Test drive Rolls-Royce Museum in Dornbirn: homework

At the largest Rolls-Royce museum, surprises await you that you are not ready for.

Leaving Dornbirn, the road winds up the Dornbirner Ache, deeper and deeper into the mountains. As soon as we begin to doubt the common sense of navigation, we find ourselves in a small square with a beautiful hotel, and nearby rises a local landmark - a magnificent sequoia.

By the way, for ten years now there is another pride in the Gutle region that attracts pilgrims from many countries. The former spinning mill houses the world's largest Rolls-Royce museum, which is the main purpose of our visit.

The building is a monument of Austrian industrial culture.

We cross the entrance to a large three-story building that has long been part of Austria's industrial history. From here, in 1881, Emperor Franz Joseph I held the first telephone conversation in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Today, as you walk past the reception desk, you find yourself among dozens of silent giants whose ancient temple-shaped silver-plated bars inspire awe that I will not leave you throughout the entire tour of the museum. No two cars are the same here, so you try to see each one, and the path between them gradually leads you to a corner with old cars and dismantled engines. This is the workshop of Frederick Henry Royce of the beginning of the last century - with real original machines bought in England and installed here. And imagine - the machines work! The same is true in the restoration workshop, where you can see live how almost 100-year-old cars are dismantled and repaired and how missing parts are restored according to old drawings.

Hall of Fame

And while you are searching for words to express your admiration for this unique spectacle, you are told that you have not yet seen the most interesting thing on the second floor - the Hall of Fame.

In the spacious hall, only the Silver Ghost and Phantom models, made or, more precisely, made between the two world wars, are exhibited. The art of bodybuilders has created wonderful movable monuments from which imperial dignity and luxury come. There are no random exhibits here - each is a work of automotive art and, like other masterpieces, has its own history. Almost all of them belonged to famous aristocrats and celebrities, as well as famous men and women of the time when the British Empire still stretched all over the world and the sun never set on it, traveled as owners or guests.

The majestic Phantom III (1937) of Queen Elizabeth (the mother of Elizabeth II, known as Queen Mam) instead of the usual figure of Spirit of Ecstasy carries on its emitter a statuette of the patron saint of the empire, St. George the Victorious. Next to this monument is Sir Malcolm Campbell's Blue Ghost, who set the land speed record with the Bluebird. Obviously, for the British athlete, blue is a kind of logo.

Pigeon blue is the Phantom II of Prince Aly Khan and his wife, actress Rita Hayworth. A little at the end is the sandy yellow Phantom Torpedo Phaeton of the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. Here's Lawrence of Arabia's car - not real, but from the movie, as well as a gorgeous red open Phantom that I used by King George V on a safari in Africa. By the way, it's on the third floor...

Guests in the tea room

After all this splendor, we now think that nothing can surprise us, so we go up to the third floor, modestly called "tea", rather because of the fullness of impressions. However, here we are in for a surprise. Tea tables that could be turned into a luxury restaurant as the kitchen, bar and essentials, including museum-branded wine, sit among the windows to one side, along with Victorian crockery and other household items. era ordered headlights, controls, hoses and other parts for Rolls-Royce. A special atmosphere in the salon is created by the presented motorcycles, toys, picnic accessories and only two cars - the red one that George V hunted, and the magnificent New Phantom Open Touring Car, the body of which was created in distant Sydney by Smith & Waddington. . Behind is a chic bar with dishes and several types of drinks - a work of art in itself.

Family business

You've probably already wondered who built this sanctuary of the famous English brand - is this museum behind a wealthy collector, a fund of friends of Rolls-Royce, or the state? The answer is unexpected, but that doesn't make things any less interesting. In fact, the museum is a family business, and everything here is collected, restored, exhibited and supported by the efforts of local residents - Franz and Hilde Fonny and their sons Franz Ferdinand, Johannes and Bernhard. A conversation with middle son Johannes, a young man with an open face and a charming smile, reveals the story of a strong passion for cars and Rolls-Royces through the eyes of a boy who grew up in an unusual family.

Rolls-Royce in the nursery

“My parents founded the museum as a private, I would even say, home collection 30 years ago. Then we lived in a small village about 20 km from here. We kept cars in the house itself, for example, in the room where I slept, there was also a Rolls-Royce. My dad needed a place, so he tore down the wall, put him in a car—it was a Phantom—and then rebuilt it. All my childhood, the car was parked there, one was in the attic, and the pool in the yard never seemed to be full of water, because there were cars parked in it all the time. For us children, it was, of course, very interesting. We were three boys, but I don't remember having a nanny. When Mom was gone, Dad used to put us kids in trash cans on motorcycles and we watched him work on Rolls-Royce. It seems that we adopted the love of cars with breast milk, and therefore we all have gasoline in our blood.”

