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41111 2003/4

Royale 41111 during 2003/4

Bugatti Automobiles have used there Royale on several occasions as a promotional vehicle on the early Veyron launches around the globe. When they fist acquired the car it had a severe overheating problem which a new radiator core never improved. The amount of use of the car was hampered buy this problem so it was usually driven out of its special container and parked for display purposes.

We were asked to investigate the overheating problems after the car had attempted to drive a French hill climb event, during the climb the car overheated badly and several water leaks had appeared throughout the cooling system. The car was stored in the one of the R&D workshops at Wolfsburg close to the VW factory which is were I had the opportunity to inspect the car . I drove the car for the first time there and apart from its water leaks it had other problems with the steering, clutch and engine running.

The car had a very important engagement which would require the engine to run a little better and not to leak water. In the past the cooling system had been filled with a sealer to stop various leaks and during the French hill climb when the engine overheated the sealant failed. A quick fix was to refill the cooling system with fresh sealer so the car could carry out its duties and then it would be shipped to our workshop then in Adwell to carry out the necessary repairs. Most of the leaks were from the two cylinder block closing plates which were seriously corroded on there insides, the water pump and several other casting were also in the same corroded condition.

The overheating problem was simply diagnosed; the new radiator core was blocked across all the top tubes with the small particles of corrosion from the various castings. We have attempted to unblock radiators in the past and have developed a method which works perfectly without removing the radiator from the car this we did and blew out 1kg of crystallised aluminium. While the block closing plated were off we poked around the water jacket and removed as much debris as possible and then with the same system we employed on the radiator we flushed the complete cooling system thoughrouly.

Once all the corrode parts were made and fitted and the engine set up correctly we attended to the steering. Every steering joint had been assembled with too much movement on the ball joints and the end result was about half a turn on the steering wheel with no road wheel movement when you tried to turn left or right. With some correctly sized ball cups made and the joints set correctly all the slack disappeared. The steering box was filled with grease which had gone hard and pushed away from the gears so they were running dry, we stripped the box and cleared out all the grease and filled it with the correct oil. Now we have light steering with no slack. The clutch was slipping badly so we had to have a look in there. The clutch support bearings have there own lubrication system which was leaking into the clutch housing. The oil reservoir had been constantly topped up but the excess oil was not drained from the clutch housing so it had about 3 litres of oil which inevitable had soaked the clutch causing the slippage. With the clutch stripped and cleaned and the oil leak fixed it went back in the chassis and work perfectly.

We serviced the whole car, adjusted the brakes the waited for it to stop raining to test the car. By now our new workshop in Worminghall was ready and its first drive was from the old to the new place. With engine performing properly and the other jobs done I had a chance for the first time to feel what its like to drive a Royale in good order. There are three distinctive features when driving, one is the length of the bonnet and two is the gear ratios and last and by no means least the tremendous torque.

The driving position required great care to be taken at blind junctions as one third of the car has to be poked out into the road to see if there was any traffic, if we knew we were going to experience such a junction on our local roads I would always take an apprentice with me who would jump out of the car and check the road, better to be safe than sorry. First gear on most cars is the gear to use to pull away but with the Royale you had a choice, if you were fully loaded and on a steep incline 1^st would get the car away smoothly, on the level 2^nd is all you need, then if you driving sedately you would engage 3^rd quite early and just bowl along, allowing the revs to drop almost to idle it would still pull away gracefully with no snatching or grumbling. The ratio jump from first to second was wide and it took a bit of practice to get a smooth up change. 2^nd to 3^rd was much closer so was relative easy. Changing down to first was a problem with such a drastic difference in ratios, it took some doing so usually 1^st was only used for manoeuvring. 

So what was it like to drive? Apart from its size and incredible toque it drove just like all the other Bugatti touring cars of its period T44, T46 and T49, the steering was light and sensitive; the brakes were strong and had the same feel with road undulations being felt on the pedal, the clutch was a delight as it should be. Everything was just the same, it was just all scaled up from a know quantity and why not, Bugatti had done it for years employing what he new worked and applied it to different size cars with different size engines. All the components of the car were scaled up versions of what he had done before and the only time he had to invent something new was when there was a strength or stress problem  like the independent lubrication system for the clutch assembly because of the shear size and power output.

Anyone who is familiar with Bugatti’s as we are would find the Royale very straight forward to work on and drive. While the car was with us VW had the opportunity to take several photo shoots, some were while the car was being repaired and others after at some pretty locations locally and around the Cotswolds, on one occasion it was close to lunch so we popped in at the local for a sandwich who else has been to the pub in a Royale not many I’m sure. Rather than transport the car we always drove it to the shoot location so I got very familiar with the old girl.

