"505Turbeaux" (505turbeaux)
12/09/2013 at 14:32 • Filed to: None
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"505Turbeaux" (505turbeaux)
12/09/2013 at 14:32 • Filed to: None | 0
| 20 |
I know there are a few cats on here that can swing it, so I am going to throw it out there and see who I can round up. I am going anyways, and I am leaving plenty of room to save up, get passports, and to plan. Destination? !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in Mulhouse, France. One to cross off of any enthusiasts bucket list, and I want to go appreciate the finest collection of automobiles in the world I know of with some like minded individuals. Maybe we can set up a kickstarter to scholarship one or two of our less liquid Oppo brethren. Thinking fall/winter is good next year, and I have a good friend or 3 with a car rental connect so we can show up in style. My girl is going too, so it will be easier to sell it to your S.O... YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO GO!!! And I just want to get the ball rolling early. I will be flying out of Boston.
So for those of you that don't know about the destination, here is the rundown, scraped directly from Wikipedia (and some pics to entice you) :
Cité de l'Automobile, Musée national de l'automobile, Collection Schlumpf is located in Mulhouse, France and houses the Schlumpf Collection of classic automobiles. It contains the largest and most comprehensive collection of Bugatti motor vehicles in the world.
History
Brothers Hans and Fritz Schlumpf were Swiss citizens born in Italy, but after their mother Jeanne was widowed, she moved the family to her home town of Mulhouse in Alsace, France. The two brothers, who were later described as having a "Schlumpf obsession", were devoted to their mother.
In 1935 the Schlumpf brothers founded a limited company which focused on producing spun woollen products. By 1940, at the time of the Nazi invasion of France, 34 year old Fritz was the chairman of a spinning mill in Malmerspach. After World War II, the two brothers devoted their time to obsessively growing their business, and became quite wealthy.
Bugatti Racing Cars in the museum
Fritz loved cars, driven by an abiding love for beautiful automotive engineering. Having wanted a Bugatti since childhood, he bought a Bugatti Type 35B just before the Nazi invasion of France.
After the war he began racing classic cars, but was requested by the textile union to "abstain from this competition which could endanger your life and deprive us of our esteemed director." Schlumpf had been generous to his workers, providing employee trips, installing an employee theater and driving expectant mothers to the hospital in his own car.[2] This was in great contrast to brother Hans, a former banker, who paid the mill workers poorly, docked fifteen minutes off their pay if they were late or signed out a minute or two early, and did not pay bonuses or increments.[3]
With post-war modern 1950's car designs coming on stream, people wanted to exchange their classic 1920's through 1930's cars in for new models. Fritz and Hans began collecting in earnest in the early 1950s, developing a reputation in the trade for only buying the most desirable models.[1] Assisted by Mr. Raffaelli, a Renault dealer from Marseilles and the owner of several Bugattis, they built a Bugatti collection obsessively and quickly:[2]
During the summer of 1960, they acquired ten Bugattis, including two Type 57s and one Type 46 5-liter model. In addition the pair found three Rolls-Royces, two Hispano Suizas and one Tatra. By the end of the summer, they had purchased a total of 40 cars
Gordini sold them ten old racing cars in one sale
Ferrari sold a racing single seater
Mercedes-Benz sold spare cars from its collection
Racing driver Jo Siffert sold three Lotus racing cars
While an enormous variety of marques is represented in the collection, it is now clear that the primary focus of the Schlumpf brothers was Bugatti. Fritz sent a form letter to all Bugatti owners on the club register, offering to buy all of their cars. In 1962 he bought nearly 50 Bugattis. In the spring of 1963, he acquired 18 of Ettore Bugatti's personal cars, including the Bugatti Royale Coupé Napoléon. In 1963 collector John Shakespeare of Centralia, Illinois, (oil developer, and heir to the Shakespeare fishing reel fortune), offered his collection of 30 Bugattis (then the largest collection in the US), and Fritz bought all of them. They were shipped from Hoffman, Illinois by the Southern Railroad to New Orleans, then by freighter to Le Havre, making headlines in the US.[4] By 1967 an inventory showed 105 Bugattis in the brothers Schlumpf collection.[2]
Mulhouse
Over the years nearly 400 items (vehicles, chassis and engines) were acquired,[1] and from 1964 as the woollen industry started to downturn, a wing of the former 200,000 sq ft (19,000 m2) Mulhouse spinning mill was chosen to quietly restore and house the collection.
A team of up to 40 carpenters, saddlers, and master mechanics was assembled to carry out the restoration work, who under a confidentiality agreement kept their work and the scale of the collection a secret - a singlemindedness often referred to as "The Schlumpf Obsession." Many, including members of Bugatti clubs around the world, knew of the collection. The scale of the enterprise surprised almost everybody.
Fritz visited Mulhouse daily, choosing the colors and type of restoration each car would receive. The workers removed the mill's interior walls and laid a red tile walkway with gravel floors for the cars to rest upon. The brothers Schlumpf remained very secretive about their car collection, only rarely showing it to a favored few.
