Bugatti has been churning out teaser images in the past few days, building us up for what looked like a track-only version of its Chiron hypercar. Well, now the car has been revealed and it seems as though the French marque’s intentions may be a bit more ambitious.
Called the Bolide, meaning racing car in French, the track-only hypercar is almost entirely different to the Chiron and the hardcore Divo. While it uses the same 8.0-litre W16 engine, the bodywork has been completely overhauled to drastically increase downforce. The car is built around a carbon fibre monocoque, with titanium screws being used throughout to keep weight to an absolute minimum without compromising structural rigidity. Overall, the car weighs 1,240kg, making it around 720kg lighter than the track-focused Divo.
What’s remarkable, though, is that Bugatti has upped the power output over the Divo. The Bolide produces a frankly ridiculous 1,825bhp, 346bhp more than the Divo. All in all, it means the Bolide has a ludicrous power-to-weight ratio of just 0.67kg per horsepower. Bugatti says the track car has a theoretical top speed of over 311mph, which is sounds even more crazy when you consider that the car’s rear wing alone generates 1,800kg of downforce at 200mph.
If you can find a driver who’s brave enough to find the car’s limits, Bugatti claims the Bolide could achieve a lap time of just three minutes and 7.1 seconds at the Le Sarthe circuit, home of the Le Mans 24 Hour, and a five minutes and 23.1-second lap of the Nurburgring Nordschleife. To put that into context, the lightweight Porsche 919 Evo currently holds the lap record at the Nordschleife with a five minutes and 19.5-second lap time.
So how much does the Bolide cost then? Well, we don’t know and neither does Bugatti. The company says the Bolide is a concept aimed at gathering data and that it hasn’t settled on plans to offer it to the public. That, to us at least, sounds like the company may be planning a Le Mans return under the new hypercar regulations that come into effect next year.
Keyword: Bugatti Bolide: does it confirm a Le Mans return?