Brunei Royals Kept Bentley Afloat

During the mid-to-late 1990s, Bentley was struggling to sell cars and drifting toward bankruptcy. Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei and his brother, Prince Jefri, kept the British automaker busy by pouring billions into bespoke development and ordering entire batches of custom models such as the Java, B3, Grand Prix, and Dominator. Those extravagant royal commissions are credited with keeping Bentley alive and helping lay the groundwork for later models such as the Continental GT and Bentayga.

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