The first car is the s/n 41111 Binder Coupe de Ville. It's the first sold Royale, built for French clothing manufacturer Armand Esders in 1932. Originally it was fitted with a roadster body (so-called Esders Roadster) penned by Jean Bugatti. A copy of this car can be seen in the Musee National de l'Automobile.
The body was changed in late thirties to an armoured coupe de ville built by Bilder. It is generally assumed that the Romanian king Carol II commissioned the new body but the war outbreak prevented him from taking delivery of the new car. 41111 was stored in Paris sewers during the war years and subsequently sold to an Englishman named Frederick Henry in 1949. Its next owner, Mills Lane of Atlanta, sold the car to the Harrah's collection in 1964. In 1986 it was bought by Orange County collector William Lyon, who later tried to sell the car at 1996 Barrett-Jackson, but the highest bid of $11M didn't meet the $15M reserve. In 1999 VW bought the car, the price estimates varying from 4 up to 20 million dollars.
The second car is s/n 41150. Despite sporting the highest s/n it was actually the first chassis fitted with a body (apart from the 41100 prototype). It was most probably built in 1929. The body is Double Berline de Voyage made by the factory itself. It's unusually traditional in its looks, compared with the other bodies. The car wasn't sold and remained in the Bugatti family possession until 1950 when, together with s/n 41141, it was bought from Ettore's daughter by Briggs Cunningham. Next owners were: Cameron Peck of Chicago, B. Skitarelic and Jack Nethercutt. The Harrah Collection acquired the car in 1964. Later it was sold to Texan Jerry Moore and finally to Tom Monaghan (of Domino's Pizza). Recently, the car was co-owned by the Blackhawk Collection and the Imperial Palace Collection. The current owner is one Mr. Lee from Korea.
Last edited by go.pawel; 01-15-2008 at 01:34 AM.
It's not denial. I'm just very selective about the reality I accept.