Note to Stuart and Herman; yes I am working on the Royale article, even on a Saturday night. Therefore the following questions : As can be seen from the following photographs, 41131 was delivered with semi-shrouded, though still full bodied wings, giving a rather elegant and stately effect.





Today the wings look like this :





Was this done by Captain Cuthbert Foster, or by Jack Lemon Burton? All the photos I've seen of this car while in Lemon Burton's ownership featured these, by now, abbreviated wings. And who replaced the original Rolls-Royce Spirit of Ecstasy mascot with the elephant?

Thanks to Jonathan Wood I have finally found a photo of 41131's interior as original, and sadly, the beautiful gold brocade interior now fitted seems to be the work of the Schlumf brothers.

Thanks
Johan

PS. This article is going to be very, very late. It will, however, be my best work ever, but I repeat, very, very, very late.

Hello Johan,

The changes to the wings were done by Jack Lemon Burton. He did it in order to fit military tyres to the car. They were the only ones he could find that would fit on the enormous wheels of the Royale.

Best regards,

Jeroen

_________________
Octagon Fox, specialist in new and rare Bugatti books
www.octagonfox.com
twitter: @octagonfox

Hello Johan
Jeroen is correct in stating that the modification was carried out by J L Burton, and I have a photograph of the operation actually being carried out in a London street in 1946 or 47. Trouble is I am new to this site and I dont know how to post it!
Regards
Greg Morgan

Hi Greg

Another Royale fanatic! How wonderful, now I do not feel so alone anymore. As to how to post this photo, just wait until Herman gets back from his honeymoon and he will explain. It only took me a year to learn how to post photos on the forum, and then only if it is already on the internet. Good Luck!

As to the vexed question of wheelbase, I suspect the long wheelbase of the prototype was kept up to and including the Weymann (4th) body. If you look at the profile shot of the Weymann car and compare it with profile shots of the other cars, it does seem longer. I think that the new frame on which the Coupe Napoleon was built, was the second short wheelbase, the Berline de Voyage (41150) being the first. Jonathan Wood believes that this car was built when the prototype still wore the large fiacre saloon and Kestler points out that the Berline de Voyage is a convertible version of this saloon. Personally I think that is over-simplifying matters slightly, but Jonathan Wood does point out that that 41150 does not have the flutes along the bonnet extending into the radiator, same as the prototype in its original form. The other 5 cars, including the Coupe Napoleon, has these flutes.

Mind you, I have seen no proof that this longer wheelbase was kept for the Weymann coupe, it is purely based on my own observation. If you have anymore information, please share.

Thank you very much for your contributions so far, there is something utterly mesmerising about the T41, certainly my second favourite Bugatti. The late, great Hugh Conway, on the other hand, always gave the impression that the Royale left him somewhat under-whelmed. That's the great thing about the Royale, nobody stands indifferent to it. All this passion for a mere 6 (7?) cars - Wonderful!

Kind Regards
Johan Buchner

Hello Greg,

Here is a tutorial on how to place pictures. If it doesn't work out and you need help, please let me know.

Hello Johan,

Don't feel alone. I'm a T41 fanatic too.

Regards, Jeroen

_________________
Octagon Fox, specialist in new and rare Bugatti books
www.octagonfox.com
twitter: @octagonfox

So many of us, I almost feel like breaking into a rendition of "We are family." (Apologies for the gay-ism, it just slipped out.) I can almost hear the T35 fans weep! My job is done then.

Goodnight people - Johan needs his beauty sleep. Hey, I heard that!

Hi johan
The Bugatti royale represented something of an obsession to me for most of my life which has cooled of late. strangley enough this coincided with seeing five of the Royales at goodwood last year. I saw all six together in Paris back in 1990, but after Goodwood where they seemed to be bunched up together without being roped off from the great unwashed made me realise that they were mere cars after all.
As for my statment about the weyman having the wheelbase of the production car, let me give you the proof.
By trade I am a model maker and often I need to scale from photographs.
On page 40 of Paul Kestlers book"Bugatti royale-Le reve Magnifique" there is a photo of the Weyman that is as accurate a dead on side view as you could wish to find.
On this photo the outer wheel diameter measures 28mm. If you divide 28mm by the outer diameter of the Royale wheel (654mm) you get a scale factor of 23.357. The wheelbase of the production chassis was 4300.
Divide 4300 by 23.357 and you get 184.01mm- identical to the wheelbase on the photo.
If you then turn to page 33 and apply these rules to the Coupe Fiacre you will find that it to has a 4300 wheelbase.
Now for a real revelation. On page 28 there is a very flat side view of the Packard Prototype. the diameter of the prototype wheel was 670mm (I have copies of the actual factory drawings of all the Royale wheels in front of me as I speak). measure the wheels in the photo and they are about 25.5mm. divide that by 670 and you get a scale factor of 26.274ish. Measure the wheelbase in that photo and you arrive at 163.6. multiply that by the scale factor and you get 4300. If the Prototype had a wheelbase of 4600, then the photo should show a wheelbase 12mm longer!
In other words, the royale had a 4300 wheelbase from day one.
The legend of the prototype having a 4600 wheelbase was therefore another example of WF Bradley bending the truth.
I rest my case your honour.

Hi Greg.

There is something weird about my own feelings for the Royale too, it ebbs and flows. Sometimes I truly think it the single greatest car ever, but then I go through these phases where it represents to me Ettore's vanity and arrogance at its most bombastic. Strange that the Goodwood gathering removed some of the mystique for you, my best friend saw them, and when he came back home he couldn't stop talking about how fabulous they were up close and personal. And he's an Alfisti who believes Bugattis are overrated! He's from Norfolk, originally.

I accept your proof that the prototype had the same wheelbase up to and including the Weymann coupe, however, please make it conclusive and apply your maths to the profile shot of the Coupe Napoleon on p49 of the Kestler book. Comparing this photo with the one on p40 it just looks slightly shorter. If your calculations prove that they are all the same length, perhaps you can speculate on why this is. Could Jean Bugatti's genius design talents really account for the "rightness" of his Royales. All the previous bodies seem a little exaggerated, mind you, this is purely a personal opinion.

Have you built models of the Royale? I would love to see how your work compares with that of master-model builder Gerald Wingrove. His Weinberger Cabriolet, and research, is nothing short of breath-taking. Hope to hear from you soon. Just seen your latest post, I really loved that article on the mascot, trust me, it will be used in my upcoming article!

At the moment there are 3 ongoing threads on this forum, this one on the Royale, Michael's one on the T51, soon, hopefully, to be joined by the T35, and then the Pebble Beach winning Alfa thread is about to become even more interesting. Which reminds me, I still have some information for Aravis about the Prince Henry car. This forum is going from strength to strength, while the French one withered and died, just like both the B.O.C. and VSCC forums. I wonder why this is? Of course I never contributed to any of the other three. Nor were they started by Dutch Bugattists. And my native Afrikaans is a Dutch dialect. Yes, I think the time has come for me to meet with Herman in person. Watch this space.

Regards
Johan