Bugatti’s Ultimate Roadster, The W16 Mistral Unveiled

The roadgoing car that brings the W16 era to an end was always destined to be special, exclusive, elegant and powerful. It must be the very best of its kind. This is W16 Mistral, the ultimate roadster.

For a car as evocative and important as this, great consideration went into the moniker it should wear, it needed a name associated with freedom, elegance and speed. 

As such, inspiration came from the mistral, a powerful wind that blows from the Rhône River valley, through the chic towns of the Côte d’Azur in southern France and into the Mediterranean. 

With the engine being the central and pivotal aspect to this roadster’s character, it stands side-by-side with this mighty wind, thus the W16 Mistral.

Bugatti Rimac’s chief executive officer, Mate Rimac, remarked, “For the final roadgoing appearance of Bugatti’s legendary W16 engine, we knew we had to create a roadster. Well over 40% of all Bugatti vehicles ever created have been open-top in design, establishing a long lineage of performance icons that to this day are revered the world over. In the Chiron era there had, to-date, been no roadster, so the introduction of W16 Mistral continues this legacy, driven by enormous demand from our clients for an all-new way to experience the mighty performance of our iconic engine. The W16 Mistral opens the next chapter in the Bugatti roadster story, inspired by over a century of open top legends.”

Shaped around Bugatti’s renowned W16 engine, first used in the Chiron Super Sport 300+, the W16 Mistral offers a build unlike any open top car that has gone before.

In its design and engineering it is completely bespoke, the existing monocoque is not simply cut off above the A-pillars to make way for the new open-top design. 

Instead, it has been reengineered and reshaped to create a more rounded silhouette without compromising the performance.

“We know the W16 Mistral will always have significance in the story of Bugatti, marking the last time that perhaps the greatest ever automotive powertrain is used in a roadgoing production car. We, as a design team, felt enormous pressure to deliver styling that immediately conveyed this landmark moment, drawing inspiration from some of the most beautiful roadsters in Bugatti history,” expressed Bugatti’s design director, Achim Anscheidt.

Its design muse was derived from the 1934 Bugatti Type 57 Roadster Grand Raid, a sporting roadster that represents the pinnacle of elegant design. 

Marked out by its dual aerodynamic headrests, flowing back into the bodywork, and a cut down V-shaped windscreen, this particular Grand Raid is effortlessly classy with a modest sportiness. 

Finished in a duo-tone black and yellow livery, it provides the perfect inspiration for this historical moment in the Bugatti story.

Therefore, for the W16 Mistral, it debuts in colours inspired by the Bugatti Type 57 Roadster Grand Raid, a warm black with hints of truffle brown and subtle yellow accents throughout. 

Not only is it an homage to the iconic coachbuilt body, but also to Ettore Bugatti, who chose the black and yellow combination for many of his personal cars, including his Type 41 Royale.

Besides that, the W16 Mistral captures the essence of the Grand Raid’s V-shaped windscreen and evolves it into a modern-day work of art. 

A curving windscreen that seemingly wraps around the A-pillars, blending seamlessly into the side windows and creating a ‘visor’ effect that hints at the motorsport levels of performance it offers. 

Notably, the windscreen itself is a marvel of engineering, curved just enough to create the rounded visor design, without distorting the driver’s vision.

Said windscreen’s top line and side windows flow firmly around the side air intakes, which then flows back under the side glass to shoot all the way to the front horseshoe grille.

Beautifully, this character line creates a new three-dimensional feature for the famous Bugatti C-line introduced on the Chiron. 

To keep the body side section slim, along with optimum airflow, the oil cooler intakes on the side were deliberately parted from the engine air intakes that now sit on the roof, behind the occupants. 

Plus, the two-new roof-mounted engine air scoops 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.

Tighter, more powerful and appearing to leap forwards, the W16 Mistral exhibits an entirely different character.

