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40-464: Ettore Bugatti planned to build twenty-five of these cars and sell them to royalty as the most luxurious car ever, but even European royalty were not buying such things during the Great Depression , and Bugatti was able to sell only three of the seven made (six still exist, one was wrecked in a crash). Still, the leftover engines were re-used successfully in newly constructed high-speed railcars for

80-513: A Bugatti being driven to victory in the first Monaco Grand Prix . While displaced from his home in Alsace by World War I , Bugatti designed aeroplane engines, notably the somewhat baroque 16-cylinder U-16 , which was never built in any large number and was installed in only a very few aircraft. Between the wars Bugatti designed a successful motorized railcar dubbed the Autorail Bugatti, and won

120-548: A daughter, Thérèse in 1942 and a son, Michel in 1945. Bugatti died at the American hospital in the inner-Paris suburb of Neuilly , in the late summer of 1947. Afflicted by a paralysis of his mental faculties, he had for several months been confined to the Paris apartment in the rue Boissière , which he had owned since 1916. He was almost certainly unaware of the court decision whereby his property in Alsace, which had been confiscated by

160-491: A government contract to construct an airplane, the Model 100 . It was designed by Louis de Monge using two type 50B Bugatti engines but never flew due to the outbreak of World War II. Surgical instruments, designed by Bugatti for a friend who was a professor at a nearby hospital, are still in use to this day. Bugatti's son, Jean , was killed on 11 August 1939 at the age of 30 while testing a Bugatti Type 57 tank-bodied race car near

200-532: A group that was interested in purchasing the collection. Both efforts to save the collection failed. However, a nonprofit organization was formed that ultimately built the museum. Holiday Inn donated 175 of Harrah's automobiles to the group and sold the rest of the collection through three auctions in the mid-1980s. Private owners donated another 60 vehicles. The museum opened on November 5, 1989 in downtown Reno , Nevada . The museum has over 200 cars spread over four galleries. Gallery 1 showcases cars built during

240-576: A reconstruction of the 41100 Packard prototype by Dutch company Hevec Classics was presented at the Molsheim festival. It claims to use the original prototype chassis frame and other parts and was initially fitted with a replica engine (built by Tom Wheatcroft ). In 2016, the same team that reconstructed the Packard prototype, led by Frank Slopsma, unveiled a new replica of the Royale Esders Roadster at

280-561: A replica made of the car. It now resides with the two originals they purchased at the Musée National de l'Automobile de Mulhouse. The late Tom Wheatcroft commissioned Ashton Keynes Vintage Restorations (AKVR) to build an exact replica of Bugatti's personal car, the Coupe Napoleon (chassis number 41100), for his Donington Grand Prix Collection in England . It has since been sold and left

320-549: A section dedicated to his life, work, and legacy. The Harrah Collection The National Automobile Museum is a museum in Reno , Nevada . Most of the vehicles displayed are from the collection of William F. Harrah . The museum opened on November 5, 1989. William F. Harrah collected approximately 1,450 automobiles, which he stored inside warehouses in Sparks, Nevada . It was the world's largest collection of historic automobiles, and

360-411: Is about Hitler's attempt to get a Royale and efforts to thwart him. Ettore Bugatti Ettore Arco Isidoro Bugatti (15 September 1881 – 21 August 1947) was an Italian-born French automobile designer and manufacturer. He received French citizenship in 1946. He is remembered as the founder and proprietor of the automobile manufacturing company Automobiles E. Bugatti , which he founded in 1909 in

400-495: Is one of three 24 kt gold plated DeLoreans built for American Express , a " Jerrari ", a Jeep Wagoneer fitted with a V-12 Ferrari engine and formerly used for winter driving by William F. Harrah, and the only surviving prototype of Buckminster Fuller 's Dymaxion car . The one-of-a-kind Phantom Corsair is also displayed at the museum. The museum has been named in the 'Top Ten Museums' by Car Collector magazine, one of "America's Five Greatest Automobile Museums" and one of

