Ettore Bugatti saw it as his "car for kings", but not one was sold to a Monarch. He intended to build a batch of 25, but sold only 3 new (one to France, one to Germany, one to Britain) and the other three that were built were run by the Bugatti family.

Huge engines

The "production" engine was a striaght eight with a capacity of 12.7 litres, while the prototype was first run with a 14.7 litre version. That offered lazy power so generously that the second of the three gears was direct, and the third was very much an overdrive gear. The gearbox, incidentally, was in unit with the rear axle. There were two sets of quater-elliptic springs at the rear, the second coming into play when the car was loaded.

Still in existance

Royales carried bodies by leading coachbuilders, and some were rebodied more then once. All suvive today, Ettore Bugatti's personal car being a centeral exhibit in the French national automobile museum alongside the Park Ward-bodied car illustrated. A down-to-earth use was found for the straight eight as a railcar power unit, but the car had been born on the eve of the Depression,and that ruined whatever commerical prospects it might have had.

This Royale was the last sold, to Capt C.W. Foster in 1933. The superbly proportioned coachwork means that the sheer size of the car is not immediately obvious.

Photo Autopresse
MCMXCI, Edito-Service S.A. D1 078 02-02