Automotive

In pictures: Witness the rough-hewn wildness of the Bugatti Bolide

In pictures: Witness the rough-hewn wildness of the Bugatti Bolide
The Bugatti Bolide is an absolute glove-slap to the face of every other hypercar that sells itself on performance and then weighs itself down with luxury
The Bugatti Bolide is an absolute glove-slap to the face of every other hypercar that sells itself on performance and then weighs itself down with luxury
View 16 Images
The Bugatti Bolide is an absolute glove-slap to the face of every other hypercar that sells itself on performance and then weighs itself down with luxury
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The Bugatti Bolide is an absolute glove-slap to the face of every other hypercar that sells itself on performance and then weighs itself down with luxury
Bugatti extracts an extraordinary amount of downforce at the back end with this X-winged arrangement, the beefy wing and an aggressive underbody kit
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Bugatti extracts an extraordinary amount of downforce at the back end with this X-winged arrangement, the beefy wing and an aggressive underbody kit
Nobody can claim that linkage hasn't been sufficiently optimized
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Nobody can claim that linkage hasn't been sufficiently optimized
Where the roof fin meets the rear wing
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Where the roof fin meets the rear wing
Slash-cut X headlights
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Slash-cut X headlights
The cabin is a far cry from anything else in the Bugatti catalog
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The cabin is a far cry from anything else in the Bugatti catalog
A ruthlessly practical-looking steering wheel
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A ruthlessly practical-looking steering wheel
The outrageous X-winged back end will always drop jaws
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The outrageous X-winged back end will always drop jaws
So low, so lean, so nasty
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So low, so lean, so nasty
The sharp carbon bodywork makes it look like you could lift the Bolide with a finger
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The sharp carbon bodywork makes it look like you could lift the Bolide with a finger
Onlookers will be under no illusions: this thing is capable of unspeakable acts of violence
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Onlookers will be under no illusions: this thing is capable of unspeakable acts of violence
Backlit in the pits
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Backlit in the pits
With the hood bodywork removed, it looks even more like a Batmobile
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With the hood bodywork removed, it looks even more like a Batmobile
Only the logos and that tiny horseshoe scream Bugatti. Otherwise the Bolide looks like it came from outer space
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Only the logos and that tiny horseshoe scream Bugatti. Otherwise the Bolide looks like it came from outer space
The matchbox car view
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The matchbox car view
Does this car not mean business?
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Does this car not mean business?
View gallery - 16 images

Bugatti has released a photo dump showing its nascent Bolide hypercar getting a little coy with some of its clothes off. Currently #6 on our list of the world's most powerful cars, the 1,825-hp Bolide prototype is an epically raw rejection of luxury.

It brings us no small measure of glee to see Bugatti leaving the luxury trowel in the bucket and going so rudely performance-focused on the Bolide. This series of tastefully dusty pit garage shots make the Bolide look a hair's breadth away from being a race car.

The steering wheel cover, for example, looks like it's been sewn together out of a couple of cut-up beer coolers. The interior trim is an afterthought. The linkages look spindly and utilitarian. And the carbon! Carbon fiber has become so fetishistically glamorized in the last decade or two that it's almost shocking to see it here looking rough, raw, hand-laid and unvarnished instead of glossed within an inch of its life and presented as bling.

I love it. But being realistic, this is a hastily-assembled prototype, so its rough-hewn finish will probably be filed back to a typically showy gleam by the time the production cars are finished. Such is the way of vastly expensive things.

With the hood bodywork removed, it looks even more like a Batmobile
With the hood bodywork removed, it looks even more like a Batmobile

Still, the Bolide concept is a profoundly different direction for the modern Bugatti. It won't even be certified for road use, so the only piece of "public road" it ever drives on may be the Nurburgring when it gets out there and tries to hit its outrageous simulated lap time. Normally we'd expect this thing to go out and try to prove its claims of top speeds above 500 km/h (311 mph), which would also likely require a closed-off public road, but Bugatti said it was done with chasing speed records after it took the Chiron briefly over 300 mph (483 km/h) last year.

It will be a track beast of outrageous excess; the sheer, blood-freezing power of it, combined with the driver's knowledge of how much it costs (something we can only assume at this point), will quite possibly end up making it slower around a track than cheaper machines. The target on an owner's back coming out of pit lane at a track day will be bigger than the dank, echoing cave full of gold coins he (or she, but let's be honest, he) sleeps in.

Bugatti extracts an extraordinary amount of downforce at the back end with this X-winged arrangement, the beefy wing and an aggressive underbody kit
Bugatti extracts an extraordinary amount of downforce at the back end with this X-winged arrangement, the beefy wing and an aggressive underbody kit

No matter, this X-winged, 16-cylinder, quad-turbo fire breather is perhaps more likely than any other recent Bugatti to get driven in proper anger rather than being tooled around from estate to casino to marina, or wherever it is that the ultra-rich go these days. And I respect it for that.

Learn all about the Bolide's specs and technology in our launch story, or jump into the gallery for a good drool.

Source: Bugatti

View gallery - 16 images
6 comments
6 comments
Bob809
Although I will likely never be able to afford one of these, I can still drool at the thought of having one, and a good place to drive it, legally of course...
Gizzy Magpie
Don't care about the car. I just like to read Loz's work.
Nelson Hyde Chick
Another male enhancement device for the less endowed rich guy.
kornpophunter
Who would name a car, "Bolide?"
Loosely, "fireball." Not a good word association for a car.
Defined as, "a large meteor which explodes in the atmosphere."
I can't think of a car that has a worse name except the Chevy Nova. When the Nova was introduced into Spanish, it means "Not Going." LOL
Techrex
??? They should make an entire series of small scale models of all of these supercars to sell to fans of the automobile field. This one would be a top collector piece!
ClaudioB
@Underseahunter
Nope, the actual meaning in Italian language for this usage is the figurative sense of it:
"Passing, rushing, swooping like a BOLIDE, with the speed of a BOLIDE, at very high speed.
Also, a large or very powerful car or motorcycle, launched at high speed"