Last Ever Bugatti Mistral Brings the W16 Era to an End

Ever since its noughties revival under the Volkswagen Group, Bugatti has been synonymous with two things: massive speed, and the almighty 8.0-litre, quad-turbocharged W16 engine that made that speed possible. Until the reveal of the Tourbillon a couple of years ago, every modern-day Bugatti has used the engine, but now, the age of the W16 is ending as the 99th and final Mistral roadster has been produced at Bugatti’s plant in Molsheim, France.

Volkswagen first started experimenting with big capacity W-configuration engines in the 1990s, right as it was also on a luxury brand shopping spree, and the 8.0-litre W16 that would eventually become Bugatti’s signature powerplant first appeared in 1999, in naturally aspirated form, in the Bentley Hunaudières concept.

A year later, it reappeared in the rather visually challenging Audi Rosemeyer concept, but it wouldn’t be until 2005, with the era-defining Bugatti Veyron 16.4, that we finally saw it in a production car, having gained four turbochargers to help push 987bhp and get the Veyron to its landmark 253mph top speed.

The engine would grow in power over the years, first to 1,183bhp in the Veyron Super Sport, then to 1,479bhp in the Chiron, and finally to 1,578bhp in the Chiron Super Sport as well as a number of limited-run models including the EB110-inspired Centodieci, the track-only Bolide, and the Mistral, the car in which it makes its final appearance.

The final Mistral, and the final W16 Bugatti, is finished in a two-tone scheme in shades known as ‘Pearl’ and ‘Sparkle’, and bears the inscription ‘The last of its kind’ in several places on both the exterior and interior.

While it’s an undeniably sad day for fans of big engines, it’s obviously not the end of the road for 16-cylinder Bugattis: the company’s next core model, the Tourbillon, makes the somewhat improbable-feeling move to an 8.4-litre V16, co-developed by Cosworth. It eschews turbocharging, and instead works with a trio of electric motors to develop its combined peak of 1,775bhp.

What’s more, while this Mistral is the last all-new Bugatti that’ll be built with a W16, it might not be the last ‘new’ Bugatti we see with the engine. That’s because the company’s new Solitaire one-off programme, which debuted last year with the Brouillard and continued earlier this year with the Veyron-aping F.K.P. Hommage, uses pre-existing Bugatti chassis and engines as the basis for its cars, so it’s likely plenty more existing W16 cars will be turned into bespoke models like those.