The Bugatti Mistral Roadster Brings an End to an Era of the Powerful W16 Engine
Remember the Bugatti Veyron, a supercar with a monster W16 engine released by Bugatti in 2015? Well with Bugatti and a number of other luxury automakers making the transition to an electrified future, so comes the end of powerful gasoline engines like the W16. For those of us who love the power and roar of fossil fuel engines, Bugatti is making one last model that will have the iconic W16 engine and that model is the Mistral Roadster.
Image: Bugatti
The final Mistral Roadster will mark the end of an era of powerful engines with enormous power and performance. Of course fans of Bugatti supercars will not be too happy with the end of these engines and Bugatti aims to soothe the grief with the Mistral Roadster. The specs of the Mistral are nothing short of mind-blowing, featuring a 1,600 Horsepower iteration of the famous W16 engine, the same engine used on the Bugatti Chiron.
Image: Bugatti
Ultimately the Mistral is the latest of the Chiron lineup except for the fact that it is a permanent convertible with different styling. While not as elegant and classically beautiful as the Chiron, it nonetheless features sleek edges and chiseled curves that defines Bugatti’s excellence in design aesthetics. The aesthetics is a blend of the Bugatti Divo and the La Voiture Noire amalgamated with traditional design elements like the horseshoe grille.
Image: Bugatti
The designers left no stone unturned by taking inspiration for the Mistral’s chiseled appearance from the Bugatti’s Type 57 Roadster Grand Raid. If you are well versed in automobile history, the Type 57 was unveiled at the Salon de l’Automobile in October 1934 in Paris and became an immediate sensation of its time. Of course the primary inspiration for the Mistral comes from the Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport but its important to mention the other Bugatti models that contributed to the creation of this final masterpiece in Bugatti’s automotive history.
Image: Bugatti
Noticeable features on the exterior include X-themed tail lamps that blend seamlessly into the line of the exterior body. The X-themed lights are not just for styling but the design include ducts that vent the side oil coolers. Carbon Fiber air intakes behind the headrest of the two-seater serve as supports in the event the vehicle rolls over. Performance specifications are unknown but we can safely conclude from the Veyron’s W16 engine that it will be on par or even exceed those specifications.
Image: Bugatti
Bugatti left nothing out of designing the interior of the Mistral which features miniscule attention to detail such as an aluminum gear shifter with an insert of the Rembrandt Bugatti’s dancing elephant sculpture. Bugatti plans to manufacture only 99 units of the end-of-an-era Mistral Roadster at a price tag of USD $5 million per unit.
Image: Bugatti
