This Is The Last Ever Bugatti Bolide

That a car like the Bugatti Bolide ever existed in any form other than as a static concept is pretty remarkable. But the story has come to an end for the Molsheim brand’s most extreme model yet, a track-only toy for the wealthy produced in just 40 units.

The baby blue car you see before you is that 40th and final car, and that spec hasn’t just been pulled out of thin air. You see, the sort of person that can afford a Bolide probably already owns several Bugattis, and the owner of this car, a longstanding Bug customer, owns a Type 35 – the company’s enormously successful 1920s Grand Prix racer – in a similar colour scheme. They also happen to own the last ever Veyron Grand Sport, and that too is in a similar spec.

The Bolide first appeared in late 2020 as a concept car boasting some highly impressive numbers – 1825bhp moving around just 1240kg. When the production version eventually arrived a couple of years later, that power figure had been reduced to 1578bhp, but that’s still the most powerful iteration of the almighty 8.0-litre quad-turbo W16 that first appeared on the original Veyron over 20 years ago.

When the concept was unveiled, Bugatti said it had run simulations that showed the Bolide could lap the 8.5-mile Le Mans circuit in 3:07 and the 12.9-mile Nürburgring Nordschleife in 5:23. We never got to see either of these claims officially put to the test, but in 2023, the car did run a demo lap around Le Mans – a ‘demo’ that still saw Bugatti test pilot Andy Wallace wring 217mph out of the Bolide.

It’s unquestionably the most hardcore performance-focused machine the company has ever built, and likely will be for some time. It’s also a bit of an end of an era for the W16, as it’s the last regular production model to be powered by the engine, or as close to ‘regular production’ as a Bugatti can get. As this year’s Brouillard shows, though, there’s still potential for one-offs powered by the mighty old engine rather than the nat-asp V16 found in the new Tourbillon.

Farewell, then, to the Bolide – even if we’ll probably never get to see one, let alone drive one, we’re glad such an unbridled exercise in pure engineering got to see the light of day.