Lindberg 31 Bugatti Victoria

[Petetrucker07]

I just picked this kit today, for a really good price. Can anybody give me some info, pointers, things to correct, look out for etc. Thanks in advance.

[sjordan2]

I don't know much about the kit, but it represents a Bugatti Royale that has existed in different color schemes.

The Esders Royale:

This is the Weinberger Royale, which appears to be the original of the kit. Hard to see, but the soft top and leather seats are green:

Gerald Wingrove scratchbuilt the Weinberger Bugatti Royale in an earlier paint scheme in 1/15, and devoted a heavily illustrated 134-page book to it, "The Complete Car Modeller Vol. 2," usually available at Amazon.com. Lots of diagrams, detail shots, etc.

Several images at Wingrove's website:

http://www.wworkshop.net/Bugatti/Gallery-1.html

Lots more stuff on the Weinberger Royale here:

http://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&q=1931+Weinberger+Bugatti+Royale&gbv=2&oq=1931+Weinberger+Bugatti+Royale&gs_l=img.12...4364.15060.0.20280.30.7.0.23.23.0.154.746.4j3.7.0.msedr...0...1ac.1.34.img..23.7.745.6N3W3_rEvww

Edited February 27, 2015 by sjordan2

[Junkman]

The Weinberger Royale actually has a very sad story behind it.

Of the six Royales ever built by the Bugatti factory, chassis number 41-121 was bought by a German obstetrician named Josef Fuchs,
who specified coach builder Ludwig Weinberger of Munich to build him an open cabriolet.
Painted black with German Post yellow accents, the car was delivered to Dr Fuchs in May, 1932.
As political tensions rose in pre-war Germany, Dr Fuchs relocated to Italy, then Singapore.
When the threat of a Japanese invasion mounted there, he fled to Canada and drove the car to New York around 1937.
He had taken the car with him throughout his odyssey.
In New York, he apparently fell on hard times and when the engine block cracked in Winter 1938, he brought the car to a scrapyard.

Charles Chayne, later VP of Corporate Engineering at General Motors, found the car, buying it in 1946 for $400.
Mr Chayne first had the car running again, then he modified the car to make it more road usable.
He added a self made intake manifold with four carburetors, instead of the original single carb setup, altered the wheels and had it
painted in oyster white with a dark green trim and convertible roof.
These modifications are represented in the Lindberg kit. Allegedly Mr Chayne spent 10,000 Dollars on the modifications.
In 1957, he donated the car to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, where it still resides.

Now, if you want to build the model into the configuration it had when Dr Fuchs still owned the car, you will need an Italeri Royale donor.

Edited February 27, 2015 by Junkman

[Junkman]

The green "Esders" Royale roadster was built onto chassis number 41-111 and sold new in April 1932 to French clothing manufacturer Armand Esders.
Ettore's eldest son, Jean, fashioned the roadster body. In this form, it became known as the Royale Esders Roadster.

It was later purchased by the French politician Paternotre, who had it rebodied in the Coupé De Ville style by Parisian coach builder Henri Binder.
From this point onwards, it' known as the Coupé De Ville Binder.



The infamous Schlumpf brothers started to build a replica of the Esders roadster from leftover spare parts they had accumulated, thus creating Royale number seven.

This car was later finished and is the car seen in the photo Skip posted. Like the original, it has no headlights, because Monsieur Esders' opinion was, that a gentleman doesn't drive after dark.

Edited February 27, 2015 by Junkman

[Paul H]

Btw, the Binder Coupe de Ville is the one depicted in the Bandai 1:16 kit. It is not to be confused with the far better proportioned Coupe Napoleon, which is available as a 1:24 Italeri kit.

[Art Anderson]

BAck to the LIndberg Bugatti Royale. As others have stated, the engine could benefit by being replaced with the much better, more accurate-for-factory-stock Italeri unit--but beyond that, this kit should surprise you for a vintage Lindberg product--it's actually very nicely done.

Art

[Junkman]

Here is a breakdown of the history of all six factory Royales. All of them still exist.

Chassis 41-110:

This is the factory prototype fitted with the larger one-off 14.7 litre engine.

Originally fitted with a Packard tourer body. When the initial tests were completed, it received a two-door Coupe body by Weymann.

Ettore then crashed the car and it was rebuilt and fitted with various coach style bodies, before being made into the Coupe Napoleon

as we know it today.

The car remained in Bugatti's possession until 1963, when it was sold to Fritz Schlumpf. It's still in the Schlumpf Museum* in Mulhouse.

Italeri made a kit of this car.