440-624: Is said to have retorted, "Sir! If you can afford a Type 35, you can surely afford a heated garage!" Another famous line he told to a customer complaining about the brakes in one model was, "I make my cars to go, not stop!" He was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2000. In 1907 Bugatti married Barbara Maria Giuseppina Mascherpa. They had two daughters, L'Ébé in 1903 and Lidia in 1907, and two sons, Jean in 1909, and Roland in 1922. His wife Barbara died in 1944, and Bugatti remarried in 1946, to Geneviève Marguerite Delcuze. They had

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480-651: The Type 8 / 9 . While employed at Deutz, Bugatti built the Type 10 in the basement of his home. In 1913, Bugatti designed a small car for Peugeot , the Type 19 Bébé . Despite being born in Italy, Bugatti established his automobile company, Automobiles E. Bugatti , in 1909 in the then German town of Molsheim in the Alsace region of what is now France. The maker was known for some of the fastest, most luxurious, and technologically advanced road cars of its day. Exceptional engineering led to success in early Grand Prix motor racing , with

520-599: The 1890s & 1900s, Gallery 2 features cars from the 1910s to 1930s, Gallery 3 the 1930s through to the 1950s, and Gallery 4 displays cars from 1950 onward. Gallery 4 also includes race cars . Each gallery is linked by a themed "street", featuring vehicles as well as faux shop fronts. Celebrity owned cars include: Movie featured cars include: The collection includes examples from marques such as: Auburn , Bugatti , Cord , Duesenberg , Ferrari , Franklin , Jaguar , K-R-I-T , McLaren , Mercedes-Benz , Pierce-Arrow , Porsche , Rolls-Royce , and Stutz . Also on display

560-446: The 2012 book Lucia on Holiday by Guy Fraser-Sampson, an addition to the Mapp and Lucia series of novels by E.F.Benson . In the story Major Mapp-Flint is asked by a maharajah to drive the car from Paris to Bellagio, but he drives so badly and inflicts so much damage that the maharajah has the car driven into Lake Como. The Bugatti Royale 41150 Berline de Voyage 1931 also features throughout

600-410: The 2014 book The Eye of Zoltar , book 3 of The Last Dragonslayer series by Jasper Fforde . The car is referenced ten times within the book. The protagonist Jennifer Strange describes her choice of car "After looking at several I'd chosen a massive vintage car called a Bugatti Royale. Inside it was sumptuously comfortable, and outside, the bonnet was so long that in misty weather it was hard to make out

640-478: The French Air Ministry, but never produced. It was built around a single huge block cast in one unit with an integrated cylinder head , and at approx. 1.4 m (4.6 ft) long x 1.1 m (3.6 ft) high, is physically one of the largest engines ever made for a passenger automobile; it also had one of the largest displacements,12.7 L (775 cu in), with each cylinder displacing more than

680-556: The French National Railway ( SNCF ). When the Royale went to the market in the 1980s, it sold for the price of more than 6 Ferrari 250 GTOs . The Type 41 is said to have come about because Alsatian autobuilder Ettore Bugatti took exception to the comments of an English lady who compared his cars unfavourably with those of Rolls-Royce . The overhead cam straight 8 engine was based on an aero design that had been done for

720-427: The Molsheim factory. After that, the company's fortunes began to decline. World War II ruined the factory in Molsheim, and the company lost control of the property. During the war, Bugatti planned a new factory at Levallois in Paris and designed a series of new cars. Bugatti's concept of customer relations was somewhat eccentric. To a Bugatti owner who complained that his car was difficult to start on cold mornings, he

760-642: The RETRO CLASSICS show in Stuttgart, Germany. A year later this same team showed a part-finished replica of the Weymann coach version of the 41100 Royale prototype at the Mondorf Classic Days & Concours d'Elegance. All three replicas built by the team were shown at the show, they were built for an undisclosed Dutch owner. The Sinsheim Auto & Technik Museum has a replica of the 41100 Coupe Napoleon that

