Choice of timeless elegance...

Even with its old tech, that Bugatti Royale is an impressive piece.

Yes sir, totally agree!

I like that Rolls but that Bugatti is in another league as a must have. Thanks Tony.

been trying to land a Rolls in that color for a while. One day.

Heres the 1:1 Bugatti on a leisurely drive around Paris

Thank you Geoff, a really enjoyable clip. Gorgeous car and a good review of my French.

@geoff-jowett 

MANY thanks for posting this Geoff!! What an elegant and HUGE car! 

The model pictured here is one of seven built. It was the first, called the Coupé Napoleon, Chassis #41100.

• It was used by Ettore Bugatti, and in his later life became his personal car. It remained in the family's possession, housed at their Ermenonville chateau, until financial difficulties forced its sale in 1963. It subsequently passed into the hands of the obsessive Bugatti collector Fritz Schlumpf.
• It originally had a Packard body. It was rebodied by Parisian coach builder Weymann as a two-door fixed head coupe. The Weymann body was replaced after the car was crashed by Ettore Bugatti, who in 1930 or 1931 fell asleep at the wheel travelling home from Paris to Alsace, necessitating a major rebuild.
• At various stages, it was also fitted with other bodies.
• Bricked up with 41141 and 41150 during World War II at the home of the Bugatti family in Ermenonville, to avoid being commandeered by the Nazis
• Sold by L'Ebe Bugatti in the early 1960s to the brothers Schlumpf
• Resides in the Musée National de l'Automobile de Mulhouse, alongside 41131 that the Schlumpf brothers had acquired from John Shakespeare.
• The 2011 recreation claims to use the original chassis from this car, stating that a new chassis frame was used in the rebuild of 41100 after the crash.

I photographed Chassis #41111, at the 2000 Concours d'Elegance at Pebble Beach, called the Coupé de ville Binder:

• The second car built, but the first to find a customer, is chassis no.41111
• Known as the Coupé de ville Binder
• Sold in April 1932 to French clothing manufacturer Armand Esders. Ettore's eldest son, Jean, fashioned for the car a dramatic two-seater open body with flamboyant, full-bodied wings and a dickey seat, but no headlamps. In this form it became known as the Royale Esders Roadster.
• Purchased by the French politician Raymond Patenôtre, the car was rebodied in the Coupé de ville style by the coach builder Henri Binder.^[5] From this point onwards, known as the Coupé de ville Binder
• Never delivered to the King of Romania due to World War II,it was hidden from the Nazis by storing it in the sewers of Paris
• Briefly located in the United Kingdom after World War II, and was then acquired by Dudley C. Wilson of the US in 1954. On his death in 1961 it passed to banker Mills B Lane of Atlanta before in 1964 taking up residence in The Harrah Collection at Reno, Nevada, bought at the then sensational price of $45,000 (approximately what the car had cost new).
• Sold in 1986 to an American collector, home builder, and US Air Force Reserve Major General William Lyon, he offered the car during the 1996 Barrett-Jackson Auction by private treaty sale, where he refused an offer of US$11 million; the reserve was set at US$15 million.
• In 1999, the new owner of the Bugatti brand, Volkswagen AG, bought the car for a reported US$20 million. Now used as a brand promotion vehicle, it travels to various museums and locations.

Very nice photos, just not my cup of tea.  Even though I love cars, the designs pre 1930 just don't make me say I need that car.  I do have a few exceptions though just to show the history of the automobile in my collection.

They are both beautiful, but the Bugatti commands a presence like no other. 

@perrone1 

Thanks for this very interesting history, Tony.

Posted by: @david-green

@perrone1 

Thanks for this very interesting history, Tony.

Thank you David!

@perrone1 thanks Tony for the info. Must admit I'm somewhat obsessed with Bugatti Royales. Their history is intriguing. Especially what bodies appeared on what chassis over time. This sketch is interesting. Were they actual bodies or sketches of proposed bodies? Or just some random artwork?

Most opinion says the 6 originals all remain. Here they are together at a Concours. I would have probably needed to be heavily sedated if I had been there and seen all 6 of them like this!

This one is fascinating. Its called the Weymann, and was a body on one of the original chassis for a period. Heres the original alongside a pic of a restored or reproduction version? I cant find anything else about it.

FMs Edsers roadster is a reproduction of a reproduction (are you following all this?!) created by the Schlumpf brothers for their museum. My Royale collection includes it, FMs Coupe Napoleon and 2 kits of the Cabriolet Weinberger and Berline de Voyage which I will redo as there a few little stuff ups on it, which also means I will have an elephant hood ornament for the Weinberger since the kit inexplicably came without one. 

This kit is also available. Called the Coupe Napoleon although it features the silver body color of the Coupé de ville Binder you featured above. I think I maybe able to make a passable Binder version out of it.

Like I said I am somewhat obsessed!

Fantastic Geoff!! Your obsession is our pleasure and now a treasured resource!   

@geoff-jowett 

These are all bodies that existed at some point.

See the chassis numbers, chassis 41100 was rebodied 5 times: 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d and 1e

Chassis 41111 was rebodied twice: 4a and 4b

Cabriolet Weinberger is here in Michigan in Henry Ford museum.