Mulhouse Favorites

Favorite thing: Thousands of unique lamps - replicas of lamps of a bridge in Paris - were custom-made especially for the museum .
Just click on my picture in order to see these great lamps, a pair of them beeing fixed on each and every column of the iron construction of the old production-hall.

Fondest memory: This way you somehow get the feeling to be really on the road again with the old vehicles.

And all of the lamps are turned on and photography is no problem at all in this big hall with most of the exhibits.

The most precious cars are in a different hall with less light and are much harder to take a picture of them ! :-((

Favorite thing: You may find a lot of other works of art in the small park in front of the museum - like the one you may see on my picture.

Mostly these works of art are replicas of greek or roman sculptures and look really great.
And a lot of benches are waiting for the visitors.

Fondest memory: I was in Mulhouse in early april and may imagine that in summer this small park with all the sculptures and lots of leaves on the trees would be a great place to relax...

Favorite thing: In 1976 the factories went bankrupt and all 2000 employees lost their jobs...

...BUT as soon as the dismissed employees have learned that there is such a giant collection of vintage-cars waiting inside some of the old production-halls, they occupied the museum for 2 years and Mr. Schlumpf could not open his museum.
Instead they put him to court, but he could escape to neutral Switzerland in the last moment...

Fondest memory: Today the whole collection is in posession of the " Association Proprietaire du Musée National de l'Automobile de Mulhouse "
...and is said to be the biggest collection of cars in the whole world / or at least the collection with the most precious cars in the world....

...and makes more money for the region of Alsace and Mulhouse that the old productions of worsted ever did...

Thanks a lot Mr.Schlumpf for this really great collection - who needs worsted anyway ??

Favorite thing: While other car-collectors bought vintage-car by vintage-car, Fritz Schlumpf and his brother bought whole collections of cars and payed almost every price possible in order to get the most famous vintage-cars .

Fondest memory: The cars of Bugatti - produced in the nearby town of Molsheim / Alsace were the favorite cars of Fritz Schlumpf and he bought all such cars available, restored them and had quite a lot of people working like in a factory to restore these cars and prepare the opening of the museum.

On my picture : The 2nd Bugatti Royal of the Schlumpf-collection - it is certainly the most precious car in the collection - another car of that type was sold in an auction for about 7.000.000 Euros some years ago.

Favorite thing: Fritz Schlumpf took part in car-races , mostly with his blue Bugatti, shown on my picture.

Fritz and Hans Schlumpf lost the father rather early and were raised by their mother in Alsace, the home of the Bugatti-manufactory.

Fondest memory: When the former factory of Bugatti was closed down, Fritz Schlumpf bought the whole factory-building including all spare-parts, tools etc.

TODAY Volkswagen builds new Bugatti-cars again, maybe the most expensive cars your may buy and with a top speed far bejond of 300 km/h.

Favorite thing: Inside the museum you are also able to find out, what it feels like to roll over with your car in case of an accident.
It is mainly ment in order to convince people of the need to use a saftey-belt, and first they roll over twice and stay some time then totally hanging upside down.

Fondest memory: Unfortunately I could not try it out myself, as waiting-lines were quite long and my time was limited.

Maybe next time...

Favorite thing: The Schlumpf Collection does not only include old vintage-cars , but also interesting exhibits of more modern and future times.
On the left of my pic:
Horlacher Blue Arrow - a record vehicle for cars powered by musculars only.
It is just 21 Kg and reached a top-speed of 92 km/h.
That car could be put at the disposal of interested colleges for test drives !!

Fondest memory: On the right of my picture :
Horlacher Carbon 1988 with an engine of just 430 cm³ and a top-speed of 140 km/h

Both cars are loans by the swiss Company Horlacher

Favorite thing: In the back of the museum you will see a seperate hall, all filled with the most famous racing-cars of history, and they are arranged like they were just about to start a race in Le Mans.

Fondest memory: Inside that hall, you may hear the sound of the engines and the audience screeming - the only strange thing is the fact, that there is NO driver sitting in any car yet.