Molsheim’s annual Bugatti Festival marked the 100th anniversary of the Type 41 Royale with an unusually significant homecoming: three of the six surviving Royales gathered at Bugatti’s historic home in Alsace.
Organized by Enthousiastes Bugatti Alsace, the annual Bugatti Festival returned to Molsheim in September with historic and modern Bugattis filling the streets and surrounding roads of the marque’s hometown. For 2026, however, the centerpiece was one of Ettore Bugatti’s most ambitious creations.
The Bugatti Type 41 Royale turns 100 this year, and three examples were assembled at Bugatti’s Molsheim estate for the occasion: the Coupé Napoléon, the Coupé de Ville Binder and the Packard Royale. With only six Royales surviving, bringing half of the known cars together at the marque’s historic home made this year’s gathering particularly notable.
Introduced a century ago as an automobile intended for royalty and the very wealthiest clientele, the Type 41 was extraordinary even by the standards of prewar luxury cars. Its enormous proportions, 12.8-liter straight-eight engine and individually commissioned coachwork made the Royale as much a statement of Bugatti’s ambitions as it was a production automobile.
The Coupé Napoléon has particularly close ties to the Bugatti family. Its final body design was created by Jean Bugatti, and the car served as Ettore Bugatti’s personal automobile. Joining it were the Binder-bodied Coupé de Ville and the car commonly known as the Packard Royale.
The three cars were initially presented to Bugatti customers around the Château before being opened to visiting classic-car owners and enthusiasts attending the festival. Their appearance was made possible with support from the Musée National de l’Automobile – Collection Schlumpf in Mulhouse and Autostadt in Wolfsburg.
BUGATTIS ON THE ROADS OF ALSACE
The Royale gathering formed part of a larger weekend built around Molsheim and the surrounding Alsace region. Bugatti organized a Petit Tour for 20 modern Bugatti hypercars, bringing together examples spanning the Veyron, Chiron and Tourbillon generations.
Beginning at the YONA Hotel in Obernai, the route traveled through Alsace wine country and mountain roads, with stops including Maison Cattin and Domaine Haslach. The tour concluded back at the Château, where Bugatti staged a 1920s-inspired dinner with the three Royales displayed behind the historic building.
The following morning shifted the emphasis toward the historic cars participating in the wider Bugatti Festival. Around 70 classic Bugattis gathered at the Molsheim property for breakfast before heading onto their own tour of Alsace.
Among them was a substantial collection of Type 35s, including a 1927 Grand Prix example, along with a 1934 Type 57 Stelvio and Type 57 C Cabriolet by Gangloff. Modern Bugattis joined the display, creating a timeline stretching from Ettore and Jean Bugatti’s era through the revived marque and its current generation.
BUGATTI FESTIVAL IN MOLSHEIM
On Sunday, the event moved into the center of Molsheim, where the cars paraded through town before the festival’s traditional awards ceremony. The 1934 Type 57 Stelvio received the Prix Bugatti Automobiles, while Bugatti Automobiles President Christophe Piochon was presented with the Bretzel d’Or, an Alsatian cultural distinction celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2026.
The annual festival is particularly unusual among marque gatherings because Molsheim remains so closely connected to Bugatti. Ettore Bugatti established his company there in 1909, and the modern company continues to operate from the same Alsatian town more than a century later.
That continuity made the Royale centenary especially appropriate for Molsheim. The Type 41 was conceived during Bugatti’s original era as an automobile without meaningful compromise in size, engineering or expense. A century later, seeing three of the six surviving examples together at the place where the Royale story began offered a rare connection between the cars and the landscape that produced them.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Event: Bugatti Festival / Festival Bugatti Molsheim
Location: Molsheim and Alsace, France
Dates: September 2026
Organizer: Enthousiastes Bugatti Alsace
Featured Anniversary: 100 Years of the Bugatti Type 41 Royale
Featured Royales: Coupé Napoléon, Coupé de Ville Binder, Packard Royale
Historic Bugattis: Approximately 70 participating cars
Modern Petit Tour: 20 Bugatti hypercars
PHOTO GALLERY