The Schlumpf affair
In light of the unrelenting global shift of textile manufacturing to Asia, by 1976 the Schlumpf brothers began selling their factories. In October the Malmerspach plant laid off employees, and a strike broke out,[1] with 400 police holding back the workers from ransacking the Mulhouse plant. After a stand-off, on March 7, 1977, textile-union activists staged a sit-in strike at Schlumpf offices, and broke into the Mulhouse "factory" to find the astounding collection of cars.[2] An unrestored Austin 7 was burned and the workers' union representative remarked "There are 600 more where this one came from."
The Schlumpfs fled to their native Switzerland, and spent the rest of their days as permanent residents of the Drei Koenige Hotel in Basel.[3] But with wages and tax evasion accusations outstanding, the factory was occupied the next two years by the textile-union and renamed "Workers' Factory."[1] To recoup some lost wages, the union opened the museum to the public, with some 800,000 people viewing the collection in two years.[2]
As the scale of the brothers Schlumpf debt rose, various creditors, including the French government and unions, eyed the car collection toward recovering their losses. To save the collection from destruction, break-up or export the contents were classified in 1978 as a French Historic Monument by Council of State. In 1979, a bankruptcy liquidator ordered the building closed.[2]
National Automobile Museum Association
A view of the refurbished main-hall, with its Pont Alexandre III lamp posts
In 1981 the collection, buildings and residual land were sold to the National Automobile Museum Association (NAMAoM),[1] a state sanctioned public/private conglomerate that includes: the City of Mulhouse, the Regional Board of the Alsace Region, the organizers of the Paris Auto Show and the Automobile Club de France.[2]
The NAMAoM placed daily management of the museum in the hands of an operating company, the National Automobile Museum of Mulhouse Management Association, which opened the museum to the public in 1982.[1] However, lacking the enthusiasm of the Schlumpfs or the financial drive of the union, the collection gradually fell into decline.
In 1999 NAMAoM contracted Culturespaces to take over and modernise the museum and its operations. Culturespaces renovated the museum, including creating large scale public spaces for other cultural events, while conserving the well-known main hall with its Pont Alexandre III lamp posts.[1] Widening the relevance of the museum to a younger audience by being given control of the French national automobile collection, the museum reopened in March 2000 as the largest automobile museum in the world.
Malmerspach collection
In 1981, Fritz Schlumpf filed a lawsuit from Switzerland claiming he was entitled to a portion of the proceeds of the sale to NAMAoM. He died in 1992, but in 1999 a French court found in his favor, and directed that the French Government pay the balance of a 40 million franc indemnity to Schlumpf's widow Madame Arlette Schlumpf-Naas in Switzerland.[2] The court also instructed return of the ownership of the 62 cars in the so-called "Malmerspach collection" (the reserve stock), including 17 Bugattis - 8 from the collection of John Shakespeare.[5]
Having moved the cars to a shed in Wettolsheim, Madame Schlumpf-Naas drew up a commercial agreement with businessmen Jaap Braam Ruben and Bruno Vendiesse,[6] which meant that she sold the cars to them, but that they would remain in the storage shed until after her death. After Madame Schlumpf-Naas died on 16 May 2008 at the age of 78, many of the cars were sold to the Peter Mullin collection, to be displayed at the Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, California (formerly housing the Chandler Vintage Museum of Transportation and Wildlife).
The museum today
The museum is now listed as a National Heritage site by the French Government. The museum is still dedicated to the Schlumpf brothers' mother Jeanne Schlumpf; there is a large shrine to her at the entrance to the museum.
The collection includes over 520 vehicles, with 400 displayed in three main sections in chronological order:
The Motorcar Experience
Motor Racing - including a grid of Type 35 Bugattis, plus Maserati 250Fs, Mercedes-Benz W125 and W154 pre-war Grand Prix cars and a hoard of light blue Gordinis
Motorcar Masterpieces
The museum houses three Type 41 "Royale"s: two of the original six Royales plus a replica of the Esder Royale created at the Schlumpf brothers' workshops from genuine Bugatti spare parts.
Few of the cars on display are presently in running order, although the old Schlumpf restoration shop, abandoned after they fled in 1977, is presently being revived to begin working again on the museum's cars.[2]
At the entrance, visitors are given free of charge an audioguide in their chosen language. The tour has been enhanced by new sections, films, driving simulators, robots and attractions such as sound programmes.
So there you go...let's do it. I don't want all you being super jelly when I get back with a boatload of wallpaper
nippon
> 505Turbeaux
12/09/2013 at 10:08 |
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I want to travel! What's the starting point?
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505Turbeaux
> nippon
12/09/2013 at 10:09 |
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I will be flying out of Boston, and that would likely be a layover from a bunch of different places!
davedave1111
> 505Turbeaux
12/09/2013 at 10:18 |
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A bit less epic for those of us starting in London, but I'd be up for that - if I'm free and in Europe at the time, which I can't say for sure that far in advance.
