As we had been delayed by our breakdown (see blog from yesterday)  we drove late and arrived at our first destination pretty “early” in the morning, a couple of hours of sleep, a shower and healthy breakfast later we found our buses in the garage of the Bed and Breakfast, all ready for the next adventures…

First stop…. La Citée de l’Automobile, or the Schlumpf collection, the Bugatti museum in Mulhouse France, for those who don’t know, this is the largest Automobile museum on planet earth and is just stunning!

The entry is all You can ask for, beautiful and very cool designed!

The history of the museum is probably even more interesting as the museum it selves…

Off course the Bugatti’s do steal the show, but there is also tons of outer brands to check out….

Bugatti Royale, the largest car ever produced is unbelievable… only six survivors world-wide… extremely impressive in real!

The collection covers all kind of cars, brands and type of cars, from simple use full cars, to very sophisticated, most beautiful designs, the history of the cars and competition, it’s all here, I try to give You some of my personal highlights in pictures here…

Mercedes-Benz 170 1937, the only car that reminds me to a Beetle, very logical, as its designer was a certain Dr Ferdinand Porsche…

Crazy settings, beautiful posters, and cars to just drool over, man can easily spend a full day here…

And the Bugatti’s? They continue just steal the show….

Darrell enjoyed it fully… and took tons of pictures…

Formula one cars from very early to recent cars, all nicely set up …. like a real starting grid…

Darrell can’t get enough pictures here, the competition spirit is still alive, that’s for sure!

Darrell and yours truly, we discussed tons of cars and designs, I learned so much!

My favorite cars of all times Bugatti T 57, they used the platform for quiet a while, very succesful…

….and here You could see them in all kind a versions….

With Darrell in front of the Bugatti Royale convertible coachbuild by Esder… unbelievable… unfortunately the founder of the museum never was able to buy a real one, so this is a replica, but very extremely well made…

No headlights, as the car was only intended to drive during day light!

Darrell checks out some details of a Royale…

Bugati type 57S Atalante, except from the Atalantic about the most beautiful car ever made…

Darrell with a TYPE 57 chassis and drive train, I think You can see in his eyes how much he loved this whole thing….

Yammi!

at the very end of the museum, the start of automobile history….

a coffee and a piece of apple pie in the cafeteria made us ready to drive into Switzerland… more tomorrow…..

Nobody less as my personal VW Hero Darrell Vittone came to visit BBT after the European Bug In!

For those who don’t know…. Darrells father, Joe Vittone, started the very first aftermarket company for VW parts… in Riverside Ca. Without his vision we can only doubt if there should have been ever a real serious aftermarket for VW parts. This was in 1956! Darrell always worked for his dad off course…

In my office in front my split window radio collection….

The company was named EMPI.  Joe Vittone led this company till 1972, until it was sold to Filter Dynamics.

Darrell continued to work for his father in the VW dealerships he had and also for Filter Dynamics, till 1978 (if I remember right) when he started up his own company under the name “The Race Shop” . Darrell was a real good engine and trans builder, especially for competition cars, but it was hard to make a living from it.

He closed the Race Shop and moved up North, to Oregon, where he opened Techtronics. A company that produced camshafts and extractors for watercooled Volkswagens…

When Filter Dynamics closed the (EMPI) doors because of a bankruptcy all left over intellectual and legal rights been sold to Lyle Cherry, of Dallas Texas… who let all over to me, about three years ago…

And the EMPI company that is active today in USA? They have nothing to see with the original EMPI (except that the owners dad used to be a sales guy for the real EMPI for a certain period) or as Darrell stated, the last good Empi developed product I saw  was in 1972 when my father sold Empi….:)

At the entrance of BBT….

So  we decided to make a road trip and bring Darrell back to his roots, Darrells both grand parents emigrated from Piemonte Italy to the USA… Friend of Da Houze David would drive along for a 2 weeks trip… the 59 westy was loaded up and Davids 58 pick up was all ready…;

But then bad luck happened, only 50 km from home the fuel pump of our westy started to leak and pumped gas in the engine case… it gave me a real rare opportunity to work together with my Hero. not planned and not on schedule but an experience I will never ever forget anymore.

We succeeded to repair the fuel pump, but the engine had too much gas in the oil what washed out the cylinders what caused huge compression leaks, the westy was brought back home and exchanged for the 58 Deluxe…Darrell had a good seat in the back… many kilometers to come…

so and off it went, Darrell on the back seat, was happy and smiling the whole way down…

will be continued…

….soaked by patina, a seen on the OCTO meet

Picture credit by friend of Da House Eric