800-500: The collection. So good was the replica, that when the Kellner car needed a replacement piston, its then Japanese owners commissioned South Cerney Engineering, part of AKVR, to provide a replacement. On May 24, 2008, Prince Joachim of Denmark on the day of his wedding to Princess Marie (formerly Marie Cavallier ) had Wheatcroft's replica waiting outside Møgeltønder Church to drive the newly married couple to Schackenborg Castle . In 2011

840-418: The engine valves was a regular maintenance requirement, and removing the engine valves to do so required removing and disassembling the large cast iron engine. The chassis was understandably substantial, with a conventional semi-elliptic leaf spring suspension arrangement at the front. At the rear the forward-facing Bugatti quarter-elliptics were supplemented by a second set facing to the rear. Strangely for

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880-437: The entire engine of the contemporary Type 40 touring car . It had a bore of 125 mm (4.9 in) and stroke of 130 mm (5.1 in), 3 valves per cylinder (two inlet:one exhaust) driven by a centrally positioned single overhead cam. Only three bearings and only a single custom carburettor was used. Output was 205–224 kW (275–300 hp) @ 1800 rpm, and 875 lb⋅ft (1,186 N⋅m) of torque. Grinding of

920-420: The head of technology at De Dietrich. From 1902 through 1904, De Dietrich built his Type 3 / 4 and Type 5 / 6 / 7 , identified at the time with the name "De Dietrich, Licence Bugatti". While working for De Dietrich Bugatti met Émile Mathis . The two became first friends and then business partners, leaving De Dietrich in 1904 in order to produce automobiles of their own, which were identified with

960-628: The hood ornament." The Bugatti Royale features in the David Grossman book The Zigzag Kid . A blood-red Bugatti type 41 Royale Coupe de Ville appears in Leslie Charteris ' Vendetta For the Saint (Doubleday 1964, ghostwritten by Harry Harrison ) as a rental car for Simon Templar . A Bugatti Royale was featured in the Clive Cussler novel The Wrecker . The Seventh Royale by Donald Stanwood

1000-405: The modern day observer, the aluminium clutch box was attached to the chassis - not to the engine - and the gearbox (also aluminium) was attached to the rear axle which meant it was part of the unsprung mass of the suspension. The clutch and gearbox were placed at odd locations to reduce noise and increase comfort, a difficult problem in those days. The transmission was mounted at the rear to offset

1040-508: The name "Mathis-Hermes (Licence Bugatti)". This arrangement lasted till 1906 after which the partners went their separate ways, and Bugatti set up a "Research centre" at Illkirch-Graffenstaden , now a suburb on the south-side of Strasbourg . He produced several prototypes, collaborating closely with the Cologne based Deutz company. In 1907, Bugatti was appointed Production Director (" Directeur des fabrications ") with Deutz. Here he designed

1080-632: The opportunity to come and design automobiles at his Lorraine-Dietrich car factory in Niederbronn . Frontier changes following the Franco-Prussian War had left De Dietrich with two car factories in two different countries: the Niederbronn plant, to which Bugatti now relocated was in Alsace , which had been part of Germany since 1871, reverting to French control only in 1919 . In 1902 Ettore became

1120-436: The prototype was destroyed in an accident in 1931, and each has a different body, some having been rebodied several times. The car would eventually find its way into The Harrah Collection . The car was then sold at the 1986 Harrah auction where Houston, Texas real estate developer Jerry J. Moore paid $ 6.5 million for it. He kept it for 1 year, and then sold it to Tom Monaghan for £5.7 million ( US$ 8.1 million). To utilize

1160-486: The railcars took a world average speed record of 122 mph (196 km/h) for 43.9 miles (70.7 km). [REDACTED] Media related to Bugatti railcar at Wikimedia Commons In light of the rarity of the Type 41 and its associated price, it is unsurprising that some replicas have been made. The Schlumpf brothers so liked the original Dr Armand Esders coupe body on chassis 41111, using original Bugatti parts they had