Depends where you're flying to/driving from, though. If I were you I'd either fly to Amsterdam or Milan, rather than CDG, because the drive down's better. From Amsterdam it's a short run through the Netherlands, then autobahn through Germany and over the French border at Freiburg, right by Mulhouse. From Northern Italy it's over the Alps and/or through Switzerland, which is better driving, but Amsterdam's a better meeting place since most of the Western Europe-based Opponauts are in the UK, Netherlands, Germany, etc, as far as I know - not many Italians or French that I've noticed.
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505Turbeaux
> davedave1111
12/09/2013 at 10:22 |
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yeah CDG is a true clusterf$ck anyways, so I agree. Schipol is not too shabby, and I will probably be renting a premium car, so the drive will be nice. Have you been to the museum?
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davedave1111
> 505Turbeaux
12/09/2013 at 11:13 |
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Never been to that museum. Not really my thing, to he honest, although of any car museum one full of Bugattis is the way to go - most lesser classics aren't exactly rare round here, but the Schlumpf collection is epic. I'd rather drive a crappy rental than look at even a Bugatti, for the most part, though, so I wouldn't have thought of it as a destination.
But for a roadtrip, the journey's the thing, not the destination.
If you wanted to make a long weekend of it or something, you might be astonished to find how cheaply you can rent a chateau or similar out of season, if you have enough people to fill it.
Just a quick search turned up these among the first few results:
A fair way away from Mulhouse - further south is good, later in the year - but only €600 a week for 8 bedrooms/16 people - at that price you don't even need to fill it - http://www.homeaway.co.uk/p1120619
This one's a lot nearer Mulhouse, but three times the price - http://www.homeaway.co.uk/p663396a - although €1800 between ten or fifteen people isn't too bad:
There are endless more options around, because even the €600 a week one is fairly high-end(ish) - if you're happy with something less grand, you can pay a fair bit less.
stuttgartobsessed
> 505Turbeaux
12/09/2013 at 14:16 |
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I'd strongly consider joining you. I've been itching to get back to France and this seems like a great excuse. I'm somewhat strapped for ca$h so having a year to save is nice. Also, I would strongly be in favor of renting one of those châteaux if theres enough people. That being said I have no idea what I'll be doing in a year but this sounds epic.
Edit: Or we could wait 'till next June (June 2015) and hit up the 24 Hours of LeMans. Just a thought...
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505Turbeaux
> stuttgartobsessed
12/09/2013 at 14:18 |
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yeah I am not one to jump in on something that isnt well planned out. I am going to keep pushing on it and see after a month what interest there is, and get some prelim numbers per head.
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stuttgartobsessed
> 505Turbeaux
12/09/2013 at 14:19 |
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Nice. I prefer a nice plan as well but I definitely want to be kept in the loop!
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505Turbeaux
> stuttgartobsessed
12/09/2013 at 14:24 |
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you certainly will be!
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stuttgartobsessed
> 505Turbeaux
12/09/2013 at 14:27 |
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Super chouette!
Klaus Schmoll
> 505Turbeaux
12/09/2013 at 14:49 |
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*raises hand*
- Mr. Turbeaux!
- MR. TURBEAUX!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Can Euro-Jalops come as well? We could turn this into a transcontinental meet-up.
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505Turbeaux
> Klaus Schmoll
12/09/2013 at 14:52 |
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yes please! I was hoping to catch some of you guys. Especially biturbo228 from Britain side
55Buick, Oversteer Scientist
> 505Turbeaux
12/09/2013 at 15:18 |
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I think this would be super cool! I'm in California, but I would be happy to fly to Europe..I'm in!
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505Turbeaux
> 55Buick, Oversteer Scientist
12/09/2013 at 15:20 |
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cool! Even if only a few of us from over here go, it sounds like there is some interest in meeting up from the people over the pond. From Cali you may have to jump through Boston anyways
BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires
> 505Turbeaux
12/09/2013 at 15:42 |
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I'd be well up for this. I've been looking for an opportunity to take the Jag on a road-trip once it's finished, and this seems perfect :)
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505Turbeaux
> BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires
12/09/2013 at 15:44 |
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sweet man! I will keep you in the loop! Though I hope you get the Jag rolling before a year!
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BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires
> 505Turbeaux
12/09/2013 at 15:53 |
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You and me both :)
Axial
> 505Turbeaux
12/09/2013 at 17:16 |
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Why are there so many Chiti Chiti Bang Bang replicas and why are they all blue...
BlazinAce - Doctor of Internal Combustion
> 505Turbeaux
12/12/2013 at 13:54 |
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Damn, I wish I could go... But my college owns me right now.
Kookanoodles
> 505Turbeaux
12/19/2013 at 19:32 |
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I've always wanted to go there as well. I'm French and I live in Paris, I'd definitely like to join !