Bugatti W16 Mistral: the ultimate roadster!
Since the launch of the Veyron in 2005, the W16 engine has always been the heart of all Bugattis. The car that will end the W16 era therefore has 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 road appearance of Bugatti’s legendary W16 engine, we knew we had to create a roadster. More than 40% of all Bugatti cars created were designed with an open roof, forming a long line of performance icons that are still revered around the world. During the period of Chiron1, 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 are looking for a completely new way to experience the extraordinary 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 cars”.
For a car as evocative and important as this, a lot of attention was paid to the name it should bear. Representing more than a simple evolution of the Chiron, the roadster needed a name that symbolized freedom, beauty and speed. The inspiration came from the mistral, a strong wind that blows from the Rhone Valley through the luxury towns of the Côte d’Azur and out into 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 outstanding performance for a car without a roof. Its design and engineering are completely customized; the monocoque was not simply cut above the A-pillars, it was completely redesigned and reshaped to allow for a new roofless design and create a more rounded silhouette without compromising the vehicle’s 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 in automotive history is used in a production car. As designers, we were under tremendous pressure: we had to come up with a style that immediately conveyed this historic character while drawing inspiration from some of the finest roadsters in history of Bugatti”.
Their biggest source of inspiration was the 1934 Bugatti Type 57 Roadster Grand Raid, a sporty roadster with a design at the height of beauty. Characterized by its two aerodynamic head restraints, integrated directly into the bodywork, and its “V”-shaped windscreen, this Grand Raid – on display at the Louwman Museum in The Hague – is impeccably sophisticated and elegant. discreet sportiness. Adorned in a two-tone black and yellow finish, it symbolizes the perfect inspiration to mark this decisive moment in Bugatti’s history.
Therefore, the W16 Mistral makes its grand debut with 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 – especially his Type 41 Royale. For lovers of the brand, this combination of colors is timeless.
The W16 Mistral takes the essence of the Grand Raid’s “V” windshield and turns it into a modern work of art. A curved windscreen that appears to wrap around the A-pillars, seamlessly blends into the side windows and creates a ‘visor’ effect that hints at the motorsport-worthy performance levels offered by the W16 Mistral . The windshield itself is an engineering marvel, curved just enough to create a rounded visor design, without compromising the driver’s vision.
The upper line of the windshield and side windows extend deliberately around the side air intakes. This character line goes back under the side windows to extend the horseshoe grille, thus creating a new three-dimensional character for the famous “C” line, the Bugatti signature introduced in the Chiron. To maintain the refinement and beauty of the bodywork, but also to allow optimal air circulation in the W16 engine, the side air intakes of the oil cooler have been deliberately separated from the engine air intakes – which are now in the bodywork. , just behind the car occupants. 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 seemingly leap forward, the W16 Mistral however presents a completely different character.
Anscheidt continues: “To show the new character of the W16 Mistral, we also completely reworked 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 more three-dimensional – both deeper and wider – immediately give a feeling of exclusivity. At the rear, we challenged ourselves to reinterpret the X-pattern of the Bolide taillights in a striking yet more elegant way.5that forever marked the world of automotive design.
Designing a car like the W16 Mistral requires strict application of the Bugatti mantra “Form Follows Performance”, with every part 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 also have a complex shape, with a four-light signature that subtly refers 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 than the W16, allows high -temperature engine radiator to be fed entirely from one air intake, leaving the two side air intakes dedicated only to system supply cooling.
“The X-taillight, on the other hand, has the task of venting the side oil cooler through ducts that connect the empty space between the X-beam 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 moderate temperatures. »
But the highlights of the new car’s functional design don’t stop there. The new air intake vents behind the head restraints are designed with strict anti-rollover standards in mind, so each one is made from a custom carbon fiber structure capable of supporting the full weight of the car in event of a rollover. This setup also enriches the driver’s experience with the W16 as it helps to emphasize the melody created on one side by the loud and rumbling sound caused by the use of 8 liters of displacement at the throttle opening. , and on the other side of the whistle. of the exhaust valve of the four turbochargers on lifting the throttle. A sense of hearing unmatched in the automotive world.
The interior of the W16 Mistral is inspired by 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 easy to read, 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 soft, spotless leathers. But in this latest tribute to the W16, there are also new design touches.
An intricately woven leather is used on the newly designed door panels, thoroughly tested and manufactured to Bugatti quality standards, anticipating regular use for over a hundred years. And as a nod to the W16 Mistral’s famous ancestors, the gear lever – made from a solid block of aluminum – features a wood handle and an amber insert encased in the famous elephant carving. dancing by Rembrandt Bugatti. These sculptural versions adorn the hood of the legendary Type 41 Royale, the most luxurious car ever created.
Under the Royale’s massive side-opening hood hides an ambitious 12.7-liter inline-eight engine, the likes of which the world has never seen. The W16 Mistral’s engine 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-liter W16 was generating 1 200 PS. The W16 Mistral generates 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 mind: to once again become the fastest roadster in the world.
Mate Rimac, CEO of Bugatti Rimac, said: “The combination of a roadster format and our W16 engine creates absolute perfection. With no roof and two large air intakes just behind your head, which feed the engine of around 70,000 liters of air per minute at full throttle, driving the W16 Mistral introduces you to the complex workings of this revolutionary engine like no other Bugatti to date. »
“With the W16 Mistral, we are also continuing the legacy of Bugatti roadsters – all incomparable in design, performance and rarity – that go back to the brand’s beginnings. The Type 40, the Type 41 Royale, the Type 55 Roadster, the Type 57 Roadster Grand Raid that inspired this new car, or the incredible beauty 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 more than 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 W16 Mistral vehicles have been reserved.
