Bugatti Type 41
Royale
The Bugatti Type 41, better known as the Royale, is a large luxury car over 21 feet long. It weighs approximately 7,000 lb and uses a 12.8 litre straight-eight engine. For comparison against the equivalent Rolls-Royce, the Royale is about 20% longer, and more than 25% heavier. Because of the limited production run and the premium nature of the vehicle it is one of the rarest and most expensive vehicles in the world.
Ettore Bugatti planned to build twenty-five of these cars and sell them to royalty as the most luxurious car ever, and the car was launched with a basic chassis price of $30,000 just as the world economy began to deteriorate into the 1930s Great Depression. Seven Royales were built between 1929 and 1933, with just three sold to external customers. Intended for royalty, only three of the seven made were eventually sold, none to any royalty. Six of seven production Royales still exist, as the prototype was destroyed in an accident in 1931, and each has a different body, some having been rebodied several times.
The Royales were popular subjects for model kits and 3 of them were made in 1/24th scale by Lindberg and Testors. The models shown here were made from those kits, 3 of them as marketed and the other 3 using parts of the chassis, wheels, radiators and engine covers but with scratch built bodywork and interiors.
41100 - Coupé Napoleon
The first car is chassis number 41100, now known as the Coupé Napoleon. It was used by Ettore Bugatti, and in his later life became his personal car. It originally had a Packard body but 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 in 1930 or 1931 necessitating a major rebuild. The car was bricked up with 41141 and 41150 during World War II at the home of the Bugatti family to avoid being commandeered by the Nazis. It remained in the family's possession until 1963 when it passed into the hands of the Bugatti collector Fritz Schlumpf, and it currently resides in the Musée National de l'Automobile de Mulhouse, alongside 41131 that the Schlumpf brothers had acquired from John Shakespeare.
41111 - 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 and in this form it became known as the Royale Esders Roadster.
The car was purchased by the French politician Raymond Patenôtre, and was rebodied in the Coupé de ville style by the coach builder Henri Binder. The car was 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. It passed through several owners before in 1964 taking up residence in The Harrah Collection at Reno, Nevada. 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
41121 - Cabriolet Weinberger
The third car is chassis no.41121 known as the Cabriolet Weinberger.
It was sold in 1932 to German obstetrician Joseph Fuchs, who specified coach builder Ludwig Weinberger of Munich to build him an open cabriolet. Painted black with yellow, the car was delivered to Dr Fuchs in May, 1932. As political tensions rose in pre-war Germany, Fuchs relocated to Switzerland, then Shanghai, before permanently relocating to New York around 1937, bringing the Royale with him. Admired in Dr Fuchs' ownership by Charles Chayne, later vice-president of Corporate Engineering at General Motors. Chayne later found the car in a scrap yard in New York, buying it in 1946 for US$75.
Chayne first had the car running again, then he modified the car to make it more road usable and is said to have spent over US$10,000 doing so, with the completed car featuring from 1947 onwards: a brand-new intake manifold with four carburetors, instead of the original single carb setup; a new paint scheme of oyster white with a dark green trim and convertible roof. In 1957, after running the car for ten years, Chayne donated the car to the Henry Ford Museum where it is still located.
The model reflects the car in it's original decor as it left the factory.
41131 - Limousine Park Ward
The fourth car is chassis no.41131 and is known as the Foster car or Limousine Park-Ward. It was sold in 1933 to Englishman Captain Cuthbert W. Foster, heir to a large department store in Boston, USA, through his American mother. Foster had a limousine body made for the car by Park Ward, created in the style of a 1921 Daimler he had once owned. In 1946 it was acquired by British Bugatti dealer Jack Lemon Burton for around £700. In July 1956 it was sold to American Bugatti collector John Shakespeare, becoming part of the largest collection of Bugattis at that time. in 1963 Shakespeare sold his car collection to Fritz Schlumpf and it became part of the Schlumpf Collection. It now resides in the Musée National de l'Automobile de Mulhouse alongside 41100.
41141 - Kellner car
The fifth car is chassis no.41141 known as the Kellner car. it was unsold, kept by Bugatti, and bricked up with 41100 and 41150 during World War II at the home of the Bugatti family to avoid being commandeered by the Nazis. Sold together with 41150 by L'Ebe Bugatti in the Summer of 1950 to American Le Mans racer Briggs Cunningham. The car was rough but drive-able. The cars were delivered to the States in January 1951.
In 1987 the car was sold direct from Briggs Cunningham's collection to Swedish property tycoon Hans Thulin. On collapse of his empire, Thulin sold the car in 1990 for a reported $15.7 million to Japanese conglomerate the Meitec Corporation. In 2001 it was sold by private treaty for £10million. Ownership is presently unknown, but it has been shown in recent years by Swiss broker Lukas Huni.
41150 - Berline de Voyage
Chassis no.41150, Bugatti Type 41 Royale Berline de Voyage 1929. Unsold, it was kept by Bugatti and bricked up along with 41100 and 41141 during World War II, and sold together with 41141 in the Summer of 1950 to Briggs Cunningham. On their arrival in the United States, Cunningham sold 41150, first to Cameron Peck in early 1952 and from there the car would eventually find its way into The Harrah Collection.The car was then sold first in 1986, then in 1991 to Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino's Pizza. The car was sold to the Blackhawk Collection in Danville, California, where it has been on display at various times. It was later sold by the Blackhawk Museum to an unknown buyer.
