Bugatti Bolide Concept Is A 1850 PS Featherweight Track Monster

The French hypercar manufacturer is back to making racing cars

Bugatti has just revealed the Bolide, a track-only hypercar concept that is the most extreme, fastest and lightest vehicle in the company’s recent history.

We all know how Bugattis are – posh, extremely powerful, a symbol that one has come up extremely well in life and hated by every socialist/communist on earth.

But before Bugatti came to be known for what it is today, it was a successful racing team as well. Petrol heads would have heard or spoken about the Type 35, its most successful and famous racing car, at least once somewhere.

Now, take that ethos and transfer it to the Chiron and while at it, shed weight, a lot of it, to tune that the Bugatti Bolide concept weighs only 1240 kg.

If one looks at the specs and thinks that the concept should be made out only of the powertrain, seats, a steering and four wheels to achieve such low weight, then they would be damn right, for that is indeed how the concept was put together.

Of course, only exotic materials, like aerospace titanium alloy, need to be used to make the Bugatti Bolide as light as it is. But, the weight alone is nothing special, not until you see what powers it.

The track-oriented hypercar concept features a 7993cc quad-turbo W16 engine from the Chiron that makes 1850 PS at 7000 RPM and 1850 Nm at 2000-7025 RPM. This gives the Bolide an unprecedented weight-to-power ratio of 0.67 kg per PS.

To make such power, the intake and exhaust system have been dethrottled, new turbochargers fitted, the entire oil circuit, including reservoirs, baffles, tanks and the pump design, optimised, and much…much more done to the powertrain.

Do not be fooled that the madness ends with that, for the Bolide has the looks to give the power/weight figure a run for its money in the bonkers department.

It is not as elegant as car designs go, but as a toy to toy with a man’s emotions with its cuts, creases, minimal bodywork and flamboyant styling, it hits the right points.

Also, as a first on a car, the outer skin of the roof intake scoop is morphable. Basically, a field of bubbles bulges out when driven fast, to reduce drag of the scoop by 10 percent and optimise the flow onto the rear wing.

Downforce you ask? Well, how about 1800 kg at the rear wing and 800 kg at the front at 320 km/hr? One would imagine the tyres fitted to the car will be destroyed under such forces.

Top speed is above 500 km/hr and simulations state that the Bolide would take only 5:23.1 minutes to get around the Nurburgring Nordschleife. Bonkers!

Were it to be put into production, the Bugatti Bolide Concept would built to FIA safety standards and Bugatti will produce it, because a camouflaged prototype of the Bolide has already been spotted testing at Paul Ricard in France.