"If you are making money, buy a cow!"

However, the question of how it all began remains open, so the history goes back decades. “Maybe my grandfather, who was a farmer and did not approve of unnecessary expenses, is to blame for everything. Therefore, he forbade my dad to buy a car. "If you are making money, buy a cow, not a car!"

The forbidden fruit is always the sweetest, and soon Franz Fonni not only buys a car, but also opens a repair shop for prestigious brands, whose intricate designs require intelligence and skill. Driven by a piety for automobiles as the creations of human genius, he gradually focused on the Rolls-Royce brand and support for 30s models. Thus, he gradually forges connections around the world, and from the moment he knows where they are and who owns almost all the samples of that era. “From time to time, when Rolls announced the sale or when it changed ownership (the first owners were already elderly), my father managed to buy it and thus a small collection was created, which I later enlarged by a witness. Many cars had to be restored, but most have retained their original appearance, i.e. we limited ourselves to a minimal recovery. Most of them are on the move, but they don't look like new. People began to come and ask us to drive them to Rolls-Royce weddings and other entertainment purposes, and gradually the hobby became a profession. "

The collection becomes a museum

By the mid-90s, the collection was already available, but it was a private home museum, and the family decided to look for another building to make it available to the public. Today it is a famous place of worship for the brand's followers, as well as the world-famous Rolls-Royce Museum in Dornbirn.

The building is an old spinning mill, in which the machines were powered by water - first directly, and then electricity generated by a turbine. Until the 90s, the building was preserved in its old form, and the Fonni family chose it because the atmosphere in it is very suitable for cars from the museum. However, there are also inconveniences. “We are renovating and maintaining the building, but it is not ours, so we cannot make big changes. The elevator is small, and cars on the second and third floors must be taken disassembled. That equates to three weeks of work per machine.”

Everyone knows how to do everything

While we find it hard to believe that so few people can handle such difficult tasks, Johannes Fonni's calm tone and cheerful smile suggest that the adage “work finds its owner” is meaningful. Obviously, these people know how to work and do not find it too burdensome.

“The whole family works here – three brothers and, of course, our parents who are still working. My father is now doing things that he never had time for - prototypes, experimental cars, etc. We have a few more employees, but this is not a constant number, and everything here is never more than 7-8 people. Downstairs you saw my wife; she is also here, but not every day - we have two children of three and five years old, and she must be with them.

Otherwise, we share our work, but in principle everyone should be able to do everything - restore, archive, maintain, work with visitors, etc., to replace someone or help when necessary.

"Visitors are interested to see how we work"

Today we have accumulated a great deal of know-how, not only in terms of restoration, but also in terms of the places where certain parts can be found. We work mainly for the museum, less often for external clients. It is very interesting for visitors to watch how we restore, so the workshop is part of the museum. We can help outside clients with parts, drawings and other things that my father has been collecting since the 60s. We are also in contact with VW's Crewe plants and the new Rolls-Royce plant in Goodwood. I myself worked for some time at Bentley Motors and my brother Bernhard, who graduated in automotive engineering in Graz, also worked in their design department for several months. However, despite our close ties, we have no financial obligations to today's Rolls-Royce and Bentley, and we are completely independent.

Franz Fonny seems to have a unique gift for convincing people to part with his Rolls-Royce. It is common for aristocrats that even if they feel the need for money, it is very difficult for them to admit it. Negotiations on Queen Mom's car, for example, lasted 16 years. Every time he was near the place where the owner lived - a very stubborn and reserved man - Franz Fonny would come to him to inspect the car and hint, only to hint that he would be happy to own it. And so year after year, until, finally, he succeeded.

"We did almost everything with our own hands."

“My mother was also infected with her love for Rolls-Royce, which is probably why we children share the same enthusiasm. Without her, our father probably would not have gone this far. Because it wasn't easy for them at that time. Imagine what it means for a home museum with a car in the bedroom to be what you see. We lost a lot, and we had to work a lot, because we did almost everything with our own hands. The windows that you see around are made by us. We have been restoring furniture for years. You may have noticed that in the first photographs after the opening of the museum, the premises were very empty; it took many years to arrange them. We worked every day, we had almost no vacations, everything revolved around the museum. "

As our visit draws to a close, questions remain unanswered—about dozens of adventures involving buying and repairing cars, as well as thousands of hours of work, missed vacations, and other things that are embarrassing to ask.

However, the young man seems to have read our thoughts, so he notes in his usual calm tone: "We cannot afford to spend a lot of money, but we have so much work that we do not have time for it."

Text: Vladimir Abazov

Photo: Rolls-Royce Franz Vonier GmbH Museum