Bugatti’s Final W16 Hypercars Are Tested Hard Before Owners Get Them
The Bugatti Mistral debuted in 2022, but deliveries didn’t begin until early 2025. The model is the swansong for the brand’s quad-turbocharged, 8.0-liter W16 engine before the Tourbillion arrives with a hybrid-assisted V16. With enough road to unleash the hypercar roadster’s full potential, the Mistral can reach an astonishing 282 miles per hour.
Bugatti is only building 99 examples of the Mistral, and each one of them goes through a rigorous assessment process before delivery to its buyer. The hypercar maker is now showcasing this procedure in a series of amazing photos of the high-powered roadster. The company has three experts who conduct the full qualification procedure.
Each Mistral goes through 248.5 miles of on-road testing before it’s ready for delivery. The company uses the undulating roads in France’s Alsace region near the automaker’s headquarters in Molsheim. Along the way, the team evaluates the car’s fit and finish to make sure that the hypercar lives up to Bugatti’s rigorous quality benchmarks.
“Our evaluation protocol isn’t just about validating functionality, but a confirmation that each W16 Mistral is imbued with the pure essence of quality, precision, and craftsmanship that makes a Bugatti truly extraordinary.”
– Bugatti President Christophe Piochon
The quality assessment puts the Mistral through a variety of conditions. For example, driving over cobblestones helps check for chassis irregularities. The team also evaluates the roadster’s interior noise levels with the removable soft top on and off. There are checks regarding the exhaust’s acoustics, too. The testers also go to the Colmar airfield for high-speed evaluations of the braking and stability control at speeds as high as 186 miles per hour.
Bugatti states, “ninety percent of quality validation derives from the driver’s personal analysis through sight, sound, and touch.” The last 10% of the evaluation is electronic diagnostics, including telemetry and data logging. If there are any issues, the car goes back to Molsheim for disassembly to repair the problem. Then, there’s another round of testing to check whether the fix is successful.
Becoming a Bugatti test driver is a rigorous process. Before a new person gets the job, there’s intensive training that includes riding with the senior experts to learn precisely what the company is looking for.
The Mistral combines style and speed into a beautiful roadster. The vehicle’s 1,578-horsepower W16 engine comes from the Chiron Super Sport 300+. The company’s goal is to create the fastest open-roof production car in the world, and it achieves that ambition. Each one of them costs an eye-watering $5 million, and all of them already have buyers.
The roadster’s styling mixes elements from other Bugattis, including the Chiron, Bolide, La Voiture Noire, and Divo. The four stacked headlights act as a subtle reference to the quad turbos boosting the engine. Inside, there’s woven leather upholstery, and the gearshift features a mix of machined aluminum, wood, and an amber insert with Bugatti’s dancing elephant motif on the inside.
