve heard all kinds of reports that the Sultan has spent plenty of money on new cars—for example, that he’s bought ten Aston Martin One-77s and 134 Koenigseggs, along with at least two requisite Veyrons—but Sheehan’s report makes us wonder just exactly what is going on in the royal family’s garages these days. Has General Haji Sir Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah, as the Sultan is known to his friends and family, simply reinvested heavily in his collection since May 2002? Or are the more recent reports that his collection is valued at $5 billion and his garage crammed with new cars in part the crafty work of his five-person public relations team, who makes around $35 million a year between themselves?

Sheehan’s full story is online, and we heartily suggest you check it out; whether the Sultan has spent millions fixing up his collection or not, it’s a fascinating read. [via Ferraris-Online]

Pictured: The Ferrari Mythos concept, which—surprise!—the Sultan reportedly owns two road-ready versions of.