Weird Wagons: Ferrari 456 GT Venice

Next time someone tells you you can’t have a four-door V12 Ferrari Wagon, throw this gem in their face.

Yes, there is a pre-FF, four-door family ‘estate’ - although, it’s not really produced by Ferrari. Oh, and you’ll need more money than God to get your hands on one.

So wrong... why do I want one so bad?

This is because a man who does have more money than God, Prince Jefri Bolkiah, Sultan of Brunei’s brother, decided one day (in between controversies) that he just wanted a 456 station wagon.

We can’t imagine he was going to take any of his eighteen(!) kids to school in it, he’d have ‘people’ for that, but his resolve was such that when he was told that he’d have to order seven of them, and that they would come at a cost of $1.5 million US dollars each - he was not fazed.

Lowkey the fastest 'estate' in 1993, but you couldn't buy one, so...

And so Pininfarina was commissioned and fulfilled the order. Only six of the seven cars were delivered, so there will still be one kicking around in the wild. (or perhaps behind closed doors at Ferrari or Pininfarina, does anybody know?)

The car packs the original 456’s mechanicals, that’s a RWD 5.5-litre V12 (reportedly actually derived from the old Dino V6) producing 325kW. At the time of the 456’s release, it was the fastest four-seater car in the world, which would in turn mean that the GT Venice was likely the fastest wagon in the world in 1993 - sorry, BMW M5…

The final Pininfarina bodywork is a little… controversial. A few folks in the office really turned their noses up at it. We could only agree on the fact that there was something deeply incorrect about the super-low front and tacked-on rear.

The design is a little challenging. We imagine Pininfarina did their best with limited resources.

It is unknown how many are the four-speed automatic and how many are manual, and of the seven that exist the car has been spotted in silver, green, grey, blue and yellow.

This one, sadly, is an automatic.

Much prettier and even rarer is the 456 GT Spyder built for the Sultan himself. Only two original Pininfarina sets of bodywork exist, with two more aftermarket conversions in the US.

The GT Venice alongside one of two Pininfarina GT Spyders.

Pininfarina went on to design the Ferrari FF, which is decidedly more attractive, but also shares a few elements of design. There’s something quaint about the idea of a Ferrari four-door wagon though, sadly it’ll probably take another stupendously wealthy individual to see it through to reality.

In the meantime, we’ll have to stick to mulching groceries in Audi’s RS6, or the more exotic Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo.

What do you think of the 456 Venice? Should Ferrari do a four-door, or is this just plain offensive?

This is part of a series on Weird Wagons - see more here:

Weird Wagons: Aston Martin V8 Sportsman Estate
Weird Wagons: Saab 900 Safari
Weird Wagons: Mercedes-Benz 300 Messwagen
Weird Wagons: Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX Wagon
Weird Wagons: Bentley Continetal Flying Star
Weird Wagons: Subaru Impreza Casa Blanca
Weird Wagons: Toyota Classic
Weird Wagons: Porsche 924 DP Cargo
Weird Wagons: Maserati Bellagio Fastback