While researching King Leopold's crash in a Pininfarina-designed Cadillac, I came across mention of his Type 59 Bugatti, a race car supposedly given to him by Ettore. Others say it was part traded for the King’s Type 51 Grand Prix racer.
TheKing modified it quite a bit, putting the headlights into the bodywork. It was repainted black, his favourite car colour, with a yellow stripe In the story in Classic & Sports Car, which I found on the net,
Story found here: http://www.classican...bugatti-type-59
In the story it says
In 1967, car-mad Belgian enthusiast Stephane Falise had heard stories that the King’s Bugatti was still stored in the Argenteuil Palace and made a formal enquiry to the Royal household. To his amazement, he eventually acquired the car. Falise also wrote about it in Bugantics, the quarterley magazine of the British Bugatti Owners’ Club,
C & SC also says the King's second wife, Princess Lilian de Rethy, tried to recover the Bugatti after her husband’s death in 1983, but Falise sold the car to the Bob Rubin, an American car connoisseur who took it to Leydon Restorations in Pennsylvania to preserve the Type-59’s remarkable.
I'd just like to know what Falise paid for it in '67--and how one goes about buying from a King (well, ex-King at that point).
