The Bugatti Bolide is the Bugatti that answered a simple question — how much car can this badge carry? — with 1362 kW from 7993 cc quad-turbocharged W16. It was built from 2024 to 2025, in the decade the industry is turning electric. Its designer of record is Nils Sajonz, Florian Westermann, Artur Hindalong, Jan Schmid, Max Lask.
How it came about
The Bugatti Bolide is a track-only sports car developed by Bugatti Engineering GmbH in Wolfsburg, Germany, and Bugatti Automobiles and manufactured in Molsheim, by French automobile manufacturer Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S.. It was revealed online on 28 October 2020. According to Bugatti, the concept version of the Bolide is using the W16 engine with a weight-to-power-ratio of 0.91 kg/kW (0.67 kg/PS; 1.50 lb/hp). Bugatti announced the Bolide would be the last car ever made with their 8.0 liter W16 engine with four turbochargers.
The Bolide's name comes from the ancient Greek word βολίς, which literally means "spear" then used in old French as le bolide to describe "the meteorite blazing across the sky", in reference to its speed. In April 2023, Bugatti revealed the production version of the Bolide as a track-only sports car. 40 units are to be built and the first vehicles were delivered to customers at the beginning of 2024. The Bugatti Bolide made its Southern Hemisphere debut in February 2025 as part of the Adelaide Motorsport Festival, taking place in the Australian city of Adelaide.
The hardware
Under the skin sits 7993 cc quad-turbocharged W16; it is rated at 1362 kW. Kerb weight is 1240 kg. Power-to-weight lands near 1098 horsepower per tonne, which is hypercar territory, where the limiting factor is the tyre, not the engine. The gearbox is a 7-speed dual-clutch automatic. The layout matters: the engine sits behind the driver and ahead of the rear axle, which puts the mass in the middle of the car and is why mid-engined cars change direction the way they do. The wheelbase is 2750 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
Where it sits in Bugatti's history is not in doubt: the Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo (Spiritual) came before it; it was built at Molsheim (Bugatti Molsheim Plant), France. On a showroom list of its day it stood against the Lotus 66, the Volvo EX90, the Jaguar Type 00. Its Bugatti stablemates include the Bugatti 57 Galibier and the Bugatti 8-cylinder line.