Bugatti will move from Volkswagen to the warehouse of the Croatian hyper sports car manufacturer Rimac in the next few months and will go electric. Until the first electric sports car is built with the help of Porsche, Bugatti fans can look forward to a final highlight for the racetrack – the bolide.
“Last year we sparked great enthusiasm with the Bolide. After the presentation, many enthusiasts and collectors asked us to develop a production vehicle for the Bolide experimental vehicle. I was overwhelmed by the reactions and feedback from customers all over the world,” explains Stephan Winkelmann. President of Bugatti, “That’s why we decided to run a small series of the bolide to give 40 customers the chance to experience this incredible vehicle. Our team is now developing a series model, the ultimate driving machine for the track.” This is the final stage of expansion of the spectacular 16-cylinder engine with eight liters of displacement and turbocharging. The bolide will be a much more extreme hyper athlete than the previous versions of Veyron and Chiron.
The Bugatti Bolide is not intended as a hyper sports car for the road, but solely for the racetrack. The small series of 40 vehicles was officially presented and now confirmed at the noble event “The Quail”, the unofficial highlight of the Monterey Autoweek. Visually, the Bugatti Bolide is more reminiscent of a Le Mans touring car with elements of a Formula 1 vehicle and thus plunges into the racing history of the French car manufacturer, which is now also saying goodbye to the Volkswagen brand conglomerate. “For me it is a dream come true that we can now turn this radical thought experiment of the bolide into reality as a series, because it is by far the most challenging performance project of my 17-year Bugatti career,” explains Achim Anscheidt, Bugatti’s chief designer. In addition to the martial face, the design of the flat Bugatti bolide is dominated by the open rear and a massive wing. The rear wing in combination with the diffuser ensures high downforce and correspondingly optimal traction.
The Bugatti Bolide is powered by the most spectacular combustion engine there is in the world. The eight-liter W16 cylinder with 1,600 hp and 1,600 Nm maximum torque from 2,250 rpm, which also drives the Chiron models, is given an impressive performance boost to 1,850 hp thanks to 110-octane racing fuel. With a weight of 1,450 kilograms, the Frenchman has a power-to-weight ratio of less than one kilogram per horsepower. The engineers tuned the drive to higher engine speeds for circuit use, dethrottling the intake and exhaust system, among other things, in order to achieve an even faster, more spontaneous and extreme response. The cooling system for the turbocharger, engine, transmission and differential are also adapted for optimum performance. The safety equipment includes, among other things, HANS system compatibility, an automatic fire extinguishing system, pressure refueling with a fuel bladder, central locking for wheels and a six-point belt system. The new hyper sports car will be developed to series production maturity over the next three years; the first deliveries are planned for 2024, at a net price of four million euros each. Then it will be electric at Bugatti, then under the Rimac roof.
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