1,600hp Bugatti Mistral Roadster revealed as firm’s final W16-powered road car

• New Bugatti Mistral revealed
• 1,600hp Roadster
• Last W16-powered road car
• 261mph+
• Only 99 will be made
• Will cost from £4,2M before tax

The new Mistral is the most exciting Bugatti in years. Why? It’s the first drop-top the hypercar-maker has built in a decade and it comes with the most powerful iteration of the French brand’s world-famous W16.

Handy, too, because it’ll be the last road car ever powered by this iconic engine – all future Bugatti road cars will go hybrid…

You can think of the Mistral as a compilation of Bugatti’s greatest hits from the last decade.

The front bumper and side profile take inspiration from the Divo, while the huge X-shaped tail lights could only come from the track-only Bolide.

Bugatti could have taken the carbon-fibre monocoque from a Chiron and simply cut the roof off to make the Mistral. Carbon fibre is handy like that – it’s so strong that you don’t have to add loads of bracing, like when you make a convertible out of steel or aluminium.

But that would have been too easy… Instead, Bugatti made the FAR more expensive decision to redesign whole sections of the car’s carbon-fibre monocoque, all to make sure the Mistral’s silhouette looked ‘just right’.

The Mistral’s 8.0-litre, quad turbo W16 engine makes 1,600hp and 1,600Nm of torque – just like the Chiron Super Sport 300+.

All this is sent to all four wheels through the same 7-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox and four-wheel-drive system as that car.

So what about performance? Well, Bugatti has been pretty cagey about this, too. But it has said that it wants the Mistral to be the fastest roadster ever made.

There’s a cryptic mention in the Mistral press release saying the interior was designed so ‘all information is easily visible at up to 420 km/h.’ That’s 261mph if you don’t fancy doing the maths yourself.

Trouble is, the Hennessey Venom F5 Roadster (which was revealed a single day before the Mistral) is claimed to manage more than 300mph.

But let’s put top-speed to one side for a second and talk about exclusivity. That’s Bugatti’s real USP, right?

Well, Bugatti is only going to make 99 Mistrals, but that’s actually pretty common for a Bugatti – after all, it only made 60 Pur Sports, 40 Divos, 30 Super Sport 300+, 10 Centodiecis and one Voiture Noire.

That said, Hennessey is only going to build 30 Venom F5 Roadsters, making that car three times more exclusive than the Mistral.

Despite all that, you do get one thing in the Mistral that you can’t get anywhere else… That’s the last non-hybrid, quad-turbo W16 engine that’ll ever go in a road car.

And you can’t put a price on that can you? Only kidding, of course you can. The new Bugatti Mistral costs the equivalent of £4.2 million before tax. And just like all Bugatti special editions, the entire production run is already sold out.

Looking for an easy way to change your car? Then carwow is the place to go. You can sell your old car for a great price, and get the best deals on a new one. All through our network of trusted dealers and all from the comfort of your home. Tap the button below to get started today.