Since the launch of the Veyron in 2005, the W16 engine has always been the beating heart of all Bugattis. The car that would end the era of the W16 therefore had to be special – exclusive, elegant and powerful – the best of its kind. And that car is the “W16 Mistral”: the ultimate roadster.
Mate Rimac, CEO of Bugatti Rimac, said: “For the final appearance on the road of Bugatti’s legendary W16 engine, we knew we had to create a roadster. Over 40% of all Bugatti vehicles ever created were designed with an open roof, forming a long line of performance icons that to this day are revered around the world. At the time of the Chiron1, there was no roadster yet. The launch of the W16 Mistral is therefore in line with this tradition and responds to the very strong demand from our customers who were looking for a whole new way to experience the exceptional performance of our emblematic engine. The W16 Mistral therefore opens the next chapter in the history of Bugatti roadsters, inspired by more than a century of legendary roofless vehicles”.
For a car as evocative and important as this, a great deal of attention was paid to the name it should carry. Representing much more than a simple evolution of the Chiron, the roadster needed a name symbolizing freedom, elegance and speed. The inspiration came from the mistral, a powerful wind that blows from the Rhone Valley through the posh towns of the Côte d’Azur and out to the Mediterranean. And since the engine is the heart of this roadster, we combined the two concepts to create the name: W16 Mistral.
Built around the definitive version of the 1600PS W16 engine – first used in the Chiron Super Sport 300+2 – the W16 Mistral offers absolutely unique performance for a car without a roof. Its design and engineering have been completely tailor-made; the monocoque was not simply cut above the A-pillars, it was completely redesigned and reshaped to make way for a new roofless design and create a more rounded silhouette without compromising vehicle performance.
Achim Anscheidt, Director of Design at Bugatti, said: “We know that the W16 Mistral will always have an important place in the history of Bugatti, because it marks a turning point: with it, it is the last time that the greatest motor from automotive history is used in a production car. As designers, we were under very strong pressure: we had to come up with a style that instantly conveys this historic character while drawing inspiration from some of the most beautiful roadsters in Bugatti’s history”.
Their greatest source of inspiration was the 1934 Bugatti Type 57 Roadster Grand Raid, a sporty roadster with a design at the height of elegance. Characterized by its two aerodynamic head restraints, which are integrated directly into the bodywork, and by its “V” shaped windscreen, this Grand Raid – on display at the Louwman Museum in The Hague – is flawlessly sophisticated and elegant. discreet sportiness. Decorated with a two-tone black and yellow finish, it symbolizes the perfect inspiration to mark this decisive moment in the history of Bugatti.
The W16 Mistral therefore makes its grand debut sporting the colors inspired by the Bugatti Type 57 Roadster Grand Raid; a warm black with hints of truffle brown and subtle yellow accents. This is not only a tribute to the car itself, but also to Ettore Bugatti, who chose the combination of black and yellow for many of his personal cars – notably his Type 41 Royale. For brand enthusiasts, this combination of colors is timeless.
The W16 Mistral takes the essence of the “V” windshield of the Grand Raid and transforms it into a modern work of art. A curved windscreen that appears to wrap around the A-pillars, blending seamlessly with the side windows and creating a ‘visor’ effect that hints at the motorsport-worthy levels of performance offered by the W16 Mistral. The windshield itself is an engineering marvel, curved just enough to create the rounded design of the visor, without compromising the driver’s vision.
The upper line of the windshield and side windows deliberately stretches around the side air intakes. This character line then returns under the side windows to extend to the horseshoe grille, thus creating a new three-dimensional character for the famous “C” line, Bugatti’s signature introduced on the Chiron. To preserve the finesse and elegance of the bodywork, but also to allow optimal air circulation to the W16 engine, the side air intakes of the oil cooler have been deliberately separated from the air intakes. of the engine – which they are now on the bodywork, just behind the occupants of the vehicle. The two new engine air intakes mounted behind the headrests are a nod to the Type 57 Roadster Grand Raid as well as the first open-top Bugatti of the modern era: the Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport. Narrower, more powerful and seeming to leap forward, the W16 Mistral however displays a completely different character.
Anscheidt continues: “To reflect the new character of the W16 Mistral, we have also completely reinvented its frontal expression, to bring us closer to the vertical logic of our “few-off” models like the Divo.3 and The Black Car4. The fully customized vertically stacked headlights and the famous horseshoe grille redesigned to be much more three-dimensional – both deeper and wider – immediately impart a sense of exclusivity. At the rear, we challenged ourselves to reinterpret the X-pattern of the Bolide’s taillights in a striking but also more elegant way.5which forever marked the world of automotive design.
