Michael Satterfield
TGR Staff
Bugatti has pulled the wraps off their most extreme car to date, the track only Bolide. An experimental design and technology study the Bolide isn’t just a concept car or digital mockup, this is a real, drivable concept vehicle, developed in just under one year using new materials and manufacturing methods.
With the Bolide we have dared to pursue an experiment of extremes. In our history that dates more than 110-years, there has never been a comparable model based on such a minimalist concept conceived solely around the engine, an output of up to 1,850 PS2 is combined with a weight of just 1,240 kilograms3 – giving an unprecedented weight-to-power ratio of only 0.67 kilograms per PS. Driving the Bolide is like riding on a cannonball.
Stephan Winkelmann, President of Bugatti.
The Bolide is a radically light vehicle, built around a 1,825hp 8.0-liter W16 engine that makes 1364 pound-feet of torque. To handle all that power the chassis is made of ultra-light, high-strength carbon fiber, metal components are made of aerospace-grade titanium, many of them hollow to save even more weight. Therorectly the Bolide will be capable of speeds over 310 mph and would take just 3:07.1 minutes to complete a lap of Le Mans and 5:23.1 minutes4 to get around the Nürburgring Nordschleife.
