Schlumpf Collection
Mulhouse, France
Bugatti T41 "Royale"
Bugatti T41 Coupé Napoléon,
1929
The T41, called Royale, was created
for the Royales, and Presidents, but not even one of them was sold to that
kind of customer.
The radiator mascot, an elephant
was designed by Ettore Bugatti's brother, Rembrandt Bugatti.
Only six chassis were built,
but some of them were rebodied several times.
For that reason, the Museum
recreated the Esders-Royale.
The original car was sold to
a wealthy, very wealthy person, Monsieur Esders.
He didn't want to see headlights
on his car, in his opinion that was ugly.
This story is well known, but
the car had headlights, in extra boxes, so if it was necessary, there was
a chance to put these on the car. Most of the car-enthusiasts don't know
that part of the story.
The Esders Royale was later
rebodied for another customer, so the original doesn't exist anymore.
The Schlumpf Collection recreated
that car, with the help of some original spare parts, like the engine (Bugatti
had built about 40 engines for the Royale, 8 cylinders with more than 12000ccm(!),
so he later designed a locomotive, to sell his engines...
The color of the car was recreated
with the help of a specialist, who is able to tell the color from seeing
b/w-pictures...
The interior...
Bugatti T41 Limousine, 1933
Bugatti T41 Esders, replica
Once, they had ALL six original
Royales at Mulhouse, just before the EB110 was presented at Paris, by the
revived Bugatti company.
It was the second time that
all Royales were located at the same location.
(First time was at Pebble Beach,
but at Mulhouse they had the Esders replica, too, so "all seven" Royales
were at the Schlumpf Collection.)
I had to see that event, unfortunately,
my camera was at Heidelberg, to far away.
(The Collection is only about
one hour from Faellanden...)
I visited the show, finding
out that the museum modified the opening hours. The museum closed at midnight
during that event!
I was very excited to see all
these Royales!
When I was looking at one of
these "most expensive used cars"
(some sold for 10 to 15 million
$$$),
the people started to run all
in one direction...
A fire? Or something like that?
No, Mr. Schlumpf came to the
show, in a wheelchair.
You have to know, the Schlumpf
brothers ruined their companies to finance that museum,
they were Swiss (chmm, well,
ehh, you know...), and so they escaped from France, because they didn't
want to go to jail.
The museum was seized by the
French government, the brothers got only real small money.
The brothers were not allowed
anymore to visit the museum.
For that very special event,
Mr. Schlumpf (his brother had died before) was allowed to visit "his" collection...
I was angry that I wasn't able
to take pics of the cars, but even today I think a photo of him would be
one of the most fascinating pics of my collection. It was very impressive
to see this old man, sitting in his wheelchair, with alloy-wheels(!) matching
his jacket...
Only a few months later, he
died.