I was reading on wikipedia about Type 41 Royale's and this caught my attention "Bricked up with 41.110 and 41.141 during World War II at the home of the Bugatti family in Ermenonville, to avoid being commandeered by the Nazis." Who in the bugatti family was responsible for this, and what other cars were there, and any pictures?
Thanks,
Erik

Am I correct to think that even the plane resided in Ermenonville for some time?

I recall one picture, of some cars, on the carpets...

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Yes, the airplane was in Ermenonville until about 1960. I'm not sure about the date that it arrived there, should have been 1940.

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The plane the Monge have been as from 1940 and Lidia managed these with the Royale. The castle has been sold by Lidia to serge Pozzoli?

That is interesting,because Serge Pozzoli bought two T73C's in 1947 and subsequently won his court case against the factory for loss of earnings because the cars never arrived.Did the house form part payment?

I have no more information than this, sorry.

A little information concerning Bugatti to see the link;

http://www.google.nl/url?q=http://www.c ... Ri8WRr3odA

To see history.

Serge Pozzoli owned the Bugatti P100 airplane and he offered it to the French Musée de L´Air which considered it as "non interesting" and refused the airplane. After that, the plane was sold to Ray Jones who was only interested in its T50 engines (both of them have been used in two Jones´s recreations); later the plane whithout engines went to Dr. Peter Williamson and finally to the Oshkosh museum where it was restored. A picture of the P100 inside Ermenonville can be seen in the book "Bugatti Magnum". Maybe the P100 airplane was part of the payment for Mr. Pozzoli.

Another car which resided inside Ermenonville for some time was the Bugatti T40 40623 originally owned by Lidia Bugatti; some pictures can be seen on the wiki.

I remember have watched many years ago a television series about the history of the Car in which it was told that during the second World War the Royale´s were hidden before the Germans arrived at Molsheim and that some engines were buried under earth in the grounds of the factory. I hesitate if any engine could resist so many years buried and work once unearthed; but if the story is true, those should have been T57 engines (and T64 prototypes?). The engines fitted in the T101, were new built units? were produced using spare parts? were complete engines in stock from before the war? Can be some of truth in the story of the buried engines?

What cars did the Bugatti family keep the longest, and were these hidden as well? This is some interesting stuff!
Erik

the car longest kept by the family was the T40 faicre, owned by lydia . there is some misunderstanding about the motors that have been dug on the grounds of the estate.
these had been motors of the pre WWI production, which had been dug after WWI
broke out.
in WWII most of the prototypes, the bathtube T10, the tank had been brought south to bordeuax.

regards
mike

I believe it was not the complete engines of the racing cars that were burried, but only the camshafts. Packed in greased paper, boxed in wooden crates.

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Thanks; now it is clear that I misunderstood the story of the buried engines.

were not the royales hidden in the sewers of Paris during the second world war?

This is one of those legends started from an old rumour about the Binder Royale (41111). The truth is that almost nothing is known about this cars history during the war, although it was in occupied Paris, so something had to be done for the car to avoid capture.