BUGATTI BRINGS ITS PAST AND PRESENT TOGETHER AT THE INAUGURAL CONCOURS D’ÉLÉGANCE INTERNATIONAL SCHLUMPF

The first Concours d’Élégance International Schlumpf, held on 27 and 28 June 2026 at the Musée National de l’Automobile – Collection Schlumpf in Mulhouse, created a particularly evocative setting for Bugatti. Across the museum’s autodrome and surrounding grounds, collectors, manufacturers and enthusiasts gathered around nearly two hundred exceptional automobiles, spanning vehicles built before 1930 through to contemporary creations.

For Bugatti, the location carried significance beyond the traditional pageantry of a concours. The Collection Schlumpf is one of the most important repositories of the marque’s historic automobiles, making the museum a natural setting for an event intended to celebrate automotive elegance while establishing a new annual gathering around design, engineering and heritage.

The inaugural concours divided its entries into historical categories covering cars built before 1930 through 1995, alongside an open category for automobiles produced between 1996 and 2026. The breadth of the field allowed Bugatti’s history to be represented across several generations, from the creations associated with Ettore Bugatti to the technologically ambitious hyper sports cars of the modern era.

Among the most significant displays were three Bugatti Royale examples from the Schlumpf Collection: the Coupé Napoléon, the Park Ward and the Esders. Their gathering marked the centenary of the Bugatti Royale, a model conceived during the marque’s early history as an exceptionally large and luxurious automobile.

The Royale remains one of the most remarkable expressions of Ettore Bugatti’s ambition. Bringing three examples together offered visitors an opportunity to see different interpretations of the model within a collection particularly rich in Bugatti history. The Coupé Napoléon and Esders are among the best-known surviving Royales, while the Park Ward example added another chapter to the story of the model’s coachbuilt forms.

The event’s connection to Monaco had begun earlier in the year. At the Monaco Historic Grand Prix, the Musée National de l’Automobile entrusted the Coupé Napoléon to H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco for a tour of the historic circuit, providing an early public introduction to the concours. Christophe Piochon, President of Bugatti Automobiles, accompanied the Prince aboard the Royale, linking the forthcoming Mulhouse event with both the marque’s heritage and the world of historic motorsport.

At Mulhouse, that conversation between eras continued with the display of the legendary W16 engine alongside the Bugatti F.K.P. Hommage, the second creation from Bugatti’s Programme Solitaire. The car pays tribute to Professor Dr Ferdinand Karl Piëch and the Veyron, the hyper sports car that introduced Bugatti’s modern W16 era at the beginning of the 21st century.

The juxtaposition was deliberate. The Royale represented the scale, craftsmanship and individuality of Ettore Bugatti’s era, while the Veyron represented a later period in which Bugatti returned to the forefront of high-performance automotive engineering through extreme power, speed and technological development.

The Veyron Super Sport was also entered into the concours itself. Driven by Christophe Piochon on the museum’s autodrome, the car won first place in Category E, which recognised exceptional automobiles from 1996 to 2026. Its presence gave the modern era a direct role in the judging rather than leaving the marque’s contemporary history solely within the exhibition displays.

Another Bugatti success came from the Type 38, recently restored and bodied by Figoni. The pre-1930 car won first place in Category D, placing an early Bugatti alongside the much later Veyron Super Sport among the weekend’s recognised automobiles.

The results illustrated the breadth of Bugatti’s design history. The Type 38 belongs to the formative decades of the marque, when Ettore Bugatti’s cars became known for their engineering, lightness, sporting ability and distinctive proportions. The Veyron Super Sport, by contrast, emerged from the brand’s modern revival and the development of the W16 powertrain.

Bugatti’s story began in 1909, when Ettore Bugatti founded his company in Molsheim, Alsace, then part of the German Empire. He established the factory in a former dye works and began developing the cars that would establish his name in the automotive world. The Type 13 followed in 1910, and Molsheim has remained closely associated with Bugatti ever since.

Ettore’s approach combined engineering with an unusually strong interest in form and proportion. His son Jean later became an important force within the company, contributing to designs including the Type 57. The original company ceased production in 1956, after 47 years during which almost 8,000 Bugattis were built.

The marque was subsequently revived in the late 1980s by Romano Artioli, whose Bugatti Automobili produced the EB110 in Campogalliano, Italy. A further chapter began when the Volkswagen Group acquired the Bugatti trademark rights in 1998, eventually establishing the modern Bugatti operation in Molsheim. The opening of the Bugatti Atelier there in 2005 marked the beginning of the modern production era, first with the Veyron and later with the Chiron.

The Veyron became a defining milestone in that revival. Its 8.0-litre quad-turbocharged W16 produced 1,001 PS in its original specification and enabled the car to exceed 400 km/h, establishing a new benchmark for production performance at the time. The Chiron subsequently developed the same fundamental W16 architecture, while models including the Divo, Centodieci, La Voiture Noire and Bolide explored increasingly individual interpretations of Bugatti’s modern design and engineering language.

Today, Bugatti is part of the Bugatti Rimac Group, while Bugatti Automobiles remains headquartered in Molsheim. The company continues to build its hyper sports cars there, preserving a direct connection between the historic site and the marque’s contemporary manufacturing activities.

That connection between place and production gives events such as the Concours d’Élégance International Schlumpf particular resonance. Mulhouse lies only around 100 kilometres from Molsheim, placing the concours within the geographical landscape that has long surrounded Bugatti’s history.

Bugatti’s current official network includes locations such as London, Paris, Monaco and Dubai, alongside dealers and brand partners in other international markets. The official Bugatti network confirms its Dubai presence through its UAE partner, Al Habtoor Motors, which has represented Bugatti in the United Arab Emirates since 2006.

Yet the most meaningful address remains Molsheim. The town is not simply associated with Bugatti through historical memory; it remains the place from which the modern marque continues to operate. The Château Saint Jean, purchased by Ettore Bugatti in 1928, and the modern Atelier now stand within the same broader landscape, connecting the brand’s early history with its contemporary production.

The first Concours d’Élégance International Schlumpf consequently offered something more substantial than a display of beautiful machinery. Its importance lay in the way the event allowed different eras to sit alongside one another without reducing Bugatti’s history to a single period.

The Royale, Type 38, Veyron Super Sport and W16-powered F.K.P. Hommage tell very different stories. Together, however, they reveal a continuous interest in individuality, engineering and design that has survived profound changes in automotive technology.

For a marque whose history has always been closely tied to the places and people behind its cars, Mulhouse proved an appropriate setting for that conversation. The inaugural concours may have looked backwards by its very nature, but its most compelling quality was the way it allowed Bugatti’s past and present to occupy the same landscape — not as competing chapters, but as parts of an evolving automotive vocabulary.