Bugatti Chiron W16 Mistral has become the world’s fastest convertible car ever. Testing of the car particularly the Bugatti W16 Mistral model was carried out at Papenburg test track in Germany and hit a top speed of 453.91km/h.
This translates into an astounding 282 mph making the W16 Mistral one of the fastest road legal cars ever made. To give some perspective, the Chiron’s closed roof version– Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+ achieved a top speed of 491,33 km/h back in 2019.
An Unique Version Of Roadster
It is a brilliant milestone for the car manufacturer as it beats all the other cars to become the holder of the world’s fastest open-top car, a title Bugatti lost to Hennessey eight years ago.
The Hennessey Venom GT Spyder built in Texas, USA broke Koenigsegg’s 254 mph record and reached 265.6 mph in 2016. Specially conceived to take ranking high speed, the W16 Mistral is one-off Bugatti that commissioned by its owner as a work of art.
The subsequently developed Mistral World Record Edition is a genuine wonder with the price tag of approx 1 crore (£11.7 million). Its (perhaps understandably nervous) owner was not only there to see the first high-speed run in history.
With The Most Reliable Hands
The W16 Mistral was piloted by Andy Wallace, and he is a renown driver and winner in the 24 Hours of Le Mans; ofcourse the best driver for such a very risky top speed attempt.
The Mistral made its debut in 2022 and like other versions it came with Bugatti’s quad-turbocharged W16 8.0-litre engine. In this configuration, it can develop an output of 1,600 horsepower.
Former Top Gear presenter Andy Wallace was behind the wheel of the Mistral during the record-breaking attempt, driving the Papenburg test track with its steep banking at a speed higher than 120 mph before opening the car up on the straights to achieve its top speed. Surprisingly, he said, “the car felt very stable in the course of the testing program that led to this moment and it felt as if it was eager to go even faster.”
An Extraordinary Collection
Subsequent to the recognised record breaking speed run by Andy Wallace and independently certified by SGS-TÜV Saar GmbH, the owner of this W16 Mistral was given a passenger run that captured the car’s performance near its maximum speed of 282 mph.
The Mistral World Record Edition now becomes a part of a unique set of Bugatti models in personal use; together with the Veyron Super Sport, the Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse, and Chiron Super Sport 300+.
Notably, this special edition also marks the end of the era of Bugatti’s W16 engine– a proud legend. The car that is to succeed it, the Bugatti Tourbillon, will offer an all new 8.3 litre naturally aspirated W16 drivetrain, reinforced by hybrid systems.