That summer the UK had its turn with the Bugatti International Rally and we were asked to present the car a several locations during the event. Our biggest problem was where to store the car when it was waiting for its next curtain call. Keith Knight solved the problem and cleared out one of his barns on his farm. It was a bit away from the event base and there was a good stretch of motorway between showings. For the first time I could drive at speed, on the outside lane we caused quite a stir as we past traffic, in the mirrors you could see cars weaving about the road after being startled as we passed them, some even tried to catch us up to get a second look but most failed as we broke the speed limit on several occasions, but it was worth the risk to see how she flew. And fly she did reaching 90 mph comfortably and at one time breached 100mph. I reckon it would have been good for 120 but that was pushing things too far. At all times the car was comfortable and completely stable the weight of the car was not apparent during steering and braking, it just worked like it was meant to.

We had the opportunity to drive the car up the Prescott hill on the Wednesday during the Rally, I know a Royale had been up the hill in the past but had they moved Armco barriers about since, there was only one way to find out so we loaded the car with its first set of passengers and gave it a whiz , I new the old girl would not pull around Pardon in second so I elected 1^st to pull away with to see what happened knowing that a change up would be difficult and a change down even harder. So 1^st it was all the way up. I could have chosen two styles to drive sedately or sportingly. I pondered a little and wondered what Ettore himself would do. He was defiantly a sporting driver and he might have put the car through its paces so I did the same. Pulling off the line as smart as possible I held the revs at about three quarters maximum, she puffed a bit so I opened up the carburettor main jet control on the dash which cured that, around Ettore’s bend with plenty of body roll and just a little opposite lock and on up to Pardon. I took it as wide as I could and in one go she just sailed around with about 6 inches to clear the Armco on the exit. Charles Dean was sitting beside me up front and with a huge smile he said that he could not get round there much faster in his 51, I was just happy to get around as once committed there was no stopping, it had to go round; braking quickly would have certainly pushed the car sideways enough to hit the barrier. Once clear it was plain sailing and all I did that day was to fill up the car with Rally participants for there turn up the hill. I can only express my gratitude for Bugatti Auto’s to allow us to use the car in such fashion, I had assured them that the car worked and it would do no harm to the car.

There is always risk while using rare vintage cars but how often do you get the chance to drive a Royale which works, all the others are tucked away in collections and museums and are suffering for it. This fine old lady has been dusted down sorted out and driven and is the better for it. Its coachwork and interior is far from Pebble Beach standard which is one of the reasons Bugatti Auto’s allow the car to be out and about without any undue concern. On the way back to the workshop we had our first mechanical breakdown, the gear change linkage snapped with total loss of all gears. I thought using top would be to high so I tried to drive in first which I engaged manually under the car it was much too slow and would have taken all night to get home and about 100 gallons of fuel (there is always a downside fuel consumption is horrendously high) so top it was all the way home without any problem, I just eased the clutch in to get the car moving at idle speed and once rolling just engaged the clutch fully and from then on it was like driving an automatic a new piece of gear linkage was made when we got home and she was ready for out next and last outing  which was at the Goodwood Revival where we had a static display.

Thomas Bscher the Bugatti Auto’s president at that time was there racing some of his collection, I asked him if we could give the old girl a spin around the track. He said if you can get out there have a go. We were asked to take the car to the collecting area so some of the race stars from the past could have there pictures taken with a Marilyn Monroe look-alike in the car, that was the opportunity we needed as I new that Lord March spends his time around that area. Once there Lord March soon came to have a look, so I offered him a spin round the circuit, he jumped at the chance and promptly called his wife over for a ride, nobody was going to send the boss off the track and after that I managed a single lap between every race with all sorts of passengers. Thomas Bscher had the last lap at the wheel and that was it, the truck from Germany was waiting to load her and take her back to the VW museum which is were she spends most of her time now with just the odd static display. We calculated that we had driven approximately 1,500 miles in all in the rain, dry on hill climbs, racetracks, motorways and country lanes, every mile was a delight, so its just about run in now as most 41’s have done very little mileage it was almost new.  If the car has any kind of sole she sits there proudly knowing she starts at the touch of a button and drives like a Queen defiantly a Royal. My thanks go to all those concerned at Bugatti Automobiles, Keith Knight all his family for storage and all the cleaning work (it’s a huge car to wash and polish) on the International and our team who took the great care and pride when working on the old girl.  

Malcolm Gentry Gentry Restorations Ltd.