We have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that Bugatti has unveiled its latest creation, the jaw-dropping Mistral. The bad news is that it will be the swansong of its legendary W16 engine, before the company moves towards a hybridised and electric future. As expected, only 99 models of the hyper-car will be available, each retailing for £4.2 million, all of which have already been sold out.

Diving straight into what it’s packing under the hood, the Mistral is powered by the 8.0-litre, quad-turbo W16 engine, churning out a mammoth 1,600PS of power. This is the same engine which was powering the Chiron Super Sport 300+ which crossed 490kmph back in 2019. Bugatti claims that the Mistral will follow the same legacy of being the fastest roadster in production.

Helping it do that is an extensive amount of carbon fibre sprinkled across its body work and a lot of aerdoyanmic trickery. This can be seen in the car’s design, with cuts and creases all over its bodywork. There are also two huge air dams at the front, which “connects you to the car and the W16 engine like no other Bugatti ever has,” according to Mate Rimac, Bugatti Rimac chairman.

Four vertically stacked LED headlights flank the horseshoe grille, which appears to be more wider than its other models. Additionally, it also gets a wrap-around windscreen which seemingly blends into the door window.

Being a roadster, folks at Bugatti had to think of clever workarounds to manage the air flow, which is now guided through the vents between the LED headlamps, directly exiting through the side. While speaking about the challenges involved, deputy design director Frank Heyl said, “Aerodynamics play a big role here too. The lack of a roof required complex designs to keep the car planted, as well as where the air will flow.”

On the inside, the interiors are kept similar to that of the Chiron. The exception here being a special gear shifter, with a specially sculpted elephant on it. Of course, this can be customised according to the customer’s liking.

Bugatti will offer you the roof along with the car, but it says that it won’t be usable while driving and is only meant to keep occupants dry while being stationary. That being said, with Bugatti discontinuing the W16 motor and Lamborghini bidding the last hurrah to its V12 motor with the Ultimae, we truly are in the twilight years of these manic internal combustion engines.