I am in mourning because my copy of the T46 book has disappeared somewhere between the Czech Republic and South Africa, and you people mock me??!!!!! How cruel, how cold, how utterly devoid of mercy you are.

By the way, is Martijn really that big? Such a nice man, I'm very fond of him really. The "I hate you" was in jest you understand, a bit of humour, just a little joke, no really. You say he is 8'10 and 280 lbs..... very nice man, very nice.... very good friend.

Now that that is settled can I please get back to my Registers? Thank you Herman, thank you Jeroen. And while I have your attention, has Martijn organised any Dutch Bugatti Registers for you? No. Has he given either one of you a free Apetz? No, I didn't think so. So next time I tell Martijn I hate him, you'll know, I do so filled with brotherly love. You don't honestly think I'm stupid enough to insult an 8'10 guy, do you?

Really, some people!

I am the One they call Johan, still.

You know Johan
i picked up my copy at Retromobile that way i didn't have to worry about it get lost in transit
then i started reading it the next day, and the day after that & the day after that etc...

you know why, because i liked it that much & since there where such great images in there i just couldn't stop till i finished
& then i went over the pictures again


AAAHH, the joy of having a book that you don't (yet) have
how seldom will i have this change again

Congratulations Sir. You drew blood. I'm in pain. Victory is yours.

I wish to make a statement for the record :

Yesterday I had to inform Dr. Bohuslav Klein and Mr. Kees Jansen (I believe M. Saunier to be recovering from a serious illness, so I thought it best not to bother him) that my copy of the T46 book seem to have disappeared somewhere between the Czech Republic and South Africa. Less than an hour later I received a most courteous reply informing me that a replacement copy will be sent to me free of charge. The only condition Dr. Klein had was that if, in the fullness of time, the first copy should make its appearance, I then pay for it. A condition I agreed to immediately.

We live in cynical times, it is quite amazing to me that the authors are willing to accept no more proof than my word, and I wish to add that they both have been most helpful, professional and courteous throughout this dragged out affair. My book collection serves very much as metaphor for my present good fortune. I make sure that all bills, taxes and levies are fully paid (the pain notwithstanding) and I like to share my books, or rather their content, with all. Therefore all my books must be "clean" and legitimate. My own actions, likewise.

Kind Regards
Johan Buchner

Dear Johan,

This stolen copy will undoubtedly appear on e-bay soon. Let us all keep our eyes open on that one.

Ten books of our Register Vol I were stolen, five of which appeared on e-bay and were sold for prices much higher that we sold them for. Even when Vol I was still for sale at Jaap's site for € 75.- so one seems to have Bugattisti and e-bayers. E-bay nor the seller gave a damn as long as he got over 250 US$ for the books. The last copy was sold last year at the Retro for 600 US$ (then 300 GBP)

Even a copy of Vol I and II was already stolen in Germany and offered on e-bay. The culprit has been fired from the binders site where he stole it.

Kees

Truly unbelievable.

_________________
Vive la Marque !!

Thank you for your kind words Mr. Jansen. I still believe the original copy to be merely displaced rather than stolen. According to the South African Postal Services the book never arrived in South Africa, the tracking number indicating as much.

Just a brief explanation, a few years ago one of our cable TV channels ran an expose about mail being stolen, and it must be remembered, South Africa is a third world country, the Post Office is relied on by many of our citizens to send money back to their families. Economic circumstances dictate that a great many South Africans leave their families behind in the rural areas while they work in the big cities. As you can imagine the ensuing outcry was enormous, a lot of people were fired and security was radically tightened. The result is a Postal Service that is reliable, if not the quickest in the world.

I remain hopeful that the original copy of T46 will one day be found and delivered. If and when that happens, yourself and Dr. Klein will be the first to know. You have my word on that.

Kind Regards
Johan Buchner

Same here. There was much debate on postal theft. Untill a popular magazine did a test:

The sent 50 euro in an envelop, to the head office of the publisher. They did that from 50 different places (so if things went bad, it would have cost 2500 euro). The bank note was visible from the outside.

The results:
-50 envelops arrived without any harm.
-It took between 1 day and 14 days for all the envelops to arrive.

Back in the old days when buying Bugatti scale models, I sometimes sent money in an envelop (not visible) to many places, like Russia, Cyprus, and even more obscure places. Only one single time I was let down: I bought an EB110 to EB110SS conversion kit including the donor kit (Revell) for some 70 euros. Never received. By the way, this was in France. (I should have known better then, should know better now...)

