√Bugatti W16 Mistral unveiled as farewell for iconic engine

Meet the last new road-legal Bugatti model with the company’s legendary W16 engine, the $AU7.3 million Mistral – capable of 420km/h with no roof.

French hypercar maker Bugatti has revealed its last road-going car with its iconic W16 engine, the 2024 Bugatti W16 Mistral – priced from a cool €5 million ($AU7.3 million) each, before taxes.

Bugatti’s 8.0-litre quad-turbocharged W16 engine – comprised of two ‘narrow-angle’ V8 engines (known as VR8s), arranged at a 90-degree angle – debuted in the Veyron in 2005, and has come to define the exotic brand’s cars.

Its final road-going outing – excluding in track-only cars – is the W16 Mistral, a limited-run (99 cars) roadster based on the Chiron hypercar’s chassis, designed to celebrate iconic open-top Bugattis of history, including the Type 57 Roadster Grand Raid of 1934.

The W16 Mistral uses the higher-output 1177kW (1600 horsepower) version of the 8.0-litre quad-turbo engine – shared with the record-breaking 300mph (483km/h) Chiron Super Sport 300+ – capable of a 420km/h top speed.

The French company claims this would be a record for a road-going roadster – but US car maker Hennessey claims its Venom F5 Roadster will be able to do 483km/h, while Swedish exotic-car specialist Koenigsegg also has contenders for the drop-top speed record.

Bugatti’s last roadster was the Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse of 2013, with an 883kW version of the W16 powering the car to 409km/h. Bugatti has not offered an open-top car on the newer (2016) Chiron’s platform.

As with the car maker’s other Chiron-based special editions, the W16 Mistral – named after a French wind – receives a bespoke coachbuilt body, with classic car-inspired cues including a curved windscreen designed to create a “visor effect”.

The engine air intakes have been moved to the roof – above the occupants’ heads, separate from the side-mounted oil coolers – and are said to “enrich” the sound from the mid-mounted engine.

The LED headlights adopt a new signature with four horizontal strips – “nods to the W16 Mistral’s four-wheel-drive and four turbochargers,” Bugatti says – while the X-shaped tail-light bars are inspired by the Bolide track car, and create space to vent hot air away from the car’s mechanicals.

The W16 Mistral pictured – and shown during Monterey Car Week in California, which concludes this weekend – is finished in black with yellow accents, said to be a favourite combination of Bugatti’s founder, Ettore Bugatti.

Modern composite parts have been used throughout, including lightweight 3D-printed titanium and aluminium, Bugatti says.

Inside, the W16 Mistral borrows most parts from the Chiron – though Bugatti highlights lightweight milled components, woven leather on the newly-designed door panels, and a machined aluminium gear shifter with wood accents and an ‘dancing elephant’ sculpture in amber, inspired by the bonnet sculpture on the classic Bugatti Type 41 Royale of the late 1920s.

Only 99 examples of the new Bugatti W16 Mistral will be built, priced from €5 million ($AU7.3 million) each – and set for delivery starting in 2024. No Chiron-based Bugatti model has been offered in right-hand drive, so don’t expect to see a Mistral on Australian roads.

The W16 Mistral marks an end of an era for Bugatti – formerly owned by German giant Volkswagen, but now controlled by Croatian electric hypercar maker Rimac – as the W16 engine has powered every production model it has built since the brand was rebooted by Volkswagen in the early 2000s.

The successor to the Chiron – due in three to four years from now, according to overseas reports – will retain a petrol engine, albeit a downsized one, and packaged as part of a hybrid system.

Bugatti is slated to stay away from building an electric car for the immediate future – creating some differentiation to its parent brand, Rimac, which exclusively builds electric vehicles.

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