Railcar, Gasoline, Bugatti WR 'Présidentiel'

History: This railcar was built by the Bugatti automobile company in Alsace between 1933 and 1934. It was equipped with four (4) gasoline engines, flat-8 cylinders of 12 750 cm3, with a power of 200hp each, which came from the stocks intended for the Bugatti Royale type 41, which had not sold well.

88 examples were built, in different variations:

• WR (Wagon Rapide - Fast Car) single, double or triple - four engine version
• WL (Wagon Léger - Light Car) short, elongated or over-extended - version with only two engines.

The examples were acquired by the ETAT, the PLM and the AL. They were taken over by the SNCF when it was created in 1938. They were removed from service in 1958. There is only one preserved example, visible at the Cité du Train in Mulhouse, France.

From Wikipedia (in French).

Railroad/Company: Automobiles Ettore Bugatti was a French manufacturer of high-performance automobiles. The company was founded in 1909 in the then-German city of Molsheim, Alsace, by the Italian-born industrial designer Ettore Bugatti. The cars were known for their design beauty and for their many race victories. Famous Bugatti automobiles include the Type 35 Grand Prix cars, the Type 41 "Royale", the Type 57 "Atlantic" and the Type 55 sports car.
The death of Ettore Bugatti in 1947 proved to be a severe blow for the marque, and the death of his son Jean Bugatti in 1939 meant that there was no successor to lead the factory. No more than about 8,000 cars were made. The company struggled financially, and it released one last model in the 1950s before eventually being purchased for its airplane parts business in 1963.

In 1987, an Italian entrepreneur bought the brand name and revived it as Bugatti Automobili SpA