Bugatti blasts into the record books once again with its Mistral clocking in at 453.91 km/h.
When Bugatti first unveiled the W16 Mistral back in 2021, it had initially said this roof-less swan-song to its W16 era would be capable of 420 km/h. But apparently the people at Molshiem may have got their calculations wrong for that, as this Chiron-based roadster actually recently reached a top speed of 453.91 km/h (282 mph), which incidentally puts it into the record books as the fastest open-top car in the world!
Taking its name from a powerful wind that blows from the Rhône River valley through to the Mediterranean, the W16 Mistral has since dethroned Hennessey’s Venom GT Spyder for this speed title. The American roadster previously managed to crack 427.4 km/h (265.6 mph) back in 2016.
Piloting the W16 Mistral into the record books was Andy Wallace, Bugatti Pilote Officiel and Le Mans winner, with this V-Max run taking place at the Papenburg test track in Germany on the 9th of November 2024.
Now in the interest of transparency here, the record-setting car is technically no ordinary (if there is such a thing) 1 of 99 Mistral. Instead, it is a 1 of 1 World Record Car that apparently costs a whopping €14,000,000 (RM 66.3 million).
This World Record Car distinguished by a custom livery, consisting of Jet Orange graphics on the lower body and matching wheels that contrasts with the black carbon exterior. This orange and black colour scheme is to be continued within this rather special Mistral.
Bar the contrasting colour scheme however, Bugatti has neglected to mention that it had performed any upgrades on the Mistral’s chassis, or its 1,600 PS quad-turbo 8.0-liter W16 powertrain. So one can only imagine that the extra near tripling of this hypercar’s starting price were to foot the bill the “months of intricate preparation” and planning “to explore the car’s immense capabilities” for this world record run.
Interestingly, Bugatti has since divulged who owns this unique W16 Mistral. Though this reveal might be partly so that the automaker can brag about how this record-breaking car is going into the full collection of World Record Cars — including a Veyron 16.4 Super Sport, Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse and Chiron Super Sport 300+ in matching colours(!) — as part of “The Singh Collection” in Punjab, India.
Incidentally, the lucky curator of this collection was the one who commissioned Bugatti to go for the record with his car, and actually present on location when this world record run was set. Following the successful record attempt, they were treated to another full-throttle blast out on track alongside Andy Wallace, for what is likely be the fastest passenger rides ever.
Another interesting tid bit regarding this run is actually where it is set, as Bugatti has historically tended to do their top-speed attempts at Volkswagen Group’s Ehra-Lessien private test track. Due to Rimac being the new majority stakeholder of this new (and despite Porsche being its minority shareholders), the German auto giant basically said nein and hence the switch to Papenburg.
Oh, one more thing worth noting is that while the 453.91 km/h achieved by the Mistral is a new record for an open-top car, the Chiron coupe, in its Super Sport 300+ guise at least, on which it is based upon managed 490.48 km/h (36.57 km/h more for those wondering) back in 2019.
Now, any bets on how fast the newly-unveiled Tourbillon would actually go?
