- Production of the limited-run W16 Mistral recently finished, with 99 built.
- Hand-drawn black lines trace the hypercar’s hidden digital surface layout.
- The gas cap, engine cover, oil cap, and others are made from porcelain.
Bugatti has pulled the covers off another heavily customized W16 Mistral, and this one is particularly special. The monstrous droptop hypercar wears bodywork trimmed in the finest-quality porcelain, a material you associate with a dinner service far sooner than a hypercar capable of doing 261 mph (420 km/h), and the effect is genuinely wild.
This isn’t the first time Bugatti has experimented with porcelain on one of its cars. In 2011, it did the same with the Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse, unveiling the L’Or Blanc, a machine trimmed in the material and accented with white- and blue-painted parts. That original took inspiration from a white porcelain vase created for KPM by Italian designer Enzo Mari, whose flowing blue brushstrokes became the basis for the Veyron’s hand-painted graphics.
Read: When You’re That Rich, You Can Afford To Paint The World’s Fastest Convertible Like A Latte
This new Mistral, officially known as Blanc Éternel, was created with the help of German ceramic manufacturer Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Berlin (KPM).
Where The Porcelain Actually Goes
In case you’re wondering, no, the entire body of the W16 Mistral is not made from porcelain. Instead, most of it is painted in a relatively simple shade of white. However, real porcelain has been used for inlays on the engine cover, the oil cap, the gas cap, and the EB badges.
The two porcelain engine-cover inlays also carry KPM Berlin’s royal scepter logo. Producing these pieces demanded careful engineering, since porcelain shrinks by about 17 percent during firing, meaning each component had to be oversized before kiln-curing so it would fit perfectly once finished.
After Bugatti laid down the white paint, dozens of intricate black lines were hand-applied. Rather than recreating the Veyron’s reflection-line design, Blanc Éternel uses those fine lines to trace the Mistral’s underlying NURBS (Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines) digital surface layout, revealing the geometric structure normally hidden beneath the finished bodywork.
The result is extraordinary, although we must say we prefer the blue accents that were found on the old Veyron L’Or Blanc. Admittedly, Bugatti dealers have people who are far more stylish than ourselves, so who are we to critique what it’s done?
Bugatti
The porcelain componentry extends into the cabin. Inside, you’ll find it on the shift lever, the speaker cover plates, the center console armrest, the kneepads, and the window switches. The black line motif also continues onto the white leather upholstery, using a newly developed process in which each leather section is masked by hand before the graphics are painted directly onto the surface.
Bugatti and KPM also marked their renewed partnership with a limited-edition Blanc Éternel porcelain collection that includes the To-Drive Cup and KPM’s Aviator Cup in two sizes, with production limited to 1,000 handmade pieces.
Mistral Production Ends
Total production of the Bugatti W16 Mistral was capped at just 99 units, and production of it ended in recent weeks. To celebrate the car riding off into the sunset, Bugatti has showcased some of the most distinctive examples that it built, including one ordered by an Argentine businessman with a copper-colored finish, one bound for America finished in blue and black, and another painted in a shade of Lavender with several flowery accents.