Designing a car such as the W16 Mistral requires rigorous application of the Bugatti mantra “Form Follows Performance”, with each component designed not only to set new standards in aesthetics, but also to perform. a key role in achieving unprecedented levels of performance.
Frank Heyl, Deputy Design Director at Bugatti, said: “The headlights too have a complex shape, incorporating a four-light signature that subtly alludes to the four-wheel drive and four turbochargers of the W16 Mistral. But their three-dimensional surface also serves as an aerodynamic aid by channeling air through the headlights and out the wheel arch to improve aerodynamic drag. The horseshoe grille, wider on the W16, allows the high-temperature engine radiator to be fed entirely from a single air intake, leaving the two side air intakes to focus solely on system supply cooling.
“The X-taillight, on the other hand, has the function of venting the side oil coolers through ducts connecting the empty space between the X-beams to the side radiators. Thus, a pressure drop is created between the side inlets and the rear outlets of the W16 Mistral, which makes it possible to manage the cooling circuit of the powerful W16 more efficiently at medium temperatures. »
But the functional design highlights of the new vehicle don’t stop there. New air intake vents behind the head restraints have been designed with rigorous anti-rollover standards in mind, so each one is made from a bespoke carbon fiber structure capable of supporting the full weight of the car in the event of a rollover. This setup also enriches the driver’s experience of the W16 as it helps to emphasize the melody created on one side by the powerful, rumbling noise caused by the intake of 8 liters of displacement at the throttle opening. , and on the other side by the hiss of the exhaust valve of the four turbochargers on lifting the throttle. A hearing sensation unmatched in the automotive world.
The interior of the W16 Mistral is inspired by that of the Chiron. It has been carefully crafted to provide an experience that is both elegant and luxurious, but also functional enough that all information is easily readable, even at speeds of 420 km/h. Attention to material quality remains a hallmark of Bugatti design: advanced, lightweight titanium and aluminum components – milled from a solid block – and supple, stain-free leathers. But in this latest homage to the W16, there are also brand new design touches.
An intricately woven leather is used on the newly designed door panels, meticulously tested and produced to Bugatti quality standards, expecting regular use for over a hundred years. And as a nod to the illustrious ancestors of the W16 Mistral, the gear lever – machined from a solid block of aluminum – features a touch of wood and an amber insert encased in the famous elephant carving. dancing by Rembrandt Bugatti. Versions of this sculpture adorned the hood of the legendary Type 41 Royale, the most luxurious vehicle ever created.
Beneath the Royale’s gigantic side-opening hood hides an ambitious 12.7-liter inline-eight engine, the likes of which the world has never seen. The engine of the W16 Mistral is equally ambitious: it is the only W16 powertrain still in use today.
When Bugatti’s latest roadster, the Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse, set the world speed record at 254.04 mph (408.84 km/h) in 2013, its quad-turbocharged 8.0-litre W16 was developing 1 200 PS. The W16 Mistral develops 1,600 PS, drawing on the same power unit that propelled the Chiron Super Sport 300+ to a record speed of 304.773 mph (490.484 km/h) in 2019. There can only be one goal in head: to once once more become the fastest roadster in the world.
Mate Rimac, CEO of Bugatti Rimac, said: “The union of a roadster format and our W16 engine creates absolute perfection. With no roof and two large air intakes just behind your head, which supply the engine with around 70,000 liters of air per minute at full throttle, driving the W16 Mistral introduces you to the intricate workings of this revolutionary engine as no other Bugatti to date. »
“With the W16 Mistral, we are also perpetuating the heritage of Bugatti roadsters – all incomparable in design, performance and rarity – which goes back to the genesis of the brand. The Type 40, the Type 41 Royale, the Type 55 Roadster, the Type 57 Roadster Grand Raid which inspired this new vehicle, or the incredible elegance of the Type 57SC Corsica Roadster – Bugatti has always been associated with the pure feeling of open-top driving. So even though the legacy of the W16 engine ends with the W16 Mistral, we continue the legacy of the roadster, first established by Ettore Bugatti over a century ago.”
Only 99 copies of the W16 Mistral will be produced and sold at a price of 5 million euros net. Deliveries will begin in 2024. All of the W16 Mistral vehicles have already been reserved.
