Bugatti Type 41 Royale – Even Kings Couldn’t Buy It

Created by Ettore Bugatti as a response to Rolls-Royce, the Bugatti Type 41 Royale was the company's largest and perhaps most remarkable project. Its history is a mix of triumphs and disappointments, where grand ideas met the reality of economic crisis.


Today, the Royale is a rare artifact of the automotive world that has preserved the spirit of the era when car was much more than just a means of transportation. It was a car for kings, and none of them could afford it. Why? Find out right now.

History of creation

The idea for the Type 41 Royale was born in Ettore Bugatti's mind long before the first drawings appeared. In a letter to his friend Gabriel Espanet in 1913, he described plans to create a car so luxurious, large and expensive that it would have no equal in the world.

Ettore dreamed of more than just a car that would be bigger than a Hispano-Suiza and more expensive than a Rolls-Royce. He wanted to create in the Royale a model of automotive perfection, capable of surpassing even the most ambitious projects of his contemporaries. According to the idea, it was to be a car for kings and the powerful, with a price tag that would emphasize exclusivity.


According to one legend, Ettore was inspired to create the Royale by a British aristocrat who said that his cars, although sporty, could not compare with the comfort of a Rolls-Royce. Wanting to prove the opposite, Bugatti decided to make a car that would outshine its British competitor.

Prototypes began to be developed in the mid-1920s, and the first model appeared in 1926. It immediately impressed with its dimensions: the length of the car was 6,4 meters, and the wheelbase reached a record 4,3 meters. By all parameters, it was a record holder.

Turning ambitions into reality turned out to be a difficult task. The car turned out to be so expensive that the price was significantly higher than the competitors. For comparison: for the price of the Royale chassis alone, you could buy two new Rolls-Royces.

In addition, the design required complex engineering solutions. For example, the transaxle transmission system, when the gearbox is located at the rear axle. This arrangement formed a better balance of the car, but greatly complicated production and maintenance.


Moreover, the start of serial production of the Bugatti Type 41 Royale coincided with the global economic crisis of 1929. The Great Depression hit the finances of even the wealthiest people, which had a sharply negative impact on purchasing power.

While Rolls-Royce and Hispano-Suiza gradually adapted to the market by lowering their prices, Bugatti remained true to its policy of exclusivity. As a result, sales were extremely low: only six of the planned 25 cars were assembled at the plant.

Royal construction

As you may remember, the Type 41 was a staggering size. Such a grand design required non-standard solutions, including wheels with a 970 mm diameter and a bonnet over 1,65 metres long, which became an important element of the car's impressive appearance.

Мотор

The Royale's "heart" was a gigantic 12,7-liter engine, one of the largest ever installed in a production car. This 8-cylinder unit was developed using aviation technology, and its power reached 300 hp with a torque of 800 Nm.


The engine design used innovative solutions for its time, such as a dry sump, two spark plugs for each cylinder, and an overhead camshaft. The latter actuated the valves, of which there were 24 units in the design.

Трансмиссия

The Royale gearbox featured an original layout. To improve weight distribution, a transaxle scheme was used: the gearbox was located near the rear axle, and the clutch was closer to the center of the car. This solution guaranteed stability and reduced the intensity of vibrations that occur when driving at high speed.

The entire structure was designed to operate under enormous loads, which made the car stable on the road, despite its impressive weight, exceeding 3 tons.

Body

Each Bugatti Type 41 Royale was unique, as many elements of the car were assembled by hand. The bodies were developed either by Jean Bugatti himself (the designer and son of the company's founder), or by leading studios of the time, including Binder or Park Ward.


One of the main features was the monolithic parts, such as the wings, made from a single piece of metal. One of the examples even used spokes made from piano wires to emphasize the high status and aristocratic nature of the car.

Management

Despite its gigantic size, the Royale turned out to be surprisingly docile in control. Contemporaries noted that the car not only moved smoothly, but also maintained stability on winding roads. Again, this is the main merit of the well-thought-out, but expensive transmission.

The car accelerated to 100 km/h in about 12 seconds, and its maximum speed reached 200 km/h. For the 1920s, this was a phenomenal figure, and even today, not all cars go that fast.

The future of Royale

Despite the luxurious design, buyers proved difficult to find. The first customer, French textile magnate Armand Esder, ordered a car without headlights because he did not drive at night. Other cars remained in the Bugatti family or were sold many years later.

Despite its exclusivity, Armand's car later changed several owners. In the 1930s, the roadster body was replaced by a practical version of the brogue, created by the Binder studio.


Known as the Coupe de Ville Binder, this car has survived many historical events, including World War II, when it was hidden from bombing in the Paris sewers. Today, this example is kept in the famous Automobile Museum located in Mulhouse.

The price of the car was prohibitive even for kings. The chassis and engine without the body cost about $30000 in the 1920s, which is equivalent to about $500000 today or 50 million rubles. For this money, you could buy a whole fleet of ordinary cars.

Interestingly, the owner of the company personally refused to sell to the King of Albania Ahmet Zog, believing that his table manners did not correspond to the level of the owner of Royale. This funny episode once again emphasized how carefully Ettore approached the issue of selecting clients.

In 1950, American millionaire Briggs Cunningham bought two Royales at once for a symbolic sum (570 US dollars), after which he gave them to the Bugatti family for safekeeping. Today, these cars are considered to be among the most expensive examples in automobile history. Thus, one of them was recently sold at Christie's auction for 9,8 million US dollars or 1 billion rubles.


Another iconic Royale owner was the German doctor Josef Fuchs. In 1932, he bought a convertible with a body from the Weinberger studio. The car stood out with its black and yellow color scheme, which has been preserved quite well in its original form to this day.

The history of this example is full of adventures. Josef had to emigrate from Europe, and the car traveled with him through Switzerland, Italy and Japan until it ended up in the United States. In 1946, the convertible was found in a deplorable state in a junkyard.

Charles Cheney, a future vice president of General Motors, bought the car for $75 and restored it. Today, the example is on display at the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan.

Each owner of a Bugatti Type 41 Royale has contributed to history, preserving this model as part of the world's cultural heritage. From collectors and doctors to entrepreneurs and engineers, the stories of these people make the Royale more than just a car.