I'd have to walk at least 40 feet to get the July 'Motor Classic' & I'm not in the mood to move today. I'm in the mood to sit here, at computer &, later on, spin my comfortable chair around to watch TV. But if I don't move I can't get the Jul edition. I'll need to check the facts about the Bugatti that wasn't started for 50 years before I write inaccuracies here.
Excuse me 4a few minutes. CLOMP CLOMP CLOMP (stone floor); KLONG KLONG 18x (wood stairs) SLAP SLAP (tile floor) SCREETCH STREETCH - about 100x - rusted old bones & worn our joints.
OK, I got it.
Reverse order of noises, as I return to my chair. Now to the facts, as reported in MC !
Bugatti Model 64; "a big ol' thang' (USA souther dialect required), straight 8; 185 HP... black (original) paint, built in1938.
Hey, its older than me !!
Was never sold; always belonged to the Bug factory/family, then to Schlumpf Brothers - of 'French National Automobile Museum' fame*- when they bought Bug# in 1950's.
Was used as an 'everyday car' until late 1950's; when it was retired.
Was hidden during WW II or it would've been used for some other purpose, by someone !
Was then stored in A storage-sheds, when the museum wasn't a museum, but was the Schlumpf Brothers Factory, not an automotive related factory, but that is another story.
remained hidden, unused & not started for 50 yrs. The last recorded oil change was at 19,567km. It was retired with only 22,654km on the clock.
This year it came back to life!! All oils were drained & replaced. Oils were analyzed & found to be absolutely fine...which is amazing. Various other "small matters" were taken care of, which is understandable, including brakes & tires....but nothing major was required. AMAZING !!
It fired up at the 1st turn-of-key, backfired a few times & fell into 'silent running'...it ran so smoothly that there was hardly any sound, but it was firing on all 8 cylinders. It was then 'taken out for a drive'; 1st by the Museum Director & then by the author of the MC article. They reported that it drove like 'an almost modern car', on a country road that was "reserved for them for some hours especially for this historical occasion";
A lot of power, smooth (electric automatic pre-selected) shifting, whispering motor & very little weight.
In a car from 1938. I am very impressed !!
They didn't pull it around the streets to pop it back to life; but they did "hand pump up the oil pressure" & turned it over with a hand crank several times. I assume they have strong arms !
I've always been hesitant to pull or even push start a car that has been resting for an extended period of time...I'd certainly avoid it if I could; if I owned Bianca or any other Fulvia.
However, I did roll a Gamma slowly down an incline recently to start it. It way already warm from driving 10 miles; it had started after 4 month of winter storage...immediately & I though the battery had survived. i drove it to ,y office, 10 miles away.
The battery didn't survive ! 1x instant start & that was it. I feared only a slight-bit for my Gamma motor (belts, valves), since it had been running 5 minutes before. It still runs fine & probably just as silently as the Bug, although I've not seen / heard the Bug yet.
However, that last item may change, since the Museum is only 90 min away.
I first visited the Schlumpf Museum w/ a Car Club about 30 years ago; I was horribly disappointed.
The museum had just opened & was ... in all of our opinions ... a disorganized disgrace. It had just been taken over by the French Government & they needed to start making some money with it.
There were no 'info-signs' anywhere inside & there was no semblance of any semblance. But it was cheap to enter. But is was almost impossible to find. Although Alsace-German is the language spoken in Mulhouse (Mul-ooz in French) & thus we were able to speak with the Mul-oozer's, they had no idea what we were looking for, nor how to find it.
The 'in Museum Cafe' was ...&%ยง?#--- OK, OK, I'll calm down & tone my text down . It was "blddy-f'ing orrible', to use a gentle term borrowed from my Hooligan (Lancia Driver) English Friends. Yes, it was my first trip to France & I was shocked.
A mens-room ?. Awhat ? A "smelly" room with some holes in the floor was somehow located & sufficed.
can't imagine what the ladies room must have been like !
Still, I went to the Museum about 8 yrs later, with the 'Porsche Club of America Germany Region' . It was still impossible to find & still poorly lit,,,so we couldn't see how dirty the floors were? The cars were still dusty, tires still flat; the snack-bar hadn't been 'tidied-up' in all those years.
The dirt, mud, pot-hole parking-lot was still 3 blocks away & the (only) foot-approach to the museum still required walking on 'muddy shoulder of a narrow road', with cars wizzing past, 2micrometer away.
The rows & rows of rusty bicycles that I saw on the 1st trip were there, still leaning on each other; scattered all over the museum; dirty (original paint, I am sure) & looking like scrap.
There were a lot of very angry Americans in Muhlhouse (French Mul-ooz) in the Museum that day. If I recall well, we were the only visitors there. It was still cheap to enter...but it seem to not be very "popular". We didn't demand our money back...there was no one around to get any money back from*; there seemed to be no staff anywhere& no security-persons present. (* the ticket-counter had closed)
Thus we were able to walk around in all of the sheds behind the main buildings; although I am sure we should not have. Nothing was locked. We enjoyed that "unofficial-tour" more than the Museum proper, So many sheds full of "so much & so many" incredible treasures !!!
We didn't steal a Bugatti Royale. or anything else. No one drank coffee at the Cafe ! There was no one there brewing coffee !
We, who are baseball fans know that we get
3 strikes each time we are 'at bat' in a baseball game, before we are disgraced into sitting down, in shame (having 'struck-out') ,,,
so I went again ... 16 years ago. It could have been my
3d strike!!
The Museum displays a) a lot of interesting cars; in fact...only interesting cars
b) a lot of Bugatti, which is great for Bug-Lovers; it is --- of course --- the largest Bug Colletion in Le Mondo
c) perhaps, still ... many (restored?) bicycles?
It was a lot nicer 16 years ago than 30 yrs ago & the cars finally had 'info-signs'; so visitors finally knew what they are looking at. & so, in baseball slang, "I didn't strike out" on my 3d trip.
I've been told, over the last few years, by a # of German & French friends, ,,, that the Museum is now the 2d most popular tourist attraction in France & now is "clean, modern, easily located, well lit, w/ good parking, with a paved path with a foot bridge over the highway leading to the entrance & now has a nice Cafe & is still cheap to visit. I didn't inquire about the mens-room.
PS: the E'fle Tower is still the #1 attraction.
I will visit Mul-ooz again, soon, & I will report on it (short text) herein.
My goodness, there is no mention of Lancia in this text...but Jean Bugatti was Ital-born...so that must count for something ! OK ??
www.collection-schlumpf.com
By the way... Bug 64 is traveling to "Old Car-Events" all over Europa, for the next few years; so we may not get to see it at the Museum. It will not be restored;
he posted in this tread, a story of a Bugatti which was parked for 50yrs and just simply fired up. Gamma's stories aren't always that intergalactic far from the topics.