The Bugatti W16 Mistral Has Made Its Middle Eastern Debut

Bugatti presented both customers and the media with its quad-turbocharged roadster at the Waldorf Astoria in Dubai, a five-star luxury hotel located in the Palm Jumeirah archipelago of artificial islands created using land reclamation.

“The Arabian Peninsula is one of Bugatti’s key sales markets,” declared Kostas Psarris, the regional director for the Middle East and Asia. Said peninsula accounts for nearly a quarter of all orders received for the Chiron. What’s more, the United Arab Emirates boasts the largest fleet of Veyrons in the world, with more than 50 vehicles currently located there.

Merely 99 units of the W16 Mistral will be produced, with customer deliveries expected to begin sometime in 2024. Pricing kicks off at 5 million euros, which is approximately 5,170,000 dollars at current exchange rates. Not exactly surprising for the final recipient of the W16 engine that dates back to the Veyron, the open-top hypercar isn’t available to order because every single example of the breed is already spoken for. Bugatti sold all 99 well before it revealed the damn thing in August 2022.

Shared with the Chiron Super Sport, Chiron Super Sport+, and Chiron-based Centodieci, the 8.0-liter monster is good for 1,600 metric horsepower and 1,600 Nm of torque, figures that convert to 1,578 horsepower and 1,180 pound-foot. Stylistically inspired by the Bugatti Type 57 Grand Raid Usine, this fellow also features both Divo and La Voiture Noire design influences up front. As for the X-shaped taillight motif out back, that is certainly coming from the Chiron-based Bolide track-only hypercar.

Bugatti has yet to publish the W16 Mistral’s top speed, which is probably irrelevant given that nobody will use this car to its full potential. As a brief refresher, Bugatti’s last roadster clocked 254.04 miles per hour (408.84 kilometers per hour) in 2013 with 1,200 metric ponies (1,184 hp) on deck.