news

Friend of Da Houze, Dr Pete Keesling, from San Martin California  a real super VW fellow, and especially a very nice person, had a major crash in his oval window beetle, sad to see, but good to hear  Dr Pete will all heal  ok

here is Dr Pete’s own message…

Since the cat is out of the bag (so to speak), I’ll let you know …I was T-Boned yesterday by a young guy in an SUV. Both of us were at speed limit (45mph). He had a stop sign and didn’t see it….hit  me on the right side, sending me into the windshield and the car into a fence, a piece of which ended up in the car. 1.2 miles from home…..almost made it…

I’m okay and will recover fully. Broken ribs and a cracked cervical vertebrae, along with large number of staples and sutures to close a lot of open wounds. Tough day….my herd was reduced by one…Pete

Pete out on behlaf of all BBT VW friends we wish You a speedy recovery! Man oh man, don’t do that again!

….leaving the Bugatti Museum it was only a mere 100 kilometers to BBT’s exclusive distributor for Switzerland, Cagero AG. Roland, Gery and their team very welcomed us…. and Darrell off course!

Cagero is one of the most nice VW shops of the entire globe, if you ever pass Switzerland a stop in Birr is really mandatory! David is all over it!

Roland shows how they use their “shelves” for quick pick…. no work for pussies here!

In between the Cagero private collection was this Meili tractor, very nice original one, powered with a VW engine!

After engines cooled down and we refreshed a little (it was close to 40°C) we continued our trip and the real beautiful was about to come….

But first we saw this VW dealership and the church right behind, we couldn’t figure out if the church is from the VW dealership????

It became later afternoon when we drove along the borders of the lake Lucern, and when we continued to the much smaller Sarnersee, sunset was impressive….

Darrell greetz all of us, VW lovers, out of the roof of the 58 samba, his favorite picture stand! 

it only became more beautiful!

… and Darrell was all over it now, here we see Darrell at speed!!!

a small stop….  what we wanted to do?

We decided to call it a night right before the Gotthard pass…

We booked a small local mountain hotel and had a good rest of sleep… in the morning the two 58’s awaited us for a new adventure, let’s go “over” the mountains….

more tomorrow!

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…..