A visit to Bugatti and Schlumpf in 1963

Unfortunately, all photographs which the late Barry Swann had made were destroyed in a fire in 1971.... The few photographs with this article were found in my Archives and on-line.

".........I located Wurmser, Louis Chiron's old mechanic and long time Bugatti employee who has a garage of his own near the centre of Molsheim, and he reminisced about the old days and his work on the Type 59 cars. I showed him coloured transparencies of the restoration of my Type 57C, and he knew the car well as the Molsheim dentist had owned it for several years after it left Madame Bugatti's hands.

After lunch visited the Factory and was received by 'le Directeur', M Demade, who made me most welcome. He spoke excellent English, but if in doubt about a particular shade of meaning called in his secretary, who had had twelve years in New York. He recounted the difficulties faced by the firm since the death of 'le Patron' in 1947, the family quarrels, taxation problems, and the imminent bid by Hispana Suiza to swallow up the concern, as by then Bugatti was making money. He indicated that if the take-over should take place he would no longer occupy the Director's chair and so it proved.

- I asked permission to tour the Works and take photographs which was willingly given, and I was put in the hands of M Seyfried who was to show me round, and presented with a Bugatti key ring depicting a Type 35 GP.

The exterior of the Factory had looked disappointly drab, with peeling dull coloured paint and broken gutters, but inside the machine shops the contrast was most marked. Gleaming, well-arranged machine tools from all over the world, predominately U.S.A., and Germany, although many other countries were represented including the U.K., and the quality of the work turned out was of the highest order.

Their biggest contracts appeared to be for the manufacture of diesel engines under licence for Hispano Suiza although they were also turning out over thirty engines a day for Simca anti-tank vehicles on behalf of the French Government. An apparent anachronism was the production of wooden helicopter blades, and I was shown a machine at the rear of the Works for testing the behaviour of the completed blades. A foundry was very busy (new cylinder blocks for Type 51 and 57 Bugattis were noticed), and shot peening and kiln drying departments were visited, as also the drawing office where many of Ettore's original drawings hang on the walls.

In the fitting shop every workman had his own beautifully made Bugatti vice, a masterpiece of precision engineering compared with the average product on the market, and I asked whether I could obtain one. This has subsequently reached me and is in my workshop, and I note that the Factory now offer these for sale through the Bugatti Owners Club at a price fifty per cent higher than I was charged, so Hispano evidently feel they are onto a good thing here.

I visited the spares department with M Seyfried and chose a new block, crankcase (the last one), pistons, connecting rods, valves etc., etc., as an insurance against the future, and the whole consignment was despatched to Malaya without a deposit or any request for such, and in fact only later during my leave on hearing from Malaya that the parts had arrived in good order did I arrange a Sola of Exchange from Malacca. As the amount was not inconsiderable this may occasion some surprise, but is typical of the financial dealings I have had with the firm.

I then visited the section where Bugatti cars are repaired, and this was where I discovered that my Minox exposure meter had given up the ghost and as the interior lighting was not at all good, many of the shots I took were not clear enough to reproduce, which has been a great disappointment in view of the interesting machinery under that roof.

Among the many cars under repair was one of the two Type 53 FWD competition cars built in 1932, being restored by a grey-haired pre-war Molsheim mechanic, and another very special car under restoration was Ettore's coupe Napoleon bodied Type 41 Royale. Photo above-right

Both these cars and others almost equally desirable were destined to be delivered to M Fritz Schlumpf of Malmerspach, a gentleman I had previously heard had a most incredible private collection of Bugattis and other vintage and P.V.T. machinery. I determined I must meet this man and asked the Factory to 'phone him and if possible make an appointment, which was arranged for 7 am the next day. This of course meant that I must spend the night close to his residence in order to meet him at such an unvintage hour, so after saying farewell to the Factory and paying my bill at the Hotel de la Commanderie which was surprisingly cheap, I set off for Malmerspach in the district of Thon which was some 70 kilometers away.

I found this little village as night was falling, under the shadow of a huge textile factory owned by the brothers Schlumpf, who it seemed had another such factory elsewhere in France and yet another over the nearby Swiss border. The elder brother lived in Switzerland and journeyed from there every morning arriving at 6.30 am. The younger brother Fritz lived at Malmerspach and was at work by 6 am so that there is obviously something in the old proverb about "early to bed early to rise, etc." as the pair were very wealthy indeed. On the right: The Schlumpf brothers while they were still young, probably pre-war

I booked into the local inn and at the stroke of seven next morning I was ushered into M Schlumpf's expensively furnished waiting room within the factory premises. Seconds later a tall, well-built man of about sixty, almost totally bald, strode into the room and ejaculated "Schlumpf!" in a loud voice. For a second I thought this was a sneeze and almost said "bless you" when I realised he was introducing himself and so answered "Swann" which did not sound nearly so convincing.

