Bugatti is saying goodbye to the W16 Mistral — the brand’s last model powered by the legendary 8.0-liter W16 with four turbochargers. The final examples are quietly leaving the Molsheim plant, and with them goes an entire era that began with the Veyron and continued through the Chiron. Twenty years of sixteen-cylinder fury — gone.
The Mistral was shown in the summer of 2022, and on paper it’s easy to call it an open-top Chiron. In reality, it’s far more than a coupe with the roof chopped off. Engineers had to redesign the carbon monocoque from scratch, add stiffness, reshape the silhouette and pull in ultra-strong composites — all so the open body wouldn’t turn into a heavy compromise.
The whole point of the Mistral is, of course, the engine. The W16 puts out 1,600 hp and 1,600 Nm. Official top speed is 420 km/h, 0–100 km/h takes 2.4 seconds, 0–200 km/h — 5.6 seconds, 0–300 km/h — 12.1 seconds. The 400 km/h mark falls in roughly 29 seconds. On paper alone — already science fiction. But the real story came next.
In late 2024, Andy Wallace, Le Mans winner and Bugatti’s official pilot, pushed the W16 Mistral to 453.91 km/h on the Papenburg track. The roadster became the fastest series production convertible in the world, beating its own official top speed by 34 km/h. Bugatti built exactly 99 cars — and every one was sold long before production even started.
On the secondary market these cars do surface from time to time, but prices climb well past 10 million dollars. For collectors this is no longer just a rare open-top hypercar. This is the last series Bugatti with that W16. The brand’s next chapter is something else entirely.
The new Tourbillon moves to an 8.3-liter naturally aspirated V16 developed by Cosworth, paired with three electric motors. The combined output is 1,800 hp, but the philosophy has shifted: instead of pure turbo-mechanical muscle — hybrid architecture and a new technical cycle. The four-turbo era is over.
The W16 Mistral leaves without a loud ceremony. And honestly, it doesn’t need one. Sometimes sixteen cylinders, an open sky and a speed at which the air itself writes the final line are more than enough.