1200-666: The remaining 23 engines after the final Royale was built, Bugatti built a railcar powered by either two or four of the eight-cylinder units. Seventy-nine were built for the French National Railway SNCF , using a further 186 engines, the last of them remaining in regular use until 1956 or 1958 (sources differ). The railcar turned the Royale project from an economic failure into a commercial success for Bugatti. The engines were derated to produce only about 200 hp, but even in this form they provided excellent performance. One of

1240-583: The state in the feverish post-liberation frenzy of anger and retribution which his Italian origins had invited, was restored to him on 20 June 1947; Bugatti died just over two months later, on 21 August without having recovered consciousness. Bugatti was buried in the Bugatti family plot at the municipal cemetery in Dorlisheim , near Molsheim, in the Bas-Rhin department of France. Molsheim's Musée de la Chartreuse houses

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1280-510: The then German town of Molsheim in the Alsace region of what is now France. Bugatti died in Paris , and is buried in Dorlisheim , France. Bugatti was born into an artistic family in Milan , Italy. He was the elder son of Carlo Bugatti (1856–1940), an important Italian Art Nouveau furniture and jewellery designer, and his wife, Teresa Lorioli (1862–1935). His younger brother, Rembrandt (1884–1916),

1320-409: The weight of the engine. Massive brake shoes were mechanically operated via cable controls: the brakes were effective but without servo-assistance required significant muscle power from the driver. The car's light alloy "Roue Royale" wheels measured 610 millimetres (24 in) in diameter and were cast in one piece with the brake drums. Reflecting some tradition-based fashions of the time, the driver

1360-509: The wide range of aspects of motor-vehicle construction, and with Prinetti & Stucchi constructed his "Bugatti Type 1" in 1898. With financial support from a Count Gulinelli, Bugatti developed a second prototype, the Type 2 , which was a prize-winning exhibit at the Milan Trade Fair in the Spring of 1901. His design also caught the eye of Baron Adrien de Turckheim, who offered Bugatti

1400-399: The world economy began to deteriorate into the 1930s Great Depression . Six Royales were built between 1929 and 1933, with just three sold to external customers. Intended for royalty, none was eventually sold to any royals, and Bugatti even refused to sell one to King Zog of Albania , claiming that "the man's table manners are beyond belief!" Six of seven production Royales still exist, as

1440-507: Was a posed elephant , a sculpture by Ettore's brother Rembrandt Bugatti . In 1928, Ettore Bugatti asserted that "this year King Alfonso of Spain will receive his Royale", but the Spanish king was deposed in April 1931 without taking delivery of a Royale, and the first of the cars to find a customer was not delivered until 1932. The Royale with a basic chassis price of $ 30,000, was launched just as

1480-450: Was a renowned animal sculptor. His aunt, Luigia Bugatti, was the wife of the painter Giovanni Segantini . His paternal grandfather, Giovanni Luigi Bugatti, was an architect and sculptor. Bugatti's father intended that he follow a conventional technical apprenticeship with one of the Milanese tri-/quadricycle manufacturers, but the boy quickly demonstrated a deep instinctive understanding of

1520-461: Was built for the 1968 film Rebus . The much smaller Panther De Ville (produced between 1974 and 1985) consciously resembled the Type 41. In the 1985 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance , all six cars appeared together on display. In 2007, five of the six cars were on display at the Goodwood Festival of Speed to celebrate the Royale's eightieth anniversary. A Bugatti Royale features in

1560-488: Was confronted by a series of knobs of whalebone , while the steering wheel was covered with walnut . A road test performed in 1926 by W. F. Bradley at the request of Ettore Bugatti for the Autocar magazine proved how exquisite chassis construction allowed very good and balanced handling at speed, similar to smaller Bugatti sports cars, despite the car's weight and size. All Royales were individually bodied. The radiator cap

1600-428: Was open to the public. When Harrah died in 1978, Holiday Inn acquired his hotel-casino company and the automobile collection. In 1981, Holiday Inn announced that it would sell the entire collection, a decision that received some opposition. Nevada governor Robert List attempted to delay the sale while working on a plan to have the state enact legislation that would save the collection. Businessman Thomas Perkins led

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