Here are pictures of the car in some of its numerous previous guises:

Chassis 41-111:

Started life as the Esders roadster. After Paternotre had it rebuilt into the Binder Coupe De Ville,

it was supposed to be sold on to the King of Romania. This didn't happen due to WWII. The car spent thewar in the sewers of Paris

to avoid being commandeered by the Germans. After the war, it was sold to England, then to Dudley C Wilson of Florida in 1954.

When he died in 1961, it passed to bankster Mills B Lane of Atlanta, before being sold in 1964 to The Harrah Collection at Reno,

for the back then record sum of $45,000.

Sold again in 1986 to Californian collector, General William Lyon. He put the car into the 1996 Barrett-Jackson Auction,

where he refused an offer of $11 million - the reserve was set at $15 million.

In 1999, Volkswagen AG, who owns the Bugatti brand, bought the car for a reported $20 million and uses it extensively for touring

the world.

Chassis 41-121:

The Weinberger Cabriolet was the third car built, read its sad story in my previous post.

This is the car the Lindberg kit depicts.

Chassis 41-131:

Sold to Englishman Captain Cuthbert W. Foster, heir to a large department store in Boston USA, through his American mother, in 1933.

Captain Foster had a limousine body made by Park Ward, resembling the 1921 Daimler he owned beforehand. It never was re-bodied, but this doesn't mean it escaped

modification altogether, though. British Bugatti dealer Jack Lemon Burton bought it in 1946 for around £700

(a princely sum in those days), but he had to replace the huge tyres with ones from an artillery piece, necessitating the need to remove the skirting from the

wings.

He sold it to American Bugatti collector John Shakespeare in 1956, becoming part of the largest collection of Bugattis at that time.

Shakespeare paid £3,500, for the car, which was in mint condition. This was a substantial price for a collector car in 1956 and would have bought you two

show-condition SJ Duesenbergs. In 1963, Shakespeare was forced to sell his collection for financial reasons and the entire lot was bought by the Schlumpf brothers.

Thus the car is still in the Schlumpf Museum*.

Chassis 41-141:

Like chassis 41-110, it remained unsold. Sold together with chassis 41-150 by L'Ebe Bugatti in 1950 to Briggs Cunningham (making him the first man

ever who owned more than one Royale at a time).

After closing his museum in 1986,the car was auctioned by Christie's for £5.5 million to Swedish property tycoon Hans Thulin. He offered the car for auction in

1989 by Kruse in Las Vegas, where Ed Weaver bid it to $11.5 million, which Thulin declined.

On collapse of his empire, Thulin sold the car in 1990 for a reported $15.7 million to the Japanese Meitec Corporation, and it resided in their modern building

basement, before being offered for sale for £10 million by Bonhams & Brooks in 2001. Ownership is presently unknown, but it has been shown in recent years by

Swiss broker Lukas Huni and is known as the Kellner car. It's arguably the most original of the bunch, having never been rebodied or altered in any way.

Chassis 41-150:

It also remained unsold until Briggs Cunningham snapped it up together with the Kellner car. Immediately upon arrival in America,

Cunningham sold it on to Cameron Peck in early 1952. From there the car would eventually find its way into The Harrah Collection and was then sold at the

1986 Harrah auction, where Jerry J. Moore paid $6.5 million for it. He kept it for 1 year and then sold it to Tom 'Domino's Pizza' Monaghan for $8.1 million.

In 1991, Tom Monaghan sold it at a loss to the Blackhawk Collection, where it has been on display at various times.

The car is known as the Berline de Voyage and it was also kitted by Italeri.

[Junkman]

Two replicas exist.

One is the Esders roadster built from original parts:


The other was competely scratchbuilt by Ashton Keynes Vintage Restorations in England and is an exact replica of the Coupe Napoleon:


It was commissioned by the now late Tom Wheatcroft, who owned Donington Park Raceway, and cost him £4 million to build, a fraction of what he would have had to pay for an original,
if one came up for sale. This car was used for the Royal Wedding in Denmark and as a prop in a French movie.
It is such a faithful copy, that when the Kellner car needed a replacement piston, its then Japanese owners commissioned AKVR to provide a replacement.

Edited February 27, 2015 by Junkman

[sjordan2]

Christian, I totally agree with your assessment of the "infamous" Schlumpf collection, which I believe now resides in California at the Mullin museum, owners of the $35 million Rothschild Atlantic. For some reason, they seemed determined to repaint all of their Bugattis in a deep French Racing Blue, regardless of original provenance, and who knows what other modifications.

Edited February 27, 2015 by sjordan2

[Junkman]

Since the Schlumpf brothers were dispossessed without compensation by the then socialist regime ruling France, their Museum is called the

Musee Nationale d'Automobiles and it's proudly located in Mulhouse, France, including each and every Bugatti the Schlumpfs ever acquired.