_________________
Vive la Marque !!

you should be glad, they did a test like that here in Belgium a few months ago aswell, but with games.
if i remember correctly about 30-40% didn't arrive

altough i can't say that i have ever lost a package (knocking on wood)

I recently described the South African Postal services as utterly reliable, if not the quickest in the world. Too true, too true ... My T46 arrived this afternoon, having been posted in the Czech Republic on 29/12/2009! Thankfully before Dr.Klein had a chance to post the replacement.

Let's see now, write to the authors to thank them? Check
Write to the Post Office to thank them? Check
Post new arrival on Forum? Check.
Start reading the new book? Not yet, I'm still busy gloating to all of you.

Bye.
Johan

Probably ended up in the surface mail. (boat). Which can take long...

_________________
Vive la Marque !!

Could be Herman, but I've been too busy devouring the photos to look at the invoices and delivery slips. A nice touch though, Dr. Klein included a hand written note wishing me all the best for 2009 and he hopes I like the book. Dr. Klein, should you read this, I like the book, a lot.

While this work is even more comprehensive than I dared hope for, enjoying those beautiful cars is mingled with some sadness. So many have been scrapped, and of those that survived some very beautiful examples of the coachbuilder's art have been broken up. Some quite recently.

But this is so no time for regret, this book has instantly shot to the top of my favourites list, so is it better than Laugier? Difficult to say just yet, but only 40 odd T57S' were ever built, while the Molsheim factory produced approximately 400 T46 chassis. I have noticed one big difference between these two works, with the T57S I already knew all the cars from photos, so what Laugier did for me was to provide exhaustive details on them all, for instance, I knew there was a beautiful blue and white convertible T57S in the Schlumpf, the work of Gangloff I thought. Thanks to Laugier I now know that 57543 was originally Atalante number 11, the car caught fire and the body was completely destroyed. It was Paul Nee who constructed the present coachwork.

The T46 work is exactly the opposite, the majority of the cars are completely new to me. It truly is an extraordinary piece of precision research, done with real passion. It was one man's passion that started the ball rolling which resulted in this exhaustive reference work ; Dr. Bohuslav Klein acquired a T46 and he wished to know his car's entire history, one thing led to another, Roland Saunier was in from the beginning, then Kees Jansen got involved and slowly but surely this most mysterious of Bugattis started giving up her secrets. A lot of people contributed to this book, and we the readers are the richer for it. To the authors I say this : "Gentlemen, from the bottom of my heart, thank you."

I keep all the books devoted to single Types in numerical order so at the moment my library is arranged as follows : Brescia Bugatti ; Type 32 (not the greatest work ever, but it is the only one on Ettore's first "Tank.") ; Type 41 Royale ; Type 43 ; Type 46 ; Barrie Price's booklet ; Laugier and then Simon. I actually dipped into the Price work before I logged on, and just reading the standard "Either a late T46 or T50" captions had me convulsed with laughter. That Price book does serve a most important function though ; it reminds me how very fortunate I am in now (finally) being able to collect the very best available.

Life can be a very fine thing at times, especially right now.

Kind Regards
Johan Buchner

Eat your heart out Johan ! The good thing is that the library is across the hall from the guest bedroom.So when you come to France...

Your library is a lot more comprehensive than mine, and is that a book on Bucciali I spot on the top shelf? Another question ; middle shelf, towards the left, 2 thickish blue Bugatti books, almost identical in size, what are they?

Congratulations Lazarus, this is a superb book collection. Not only are you the owner of quite a few awesome Bugattis (as well as examples of a few other select marques, I believe.), but you have a loving daughter about to be gifted a T37 built for her by a devoted father. The gods have surely smiled on you Sir.

Kind Regards
Johan

You are correct about the Bucialli book well worth the money.Almost impossible to imagine such a big book for only a handful of not very serious cars.The pair of big books re Bugatti are the Dumont pair in english and french.My first Bugatti book in fact.I have usually bought two of each book so that one can be in the workshop and be used for reference.The clean copy resides in the house for reverence ! This policy died out with the very much higher prices for books today.HGC kindly signed all of his tomes one day in London,He was amused to see that i had all the various editions of the same books !these have a special place in the collection,as does the Ebe Bugatti signed copy of her book.this is only a small part of the library as you can see from the photos.