Schlumpf had heavy Germanic features and cold rather fishlike eyes with heavy lids which gazed at me steadily as we shook hands. We both agreed that my French lacked a certain something (possibly grammar?) and it appeared that M Schlumpf's English was quite presentable, though he reverted to French occasionally if in difficulty.

Having proved my credentials as a Bugattiste by showing him the colour slides of the Bugatti restoration through a pocket viewer we then set off to view his collection which then numbered 128 Bugattis out of a total of over 370 veteran, vintage and PVT cars. Rather inappropriately we travelled from one huge warehouse to another in a Citroen DS19, and it was with keen anticipation that I watched him unlock the first pair of double doors.

The building we entered was large with a lofty roof and the lighting was reasonably good (The image on the right is one of few existing photographs of the Schlumpf collection at that time, probably not the same location, though it does give an impression what Mr. Swann saw back in 1963!). We had entered at one end of the building and Schlumpf began to walk down the centre aisle with cars left and right of us, but for a few seconds I was unable to follow him as I took in the picture.

Every car was a Bugatti, and there were nearly one hundred and thirty of them; it is doubtful whether so many were ever assembled in one building before - certainly the Factory would never have housed so many at one time, even including cars in for repair, and I found the sight overwhelming. \

Every Bugatti type was represented, often by several examples of each except for the Royale and the F.W.D. car under restoration for Schlumpf at Molsheim, the electric runabout that Ettore had used in his grounds and for short journeys in the village and the baby electric car built for Roland Bugatti and later produced in small series for the children of wealthy Bugattistes, and which were found for hire on the promenades of Nice and other seaside towns in the mid-thirties. No doubt these omissions have since been rectified, and I am aware that Schlumpf has obtained a second Royale from an American owner, giving him one third of the total output of this type!

It was quite impossible to examine each Bugatti proper, particularly since Schlumpf seemed anxious to get on (and with nearly four hundred cars to view this was understandable), but he did start up a Type 57G for me which had arrived a few days earlier, and when I came to the J.P. Wimille G.P. monoplace Type 59 with the 50B 4.7 litre under a transparent plastic sheet I refused to move any further until the sheet had been removed and I could examine it closely.

I had the impression that Schlumpf had no great desire to drive any of his cars. in fact when I asked him whether he would drive the Royale he said that if he met a camion' on a blind bend that might be the end of the Royale. It seemed sad to think that the 4.7 would be unlikely to run again. Another magnificent Bugatti was the virtually brand new type 46 found at Marseilles, but my recollections of the vast majority are blurred due to the speed with which we passed through the building and their sheer numbers.

As we left the building we passed a covered railway wagon on a siding into the factory and Schlumpf casually mentioned there were another two Bugattis inside which had arrived from England the previous afternoon, but I was still too overwhelmed to even ask what types they were. He also mentioned that he was expecting the whole Shakespeare collection (of thirty cars?) very shortly from America. The next warehouse we entered was even longer and loftier with huge sliding doors, and as my eyes adjusted to the light Schlumpf asked me what I thought of his aeroplane.

As I looked in front of me all I could see were Rolls Royce cars but on looking up I realised that I was standing under the wing of a huge passenger plane, a Brabazon! I had gathered that these planes had been broken up and had not left England, but by now I was in no condition to express surprise at anything I was shown.

The Rolls Royce comprised three each of Phantom I, Phantom II and Phantom III and other models. The next building housed Veteran and Edwardian cars, many of which were to me unknown French makes possibly of the 'one-off' variety, though I did recognise a Mors and a De Dion. I did not see an Itala. The lighting in the next building was poor and Schlumpf had reverted to his usual fast walk, but this appeared to house the rest of his collection, mainly Vintage and PVT cars some of which were in poor order or crashed, and there was an army of sixteen workmen engaged in cleaning and repairing these. The impression I gained was that the cars were being put into a condition suitable for viewing rather than being prepared for road use.

At the end of it all M Schlumpf and I discussed the political situation in S.E. Asia and we parted...........