Edited February 27, 2015 by Junkman

[lordairgtar]

Bankster? Someone injecting political opinion in this history?

it passed to bankster Mills B Lane of Atlanta,

[Petetrucker07]

That is some good info. I had no idea this was such a rare car. I knew early Bugatti were a high end car for its time, even now due to its rarity. I'm gonna have research this further and decide how I'm gonna build this. This can't be a slap it together in an hour build. I'm gonna do my best to make it a great representation of the rare car. Thanks again guys. This is much appreciated.

[gtx6970]

Interesting info. I have one one the stash. ......just don't remember which one

[Paul H]

Such a pity that the Esders has not been kitted (although this Lindberg kit looks like a good starting point for a conversion) - it and the Coupe Napoleon are the definitive Royale bodystyles imho.

For those not familiar with the size of the T41 Royale, in the '80s a Frenchman built a 7/8th scale Coupe Napoleon using a T46 as the starting point (iirc, the chassis required a wheelbase stretch, but the rest was the appropriate dimensions) and that was still a large car. The story was covered in two or three articles in the UK vintage car mag 'The Automobile'.

[sjordan2]

I'm trying to figure out why I thought Mullin had absorbed the Schlumpf collection. Hmmm. Oh, well.

[gtx6970]

Excellant information. I wasn't aware of the history of these cars. Or the brothers themselves. I just did a google search of the Schlumpf collection.

Pretty cool history

[Petetrucker07]

Excellant information. I wasn't aware of the history of these cars. Or the brothers themselves. I just did a google search of the Schlumpf collection.

Pretty cool history

Yep, I had no idea about this car. I knew early Bugetti's were rare, but I had no idea this rare. Best part they are still all in existence in collections.

I'll probably end building mine as the late 40s rebuild, since thats what the kit is after.

Edited March 1, 2015 by Petetrucker07

[Motor City]

Since the Schlumpf brothers were dispossessed without compensation by the then socialist regime ruling France, their Museum is called the

Musee Nationale d'Automobiles and it's proudly located in Mulhouse, France, including each and every Bugatti the Schlumpfs ever acquired.

From what I read, they ran their woolen mill into the ground, and kept buying cars to feed their collection. Meanwhile, the employees of the mill lost their jobs. That was their right to run the business into the ground, but don't feel sorry for the Schlumpfs.

[Junkman]

From what I read, they ran their woolen mill into the ground, and kept buying cars to feed their collection. Meanwhile, the employees of the mill lost their jobs. That was their right to run the business into the ground, but don't feel sorry for the Schlumpfs.

There are always two sides to a story, aren't there?

The one you can read in the mainstream media, and the truth.

Anyway, this forum is about model making.

[Junkman]

And when it comes to model making, there are two possibilities.

Either build the kit out of the box, to resemble the car as it is with us today, or kitbash it with an Italeri Royale, to build the model to resemble the car as it was delivered to Dr Fuchs.

That's when you want to build something authentic. If you want to build a custom, the possibilities are endless.

Edited March 3, 2015 by Junkman

[Junkman]

Such a pity that the Esders has not been kitted (although this Lindberg kit looks like a good starting point for a conversion) - it and the Coupe Napoleon are the definitive Royale bodystyles imho.

The Esders roadster and the Coupe Napoleon are the only cars out of the six built, that were styled by Ettore Bugatti's eldest son Gianoberto Maria Carlo "Jean", and cleary demonstrate his sense of shape and proportion. He also styled three bodies for the Type 57, the Ventoux, Stelvio, and Atalante models.

He died in a freak accident, aged only 30, when he lost control of his vehicle (a Type 57 tank-bodied racer) and crashed into a tree while trying to avoid a drunken bicyclist

Ettore Bugatti's brother, Rembrandt, was a sculptor, famous for his bronze sculptures of wildlife subjects. He made the elephant that was used as a radiator ornament for the Royales.

In 1916, at the age of 31, he committed suicide.

[gtx6970]

Lets be honest,this is one massive automobile

[Junkman]

It's arguably the largest car ever built, with the largest engine ever installed in a passenger car.

In fact, surplus engines (the Royale wasn't exactly a sales hit, with six built and only three sold) ended up in a batch of railcars built for the French national railways.

It's an engine out of these railcars, that the Schlumpf brothers used to re-create the Esders roadster.

Edited March 4, 2015 by Junkman

[Junkman]

This is Jean Bugatti posing with the Esders roadster:

It should give you an indication of the mass of the car.

[Junkman]

Here is a shot with the man himself, when what ultimately became the Coupe Napeoleon was still Packard bodied: