Watch The Barely-Legal Bugatti Bolide Put Through Its Paces
With ferocious looks and a soundtrack to match, the Bugatti Bolide undergoes high-intensity airbase testing prior to delivery.
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Soon, 40 new owners will be able to truthfully utter the lyrics “I woke up in a new Bugatti.” With a $6.5 million price tag, the production race track-only Bugatti Bolide very closely resembles the concept unveiled in 2020; which saw Bugatti designers respond to then-Bugatti CEO Stephan Winkelmann’s challenge of “imagining a car without restraints.”
The—frankly bonkers—exposed carbon-fibre hypercar is fitted with a 8.0-litre quad-turbocharged W16 engine and produces a claimed 1177 kW with 1600 Nm of twist.
The engine has been tuned to rev higher than in street legal Bugattis, and is mated to an upgraded version of the 7-speed dual-clutch automatic found in the marque’s production road cars. And, as it’s solely designed for track use, all four turbochargers are always in operation.
Minor deviations from the concept car include a more pronounced roof scoop, fewer fins behind the front wheel arches, the addition of side mirrors (helpful!) and a revised rear wing. According to Bugatti, the decision to opt for actual side mirrors—rather than a more aerodynamically efficient camera system—is because mirrors allow drivers to estimate distances from other cars more quickly.
Upon release of the concept in 2020, the French marque claimed a ‘theoretical’ lap time around the Nürburgring Nordschleife race track (based on simulators) of five minutes and 23.1 seconds.
Now, the French marque has released footage of a production prototype Bolide undergoing testing on an open airfield, prior to its 40 new owners receiving deliveries early 2024.
Priced at $6.5 million, the Bugatti Bolide is limited to just 40 examples, all of which have already been accounted for.
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