best Bugatti Royale kit

[fiatboy]

Hi.  I am looking to acquire a kit of one of the Bugatti Royale kits out there.  I guess Italeri has just reissued one.  And if memory serves, Lindberg had one also.  Any comments?  Thanks

[Richard Bartrop]

There was also a 1/16 scale Royale released by Bandai, and Entex.  I've only built the Lindberg kit, but as I recall, it wasn't bad.  It was the Weinberger cabriolet, where Italeri has kitted both the Coupe Napoleon and the Berline de Voyage, and the Entex/Bandai kit is the Binder Coupe de Ville, so if you want to model a particular version,  you have options.

[fiatboy]

Thank you, Richard.  I bought a Lindberg Bugatti Victoria, '31, for $23.36 all in.  A good price for me I think.  I have a 'Rolls Royce Merlin' engine from Alan Raab.  At one time he produced both the RR Merlin and the Packard Merlin, both looked substantially different from one another.  Yes, I'm going to try to put it in the Bugatti.  I may have to create a few 'bulges' in hood!

[Paul Payne]

Fiatboy, the Royals engine was 775 cubic inches and developed 300 bp with normal aspiration. How about fitting dual overhead cams and supercharging it? If you are not going to use the Royals engine, I would be interested in it.

[fiatboy]

Hi Paul.  I see that you are interested in the Bugatti engine.  I will mock up the 2 engines and see what it is going to take to transplant the RR Merlin engine.  I have been looking in my house for the Merlin kit and I have not found it yet!  The Merlin is a V12 or a V16?  I was surprised at what a nice kit it is.   I think it has 4 chrome trees!  Are you quite knowledgeable about the Bug. engine?  In the directions it has some interesting details on this Bug engine.  If you send me you email, I will email you a copy of the instructions.  Jeff

[Big John]

Or perhaps just add duel cams and supercharge the the Royale engine. I came up with this for my LSR Bug.

 

Edited May 12, 2021 by Big John
image

[Big John]