The very last Bugatti Bolide

The circle is complete. Bugatti has just rolled the 40th and very last Bolide out of Molsheim, bringing an end to one of the most extreme chapters in the history of the internal combustion engine. The Bolide is not just a hypercar. It is a philosophy, a manifesto, a technical rebellion born from a single question:

“What if…?”

What if Bugatti didn't have to worry about rules, comfort, homologation or logic? The answer became the Bolide. And today, there is no number 41.

A project that began with one ambition: honour the heritage, redraw the limits

From day one, Bugatti had a crystal-clear vision: build a machine that would push both a gentleman driver and a professional racing driver to the limit, without ever losing its elegance, its Bugatti DNA, or its refinement.

It all began in August 2021. Not with a car, but with an idea. A concept so technically radical it seemed almost impossible to turn into a production car.

Emilio Scervo, Bugatti's technical director, remembers it well:

“It was nothing more than a rough sketch at that point. A blank canvas. But one with the biggest ambition we had ever had.”

The Bolide had to:

• Bring the magic of the Type 35 back to life

• Redefine the limits of W16 performance

• And at the same time deliver the refinement Bugatti customers expect

A paradox? Absolutely. But that's exactly what Bugatti is.

Thousands of hours of testing, endless days at Le Mans and a team that never slept

From 2021 to 2023, the project evolved like a military operation:

• Cyclical development rounds

• Overnight reconstructions

• Days on circuits where breaks were measured in minutes

The car was perfected in places that command respect from every driver, with Le Mans 2023 as the ultimate litmus test. There, Andy Wallace, Bugatti's official test driver, hit more than 350 km/h on the Hunaudières. And that with a car still in development.

Bugatti's perfectionism went beyond performance. Unlike race cars, the Bolide had to:

• Be finished like a work of art

• Endure for generations

• Carry the identity of Molsheim

As Bugatti president Christophe Piochon described it:

“A Bugatti is not a disposable race car. It has to excel on the circuit and still be museum-worthy decades later.”

A final Bolide that breathes heritage in colour, detail and emotion

The very last Bolide isn't just a specification. It's a story.

The owner is a loyal Bugatti collector, whose collection includes:

• A Bugatti Type 35

• A Veyron Grand Sport, the very last one built

• And now, the final Bolide, the closing chapter of a trilogy spanning almost a century of Bugatti history

The final Bolide wears colours that trace back to Bugatti's racing monsters of the 1930s:

• Black Blue & Bleu Lyonnais

• Interior in Lake Blue Alcantara

• Contrasting “Light Blue Sport” stitching

• The French flag subtly integrated along the flank

This is the Bolide as Ettore Bugatti would have envisioned it: brutal, aesthetically refined, and emotionally charged.

W16: the penultimate chapter closes, the Mistral marks the final farewell

Although the Bolide is now complete, this doesn't mark the absolute end of the W16.

• The Bugatti Mistral, limited to 99 units, is officially the very last Bugatti with a W16 engine

• Deliveries are still ongoing

• After that, the engine that dominated for two decades comes to a stop

But Bugatti has a surprise: Programme Solitaire

A new coachbuild programme in which Bugatti builds one-off creations on existing powertrains and chassis.

Think: the Veyron and Chiron getting a “Zonda-like” second life. The W16 doesn't die. It transforms.

The future: an all-new V16 hybrid for the Tourbillon

The successor to the Chiron is called Tourbillon, and its heart is revolutionary:

• A new V16 block developed by Cosworth

• No more turbos

• 8.4 litres, naturally aspirated

• Combined with an advanced hybrid platform

Bugatti is changing. But the ambition? That stays.