1825 HP Bolide Is Bugatti's Most Fearsome Monster Ever

Bugatti has finally announced that the bizarre Bolide track vehicle will be produced, over a year after it was first revealed in digital form as an experimental idea.

Following "a tremendous lot of interest and intrigue" for the idea during its debut, just 40 prototypes of the skeleton track vehicle will be produced over the next three years, each costing €4 million. Owners will first be allowed to taste the car's performance at specific track events, so they can become acquainted with its breathtaking performance over time.

Defined as the brand's "most severe, uncompromising, fastest and lightest concept for a vehicle," the Bolide weights only 1450 kg and uses the 8.0-liter, 4-W16 engine from Bugatti, power all 4 wheels and pumped up well beyond 1578 bhp and with a peak of 1825 bhp, the Chiron Super Sport 300+ uses 110-octane racing fuel.

"We're showcasing what the W16 engine is able of for the first time," stated Stefan Winklemann, CEO of Bugatti.
The exhaust system, four newly-built turbochargers, and a revised dry-sump lubrication system are used for this, with Bugatti asserting a decrease in weight.

Air-to-air intercooling is also available in pre-cooling water, to maintain temperatures while the brakes are retained by the compressors of carbon titanium radial "turbofan." The same effort has been made to keep the weight of the curb down to 1450 kg.

In addition to employing a "minimum body for maximum downforce," the Bolide is also fitted with a superlight, ultra-strong monocoque carbon fiber. In front and underneath, carbon fiber is also utilized. According to Bugatti, the tensile strength of carbon fibers is only equaled with that of aircraft.

All screws and attachment parts are also titanium, and for many components, hollow titanium alloy extremely thin aerospace-grade from 3D printers is utilized. Ceramic brakes have calipers that weigh only 2.4 kg apiece, while the front and rear center-lock forged aluminum wheels weigh 7.4 kg and 8.4 kg, respectively. These are fitted with wide tires - up to 340 mm in the front and 400 mm in the back - and there's even a compressed-air-driven jack with four rams to make tire changing easier.

Titanium pushrods with horizontal dampers provide suspension. The pushrods alone are just 100 g. Control arms made of welded stainless steel are also used as wing features. Unsurprisingly, radical bodywork is designed with aerodynamics in mind. At about 200 mph, Bugatti claims 1800 kg of downforce on the rear wing and 800 kg on the front wing.

A "global innovation" in the roof-mounted inlet scoop is said to give active aerodynamics: the surface of the scoop is smooth at low speeds, but bubbles burst out at higher speeds to minimize drag and downforce.

“I've never worked on a more radical idea in my 16 years at Bugatti,” says design chief Achim Anscheidt, who also acknowledges the project was “more technically driven than molded by style.”

In terms of performance, Bugatti promises a theoretical top speed of "far beyond" 311mph while maintaining handling. More impressively, it says the Bolide can complete a circuit of Le Mans in 3:07.1 min and a loop of the Nürburgring Nordschleife in 5:23.1 min.