End of an era
The last copies of the Bugatti Chiron have been built and that means that the end is near for the mighty 8.0 W16. But not before Bugatti says goodbye to its sixteen-cylinder with appropriate fanfare. This is the Bugatti Mistral.
Bugatti presents a very special newcomer: the Mistral. The Mistral is a hyper-exclusive exotic that shares its technical base with the Chiron. That means that the roadster also features the 8.0 W16, the four-turbocharged machine you know from the Chiron. However, it is not the sixteen-cylinder from the regular Chiron, but the variant of the Chiron Super Sport 300+ that has been increased to 1,600 hp. The same variant of the W16 was also in the Centodieci, just like the Divo, La Voiture Noire and Bolide a derivative of the Chiron.
Bugatti Mistral
According to Bugatti, it incorporated design cues from the Type 57 Roadster Grand Raid into the Mistral (Photos 25 and 26). We had to look it up and eventually found some similarities in the twin air scoops behind the front seats and in the shape of the windshield. Fun fact: the air scoops behind the seats are strong enough to serve as a rollbar in the event of a rollover. At top speed, those air tunnels supply 70,000 liters of air per minute to the W16.
The front of the Mistral is reminiscent of that of the Divo, while we see influences of the Bolide in the X-shaped rear lights. The Mistral more or less serves as a farewell to the W16. Bugatti is part of a partnership between the Volkswagen Group and Rimac. Rimac indeed, the Croatian brand that scores highly with its electric supersports like the Nevera. This means that Bugatti is also heading for an electric future, a future in which there is no room for a petrol gurgling 8.0-litre W16.
Bugatti will build 99 copies of the Mistral. Each copy costs at least €5 million. Despite that hefty price, all copies of the Bugatti Mistral have already been sold.
.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl