Rare Cars: 1931 Bugatti Royale Kellner Coupe
The name Bugatti is in itself a legend. Ettori Bugatti created some of the world’s rarest cars, as well as the fastest and most beautiful – namely the rare Bugatti Royale Kellner Coupe. Ettori’s extraordinary engineering genius had no limitations. He founded his company in 1909 in Molsheim, France, to give expression to his innate Italian engineering and design mastery. Here Bugatti conceived the idea for the Type 41 Royale. The Bugatti Royale Kellner Coupe is one of six of these rare cars that were built.
Originally intended for royalty, these great cars were born just as the Great Depression took hold of the U.S. One of the world’s rarest cars, the Bugatti Royale Kellner Coupe is longer and far heavier than even the largest Ford pickup truck today. The engine alone is twice the size of the largest V-8 ever made in America. Of the six, only four were sold – and none to royalty. The Bugatti Royale Kellner Coupe was one of the two of these models that the Bugatti family kept. With World War II gripping France in a reign of terror and destruction that led to the ultimate decline of the company, the Bugattis knew they had had to keep one of the world’s rarest cars, the Bugatti Royale Kellner Coupe, out of marauding Nazi hands. The qualities of this car made it vulnerable as war booty. The family therefore bricked it up on their estate.
The Bugattis loved this car and even while the company was failing, they kept it until 1950. However, they could not afford to turn down the offer of the American Le Mans racing driver Briggs Cunningham who bought both of the Bugatti Royale cars. Despite being two of the world’s rarest cars, they sold for a small sum and two General Electric refrigerators, which at the time were almost as rare as the cars.
Briggs Cunningham kept the Bugatti Royale Kellner Coupe for 36 years in his rare car collection until he closed his museum in 1986. As one of the world’s rarest cars, it sold to Hans Thulin, a Swedish real-estate investor for an astounding $9.7 million. Thulin then offered the Bugatti Royale Kellner Coupe for auction in 1989, but declined a bid for $11.5 million because it was below his reserve of $15 million. Thulin eventually sold this rare car in 1990 to Japanese Meitec Corporation for 15.7 million dollars. Of the world’s rarest cars, also one of the most expensive, the Bugatti Royale sold again for 10 million pounds sterling in 2001. Currently, the ownership and location of the Bugatti Royale Kellner Coupe is unknown.