Anscheidt added, “To reflect the W16 Mistral’s new character, we also totally reinvented its frontal appearance, in line with the vertical layout of our unique or few-off models like the Divo and La Voiture Noire. It’s immediately imbued with a sense of exclusivity. The vertically stacked headlights are completely bespoke and the famous horseshoe grille is reimagined to be much more three-dimensional both deeper and wider. At the rear, we challenged ourselves to create a striking but also more elegant iteration of the Bolide’s X-theme tail light motif, which forever left its mark on the world of automotive design.”

On top of that, designing a car like the W16 Mistral requires careful practice of Bugatti’s ‘Form Follows Performance’ design mantra. 

Significantly, each component was penned not just to set new standards for beauty, but to also play a role in achieving completely new levels of performance.

Bugatti’s deputy design director, Frank Heyl, explained, “The headlights themselves are intricately shaped, incorporating a four-light signature that subtly nods to the W16 Mistral’s four-wheel-drive and four turbochargers. But their three-dimensional surface also functions as an aerodynamic aid that funnels air through the light and out through the wheel arch to improve aerodynamic drag. The wider horseshoe grille allows the high temperature engine radiator to be fully fed purely from one intake, leaving the two side intakes to focus only on providing air to the intercoolers. The X-taillight, meanwhile, serves the function of venting the side oil coolers through ducts connecting the triangular negative space in between the X beams to the side radiators. Therefore, a pressure drop is created between the side intakes and the outlets at the back of the W16 Mistral which helps to manage the mid-temperature cooling circuit of the mighty W16 most effectively.”

What’s more, the new ram induction air scoops behind the headrests were developed from the very beginning with stringent rollover tests in mind.

Hence, each is made from a bespoke carbon fibre structure that can support the whole weight of the car in case of a roll over. 

This new intake layout also stresses the aural bliss between the low down, rumbling 8-liter intake noise at throttle on and the blow off valve whistle from the four turbo chargers at throttle lift. 

Furthermore, to develop incomparable levels of elegance and excitement, the W16 Mistral features the very latest engineering innovations. 

It features Bugatti's advanced composite materials, paired with cutting-edge titanium and aluminium 3D-printing to ensure striking design, ultimate performance and robust reliability. 

Also, detailed study of the roadster’s dynamic stiffness allowed engineers to develop lightweight solutions that ensure optimum handling and performance under the most extreme conditions.

Interior-wise, it takes lead from the Chiron, honed to deliver an experience that’s both elegant and luxurious, yet also functional enough for all information to be easily visible at up to 420 km/h. 

The dedication to material quality remains a hallmark of Bugatti design, however, in this swansong to the W16, there are also brand-new design flourishes.

There is an intricate woven leather used on newly designed door panels, meticulously tested and produced to Bugatti quality standards with a vision of regular use over 100 years into the future. 

And as a tribute to its forebears, the gear shifter, machined from a solid block of aluminium, features a touch of wood and an amber insert with Bugatti’s famed ‘dancing elephant’ sculpture within it. 

Interestingly, iterations of this sculpture adorned the bonnet of the legendary Bugatti Type 41 Royale, the most luxurious roadster ever created.

Performance-wise, when Bugatti’s last roadster, the Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse set a world speed record of 409 km/h in 2013, its 8.0-liter quad-turbo W16 had 1,184 HP. 

Whereas, for the W16 Mistral, it has 1,578 HP, making use of the same power unit that propelled the Chiron Super Sport 300+ to a world-record-breaking speed of 490 km/h in 2019. 

Outstandingly, according to Bugatti, there can only be one goal in mind, to become the fastest roadster in the world once more.

Rimac concluded, “The union of a roadster format and our W16 powertrain is absolute perfection. With the roof removed, and a pair of large air intakes directly behind your head feeding around 70,000-liter of air through the engine every minute at full bore, driving the W16 Mistral connects you to the intricate workings of this revolutionary powertrain like no other Bugatti to date.

That said, only 99 of the W16 Mistral will be built, priced at EUR 5,000,000 (MYR 22,442,491) with deliveries due to begin in 2024. The entire production run of W16 Mistral is already sold out.