1931 - Bugatti Royale on 2040-cars

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1,600-hp Bugatti Mistral roadster marks the end of the line for the W16 engine

Bugatti's mighty W16 engine will retire in the coming years, but it's not sailing off into the sunset quietly. It will power one final street-legal car: a roadster named Mistral that stands proud as the first convertible of the Chiron era. Built due to customer demand, the Bugatti Mistral is a striking, limited-edition model that looks ready to add another speed record to the French firm's trophy case. I sat down with some of the people who created it, including Bugatti design director Achim Anscheidt and head of design Frank Heyl, to get the droptop's full story. "For the final road-going 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," said Bugatti-Rimac CEO Mate Rimac. Heyl added that customers "begged" Bugatti to create a Chiron-derived convertible, and that granting them this wish was a "bucket-list" item for the members of his team. Power for the Mistral comes from the same 8.0-liter, quad-turbocharged 16-cylinder engine that propelled the Chiron Super Sport 300+ to a record-breaking 304.773 mph in 2019. It's rated at 1,600 horsepower, and it spins the four wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. Bugatti estimates that the Mistral's top speed will check in at approximately 261 mph (420 kph). Will this number get verified? Hell, yes! "There can only be one goal in mind: to become the fastest roadster in the world once more," Bugatti pledged in a statement. While the Mistral is Chiron-based, Bugatti made several important structural changes to offset the inevitable loss of structural rigidity caused by chopping off the roof. Heyl explained that the monocoque's sills and transmission tunnel were reinforced and that the a- and b-pillar structures are new, though the front crash structure is the same. And, the two models intentionally share no exterior styling cues. "We had the pressure of creating something that is precious and valuable in a car collector's garage. It's not just a fashion statement: 'Oh, let's do a roadster!' Or, even worse, 'Let's take a Chiron and just cut it open,' which would have looked terrible. This burdens us with the responsibility that this is the last of its kind of that generation and how that's going to sit in those collections," Anscheidt told Autoblog.

Rimac says Bugatti's next model will be 'heavily electrified'

Croatia-based Rimac purchased a controlling stake in Bugatti in July 2021. While some worried that the tie-up would lead to badge-engineering, the company has confirmed that the Chiron's successor will not be merely an existing EV dressed in a swanky French suit. "The easiest thing for us would be to take the Nevera, slam a Bugatti logo on it, and call it a day, but I was against it. I'm an electric car guy, but a Bugatti should still have a combustion engine for some time," company founder Mate Rimac explained to Automotive News Europe. Badge-engineering is off the table, then; Bugatti fans can breathe a sigh of relief. Rimac added that future Bugatti models will be developed from scratch and in-house, and that his team will go to significant lengths to keep development costs in check in order to boost profitability. But while a Bugatti EV isn't around the corner, it doesn't sound like the model that takes the torch from the Chiron will keep the W16 alive. "[The car] will be heavily electrified, but we'll have a very attractive combustion engine. When people see the next-generation Bugatti, I think they will be surprised that I was pushing for something like that because people associate me with electric cars. But, I have always been a performance guy and a car freak. Considering the brand and the customers and the technology available, I think that we are developing the best possible solution for Bugatti, which is not an electric car today. It will be one day, but not today," Rimac continued. While he stopped short of providing technical details, "heavily electrified" and "a very attractive combustion engine" are statements that confirm the Chiron's successor will land with a hybrid powertrain. And, as of writing, there's no word yet on what the car will look like, both visually and mechanically. It could again take the form of a coupe with a mid-mounted engine, or it could adopt a different layout. We don't know when Bugatti will unveil its next car, though it doesn't sound like the company is in a rush: Its order book is full until 2025, according to Rimac. The final Chiron build slots have been spoken for, and the track-focused Bolide is sold-out as well. After a record-breaking 2021, Bugatti plans to build and deliver 80 cars in 2022, including the first examples of the EB110-inspired Centodieci. Meanwhile, the Croatian firm has launched production of the Nevera, its second model, after several delays linked to the ongoing chip shortage.

Bugatti Chiron roadster could be in the works

Regular reversals make it hard to tell what Bugatti will do next. In 2018, the Molsheim, France-based carmaker said it wouldn't go after the 300-mph mark, screaming from the mountaintop that would be "missing a big part of what the [Chiron] is all about." Not even a year later, a modestly reformed Chiron reached 304.773 mph at Volkswagen's Ehra-Lessien test track, the feat spun into the $5.19M Chiron Super Sport 300+ and, more recently, the $580,000 Jacob Twin Turbo Furious 300+ wristwatch. In 2019, Bugatti said "There will be no SUV." Eight months later, Bugatti revealed it had already designed a crossover, and that "some potential customers have seen it, and they liked it." If The Supercar Blog is correct, we could have another take-back on our hands. In 2016, Bugatti pronounced the Chiron would get "no roadster or convertible" version. Since then, the closest accommodation the Chiron makes to open-air motoring is the fixed Sky View roof panels. But TSB sources told the outlet "Bugatti does intend to build" a Chiron roadster. It's not clear if this would be a one-off like the La Voiture Noire or a limited run like the Divo or Centodieci, but TSB states Bugatti is "reportedly gauging interest in a one-of-a-kind open-top variant." A one-off roofless screamer is one of Bugatti CEO Stephan Winkelmann's go-to maneuvers, though. When Winkelmann ran Lamborghini, he commissioned designers to work up the Aventador J roadster for the 2012 Geneva Motor Show, later selling the car's birth as a customer commission. The following year, he presided over the creation of the single-seater, targa-top Egoista for the brand's 50th anniversary. Bugatti has a much deeper roadster tradition than Lamborghini, offering plenty of material to pull from that designers have so far barely mined. With a rumored price of ˆ9 million ($10.1M U.S.), Bugatti's roofless hypercar wouldn't be a 'mere' targa-ficiation of the Chiron mimicking the Veyron Grand Sport. The asking price is a nice condominium beyond the ˆ8 million ($8.9M U.S.) sought for the Centodieci, the EB110 homage limited to ten units, and a good deal less than the $18.7M sum needed for the La Voiture Noire.   If there's any truth to this, guesswork says Bugatti's either doing up a roofless roadster in the vein of the Bentley Bacalar or a speedster in the Ferrari SP1 mold. More detail than that will need to wait until another source pipes up, or Bugatti decides to drop hints.