In 1928,
Ettore Bugatti asserted that "this year
King Alfonso of Spain will receive his Royale", but the Spanish king was deposed in April 1931 without taking delivery of a Royale, and the first of the cars to find a customer was not delivered until 1932. The Royale with a basic chassis price of $30,000, was launched just as the world economy began to deteriorate into the 1930s
Great Depression. Six Royales were built between 1929 and 1933, with just three sold to external customers. Intended for royalty, none was eventually sold to any royals, and Bugatti even refused to sell one to
King Zog of Albania, claiming that "the man's table manners are beyond belief!" Six of seven production Royales still exist, as the prototype was destroyed in an accident in 1931, and each has a different body, some having been rebodied several times.
41100 - Coupé Napoleon • The first car is chassis number 41100, now known as the Coupé Napoleon. • It originally had a
Packard body. It was rebodied by Parisian coach builder
Weymann as a two-door fixed head coupe. The Weymann body was replaced after the car was crashed by Ettore Bugatti, who in 1930 or 1931 fell asleep at the wheel travelling home from
Paris to
Alsace, necessitating a major rebuild. • Bricked up with 41141 and 41150 during World War II at the home of the Bugatti family in
Ermenonville, to avoid being commandeered by the
Nazis. • It remained in the family's possession, housed at their
Ermenonville chateau, until financial difficulties forced its sale in 1963. It subsequently passed from L'Ebe Bugatti into the hands of Bugatti collector
Fritz Schlumpf. • The car would eventually find its way into
The Harrah Collection. The car was then sold at the 1986 Harrah auction where
Houston, Texas real estate developer
Jerry J. Moore paid $6.5 million for it. He kept it for 1 year, and then sold it to Domino’s Pizza founder
Tom Monaghan for
US$8.1 million (£5.7 million). • Resides in the
Musée National de l'Automobile de Mulhouse, alongside 41131 that the Schlumpf brothers had acquired from John Shakespeare. • The 2011 recreation claims to use the original chassis from this car, stating that a new chassis frame was used in the rebuild of 41100 after the crash. File:Bugatti Type 41 Royale Packard Prototype 1926.jpg|Recreation of the Bugatti Royale
Packard Prototype File:1929_Bugatti_Royale_Coupe_Type_41,_300cv_12763cc_200kmh_(inv_0911)_photo_3.JPG|Chassis no.41100, known as the Coupé Napoleon, at home in the
Musée National de l'Automobile de Mulhouse File:Rétromobile_2015_-_Bugatti_Royale_Coupé_Napoléon_-_1929_-_004.jpg| File:Rétromobile_2015_-_Bugatti_Royale_Coupé_Napoléon_-_1929_-_005.jpg| File:Bugatti_Royale_Torpédo_1926.jpg|Bugatti Royale Type 41 Coupé Napoleon (Torpedo 1926) File:Bugatti_Type_41_Royale_Packard_after_crash_in_1931.jpg|Crashed Bugatti type 41-100a body by
Charles Weymann 41111 - Coupé de ville Binder • The second car built, but the first to find a customer, is chassis no.41111 • Known as the
Coupé de ville Binder • Sold in April 1932 to French clothing manufacturer . Ettore's eldest son, Jean, fashioned for the car a dramatic two-seater open body with flamboyant, full-bodied wings and a
dickey seat, but no headlamps. • Purchased by the French politician
Raymond Patenôtre, the car was rebodied in the Coupé de ville style by the coach builder
Henri Binder. From this point onwards, known as the
Coupé de ville Binder • Never delivered to the
King of Romania due to
World War II, • Admired in Dr. Fuchs' ownership by
Charles Chayne, later vice-president of Corporate Engineering at
General Motors. Chayne later found the car in a
scrap yard in New York, buying it in 1946 for US$75. • Resides in the
Musée National de l'Automobile de Mulhouse, alongside 41100 that the brothers Schlumpf had acquired from the Bugatti estate. File:MNA_12_-_Bugatti.jpg|Chassis no.41131, known as the
Limousine Park-Ward, at home in the
Musée National de l'Automobile de Mulhouse File:1933_Bugatti_Limousine_TType_41_Royale,_300cv_12763cc_180kmh_(MNA_0913)_photo_3.JPG|At Musée National de l'Automobile, France File:Modesty_vs._Royalty_(44915235442).jpg|Chassis no.41131, known as the Limousine Park-Ward File:Bugatti_Type_41_at_Cité_de_l'Automobile_302.jpg| File:Bugatti_Limousine_Type_41_1933_Mulhouse_FRA_001.JPG| File:1933_Bugatti_Type_41_limousine_(8002865681).jpg|
41141 - Kellner car • The fifth car is chassis no.41141 • Known as the
Kellner car • Unsold, it was kept by Bugatti • Bricked up with 41100 and 41150 during World War II at the home of the Bugatti family in
Ermenonville, to avoid being commandeered by the
Nazis. • Sold together with 41150 by L'Ebe Bugatti in the Summer of 1950 to American
Le Mans racer
Briggs Cunningham, in return for
FR₣200000 (US$571), plus a pair of complimentary new
General Electric refrigerators, then unavailable in post-war France. Note that the
French franc had been drastically devalued in the years immediately following the war. The refrigerators were included out of gratuity. The car was rough but drive-able. Taking the refrigerators into account, he essentially paid about US$600 per car. Restoration costs would bring the total cost up to about 1 million Francs, or US$2,858, per car. The cars were delivered to the States in January 1951. • After closing his museum in 1986, in 1987 the car was sold direct from Briggs Cunningham's collection by
Christie's for £5.5 million or US$9.7 million at the
Royal Albert Hall, to
Swedish property tycoon . • The car was also offered for auction in 1989 by Kruse in
Las Vegas, US. Ed Weaver bid to US$11.5 million, which was declined by Thulin as the reserve was US$15 million. On collapse of his empire, Thulin sold the car in 1990 for a reported $15.7 million to Japanese conglomerate the , and it resided in their modern building basement before being offered for sale for £10million by
Bonhams & Brooks by private treaty in 2001. • Ownership is presently unknown, but it has been shown in recent years by
Swiss broker Lukas Huni.
41150 - Berline de Voyage • The sixth car is chassis no. 41150 • Known as the
Berline de Voyage • Unsold, it was kept by Bugatti • Bricked up with 41100 and 41141 during World War II at the home of the Bugatti family in
Ermenonville, to avoid being commandeered by the
Nazis. • Sold together with 41141 by L'Ebe Bugatti in the Summer of 1950 to American
Le Mans racer
Briggs Cunningham, in return for
FR₣200,000 (US$571), plus a pair of complimentary new
General Electric refrigerators, then unavailable in post-war France. Bear in mind that the
French franc had been drastically devalued in the years immediately following the war. The refrigerators were included out of gratuity. The car was rough but drive-able. Taking the refrigerators into account, he essentially paid about $600 per car. Restoration costs would bring the total cost up to about 1 million Francs, or US$2,858, per car. The cars were delivered to the US in January 1951. • On their arrival in the United States, Cunningham sold 41150, first to Cameron Peck in early 1952 for about $6,500 (at the time one of the highest prices ever paid for a collector car, landing Cunningham a substantial profit). • In 1991,
Tom Monaghan, founder of
Domino's Pizza, sold 41150 for US$8,000,000, which was actually less than the £5.7 million for which he purchased it in 1987 from Jerry J. Moore. • The car was sold to the
Blackhawk Collection in Danville, California, where it has been on display at various times. • It was later sold by the Blackhawk Museum to an 'unknown buyer'. It is unclear if this is either Volkswagen or a Korean investor who is having it preserved in Korea.
French National Railway SNCF s. To utilize the remaining 23 engines after the final Royale was built, Bugatti built a
railcar powered by either two or four of the eight-cylinder units. Seventy-nine were built for the French National
Railway SNCF, using a further 186 engines, the last of them remaining in regular use until 1956 or 1958 (sources differ). The railcar turned the Royale project from an economic failure into a commercial success for Bugatti. The engines were derated to produce only about 200 hp, but even in this form they provided excellent performance. One of the railcars took a world average speed record of for . ==Technical data==