The W16 engine has been the heart of every single Bugatti, ever since 2005, the year the Veyron was introduced. 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 best of its kind. The Ultimate Car: the W16 Mistral.

For a car that is important and evocative, great consideration went into how it should be displayed. The roadster needed to have a name that was associated with freedom, elegance and speed. The inspiration came from the mistral, a powerful wind that blows from the Rhone River valley, through the chic towns of the Cote d’Azur in southern France, and into the Mediterranean. The engine is so important to the character of this car that it stands side-by-side with the wind; W16 Mistral.

Mate Rimac, Bugatti Rimac CEO, said: “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 Chiron1 era there had, to-date, been no roadster, so the introduction of W16 Mistral2 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.”

The W16 Mistral is powered by the 1600 PS version of the W16 engine, which was first used in the Super Sport 3003. The existing monocoque is not cut off above the A-pillars to make room for a new open-top design, but has been reinvented and reshaped to create a more rounded silhouette without compromising performance.

The 1934 Bugatti type 57 grand raid is the epitome of elegant design and is their muse. The grand raid on display at the Louwman Museum in Den Haag is an example of sophisticated sophistication with an understated sportiness, and is marked out by its dual aerodynamic headrests, flowing backwards into the bodywork, and a cut-down V-shaped windscreen. It would provide the perfect inspiration for the moment when the story began in the early 20th century.

The W16 Mistral is a warm black that has a hint of brown and a yellow accent. It is a homage to the coachbuilt body and also a homage to Ettore Bugatti, who chose the black and yellow combination for many of his personal cars. It’s a good visual match for lovers of the brand.

Achim Anscheidt, Bugatti Design Director, said: “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.”

The W16 Mistral captures the beauty of the Grand Raids V-shaped windscreen and makes it into a modern-day work of art. The W16 Mistral has a curving windscreen that blends into the side windows and hints at the performance levels of the car. The rounded visor design is created with a curved windscreen to avoid distortion of the driver’s vision.

The top line of the windows flows around the side air intakes. The character line goes back under the side glass to the front horseshoe grill, creating the new three-dimensional character for the famous Bugatti C-line. To keep the body side section trim and keep optimum air flow to the W16, the oil cooler intakes were separated from the engine air intakes on the roof. The first open top of the modern era was the Bugatti Veyron 16 and the two new roof-mounted engine air scoops are a nod to the type 57 Grand Raid. There are 4 Grand Sport. W16 Mistral is much more powerful and appears to leap forwards.

Anscheidt continues: “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 Divo4 and La Voiture Noire5. 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 Bolide’s6 X-theme taillight motif, which forever left its mark on the world of automotive design.”

Frank Heyl, Bugatti Deputy Design Director, said: “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.”

The design highlights don’t stop there. The new ram air scoops behind the headrests are carbon fibre and made from a material that can support the entire weight of the car in case of a roll-over. The new intake layout gives an enhanced W16 experience, emphasising the noise of the intake and the blow-off valve whistle from the four engines at a time when the driver wants to keep their foot on the pedal. It is one of the most popular aural sensations in the automotive world.

The Mistral features the very latest engineering innovations which are intended to develop incomparable levels of elegance and excitement. There is a striking design with cutting-edge titanium and aluminium 3D-printing thanks to the advanced materials that have been developed by Bugatti. Engineers could use a detailed analysis of the W16 Mistral’s dynamic stiffness to design lightweight solutions that could be used in the most extreme conditions.

The interior is designed to give an elegant and luxurious experience but also functional to make sure that information is easily visible at a maximum speed of over 400 km/h. The craftsmanship of the parts of the design is one of the hallmarks; lightweight titanium and aluminium components made from a solid block and soft, blemish-free leathers. There are also new design features in the swansong to the W16.

The leather used on the newly designed door panels is carefully tested and produced to the highest quality standards with a vision of regular use over a century into the future. The gear shift is made from a solid block of aluminium and features a touch of wood and an amber insert with Rembrandt’s famous dancing elephant sculpture locked within. The bonnet of the legendary Type 41 Royale was adorned with iterations of this sculpture.

Underneath the gargantuan side opening hood of the Royale was an ambitious 12.7-litre straight-eight engine, the likes of which the world had never seen before. And the W16 Mistral’s engine is equally ambitious – the only W16 powertrain in automotive use today.

Mate Rimac, Bugatti Rimac CEO, said: “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 litres 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.

“What we also continue with W16 Mistral is a legacy of Bugatti roadsters, each of them incomparable in design, performance and rarity, which stretches right back to the genesis of Bugatti. The Type 40, Type 41 Royale, Type 55 Roadster, Type 57 Roadster Grand Raid that inspired this car, or even the incredible elegance of the Type 57SC Corsica Roadster – Bugatti has always been associated with the purity of open top driving. So even though the legacy of the roadgoing W16 ends with the W16 Mistral, we continue the legacy of the roadster, first established by Ettore Bugatti more than a century ago.”

Only 99 examples of the W16 Mistral will be built, priced at 5 million euros net, with deliveries due to begin in 2024. The entire production run of W16 Mistral is already sold out.