Coachmakers tour in 2025 to the Schlumph Collection via Champagne

Following on from the success of the trip to Paris to see the Retromobile exhibition, Liverymen Nick Lyford and Simon Gurney (colloquially known as L+G Tours!) will be arranging a car tour in the spring of 2025 through France to visit the Schlumph Collection, now known as the National Automobile Collection of France.

This astounding collection was kept secret for over 40 years by the Schlumph brothers. https://www.musee-automobile.fr/en/. Giovanni Carlo Vittorio Schlumph known as Hans Schlumph, and Federico Filippo Augustino Schlumph known as Fritz Schlumph, more prominently known as the Schlumph Brothers were Italian-born Swiss textile industrialists, automobile collectors and convicted fraudsters.

The Schlumph Collection which was founded and developed between 1935 and 1976 belongs to the world’s most important private automobile collections with more than 560 automobiles of various luxury and sports car makes, most prominently 123 Bugattis and 14 Rolls Royces, 430 of those automobiles are classified as historically protected. The Schlumph brothers financed their collection by bankrupting their company and to avoid charges they fled to Switzerland where they remained in exile until their death.

After the Eurotunnel the tour will take a leisurely drive to a delightful hotel in the Champagne area, where we will stay for one night, then on to another wonderful hotel in the Colmar / Mulhouse area. The following morning we will visit the museum then dine back at the hotel.

For the return journey a one night stop over is being arranged at another fabulous location before departing for Calais. The tour will take five days in total and the dates are being firmed up to fit in with the Livery Calendar and in-between UK and French School holidays. The cost will be known soon but will follow the French guidance; “Qualité par rapport au prix”.

So that we can gauge numbers, please could you register your interest with Nick (epsom_lyfords@yahoo.co.uk) and/or Simon (simon@sjgurney.co.uk).