- For the first time ever, a member of the media is allowed to drive the Bugatti Bolide.
- The insane hypercar’s 8.0-liter engine delivers 1,578 hp (1,177 kW / 1,600 PS) in a lightweight body, that makes for savage performance.
- Despite offering drivers a few amenities, like air-conditioning and automatic upshifts, it remains a raw track toy.
In an era when an electric four-door sedan can deliver acceleration that makes supercars tremble, it’s hard to know what place hypercars have in the world anymore. Bugatti’s most recent attempt at an answer is the Bolide.
Experienced by someone outside Molsheim for the very first time, this report from Top Gear opens the only way a video about a W16-powered, track-only hypercar could: with the engine note. It sounds like the note a UFO would use to strike fear into the heart of the world, before asking to be taken to its leader. In combination with the alien design and the otherworldly speed, the Bolide inspires awe.
Read: The Bugatti Bolide Has The Biggest Carbon-Carbon Brakes Ever Created
The hypercar also looks quite potent, sending Top Gear’s Jack Rix flying out of his seat every time brakes are applied. To be sure, the performance is befitting of a prototype finished in bare carbon fiber. And the raw edges of the test car make the Bolide feel more unrefined and visceral than you would expect from the brand.
But it is still a Bugatti, and that means that certain niceties remain. The air conditioning is likely a nice addition for any buyers who plan to take it to the Losail International Circuit in Qatar, for example, where even F1 drivers were passing out from the heat. Meanwhile, the traction control settings and the auto upshifts will help less experienced drivers impress their friends.
That’s right, as was perhaps only advisable for a car that would inevitably be handed over to amateurs, Bugatti won’t allow them to fully turn the traction control off, nor to turn the automatic shifts off.
According to Andy Wallace, one of the automaker’s test drivers, that’s a good thing. While the traction control will let you have fun without breaking your $4.7 million hypercar, the auto upshift only kicks in once you reach the top of the rev range, and prevents you from having to look down at your tachometer while you make use of the 8.0-liter engine’s 1,578 hp (1,177 kW / 1,600 PS).
Despite the driver assistance features that make the Bolide a little more civilized, the car delivers savage performance. Such is the savagery that, even though it has a passenger seat, you might have a hard time filling it, because the G forces sicken passengers so quickly.