The Bugatti Mistral is the Bugatti that answered a simple question — how much car can this badge carry? — with 1600 PS from 8.0 L quad-turbocharged W16. It was built from 2024 to 2025, in the decade the industry is turning electric. The shape is credited to Frank Heyl / Achim Anscheidt (Head of Design) / Florian Westermann.
How it came about
The Bugatti Mistral, also called the Bugatti W16 Mistral, is a mid-engine two-seater sports car manufactured in Molsheim, France, by French automobile manufacturer Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S. It was revealed on 19 August 2022. The Mistral is the fastest roadster in the world with a top speed achievement of 453.91 km/h (282 mph) in November 2024.
Deliveries to customers began in early 2024. All 99 units were pre-sold at a price of €5 million. The Mistral is not a cabriolet version of the Chiron but rather a separate roadster model for Bugatti that marks the last vehicle to use the W16 engine that was introduced with the Bugatti Veyron in 2005.
The hardware
The engine is 8.0 L quad-turbocharged W16; the output is 1600 PS. On the scales it comes to 1977 kg. That is roughly 809 horsepower per tonne: hypercar territory, where the limiting factor is the tyre, not the engine. Drive goes through 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 2711 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
In the Bugatti line-up the Bugatti Mistral has a clear place: the factory was Molsheim (Bugatti Molsheim Plant), France. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Jaguar Type 00, the Volvo EX90, the Lotus Evija. Its Bugatti stablemates include the Bugatti 57 Galibier and the Bugatti 8-cylinder line.