New Bugatti Brouillard is the first in a new line of Molsheim-made one-offs
Thought the W16 was dead? Think again. If you want it and you’ve got the cash, Bugatti will build you almost anything
There’s still life in the W16 yet, if you’re in the position to tap up Bugatti’s new Solitaire one-off programme and order yourself something like the new Brouillard, a Bugatti that makes a PTS GT3 Touring look common. A one-off named after Ettore Bugatti’s beloved horse, it can from a distance be reductively described as a Mistral coupe. Yes, a coupe version of the Bugatti that was designed to be the soft-top Chiron that never was. Look closer and you’ll see that the Brouillard has its own unique features and details that befit what is surely a high seven-figure, if not eight-figure one-off Bugatti.
For a start, we have a totally revised nose with a metallic inner horseshoe that leads into a central spine that runs up the nose. The lights and attached vents are very Mistral but we can see aero blades before and aft the front wheels that are novel to the Brouillard. The high-mounted side intake is similar if not identical to the Mistral while the wheels are totally unique.
On top the twin intakes are more prominent, almost to a Veyron-esque extent, while a glass element in the roof means the cabin maintains an airy feel. At the rear the Brouillard carries over the X-motif rear lights of the Mistral and not a lot else. There's a fixed ducktail wing in place of the Mistral’s hydraulically actuated item and the larger diffuser features Chiron Super Sport-style stacked round exhaust outlets. The lower portion of the car front to back features a subtle dark green gloss carbon finish.
Horse symbols can be seen throughout, aft the doors and embroidered on the headrests. The interior, like the Mistral, is Chiron in its basic architecture albeit customised to an enormous extent. There’s a green tartan pattern throughout the cabin, on the door cards and seats (with more equine embroidery) and on the steering wheel. The aluminium gear shifter features a glass element with a sculpture of the car’s namesake featured within.
In terms of the mechanicals? Well, we know the carbon chassis that first appeared in the Chiron and the 8-litre quad-turbo W16 that started life 20 years ago in the Veyron well enough by now. The engine is featured here in its most potent road-homologated form, with 1577bhp and 1180lb ft, as first seen in the Chiron Super Sport and latterly in the Mistral.
The 0-62mph sprint is sure to be over in the Brouillard in under 2.8sec, on to a top speed north of 250mph. Whether the car’s commissioner, like the owner of one of the Mistrals, will look to test its performance remains to be seen. That the barchetta proved to be good for over 280mph suggests this hard-top could go faster still, though we’ll likely never know.
As aforementioned, the Brouillard is only the first product of Bugatti’s Programme Solitaire, a new initiative inspired by Bugatti’s early 20th century coachbuilding roots and demonstrates the extent to which a buyer can go in terms of making their one-off Bugatti unique. ‘Each precious Solitaire will be unique and peerless, offering a level of attention to detail not found in even the most exclusive automotive creations,’ so says Bugatti’s Managing Director, Hendrik Malinowski.
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There’s no word on pricing but consider that the Mistral costs £5m (minimum) apiece for one of 99 units and that this is a one-off, with precisely zero economies of scale when it comes to its unique bodywork and other features, surely this is a high seven-figure, if not eight-figure car.
