{"id":2080665,"date":"2026-08-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2080665"},"modified":"2026-08-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T21:00:00","slug":"the-new-bugatti-destrier-is-a-1578bhp-bolide-reimagined-as-road-going-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2080665","title":{"rendered":"The new Bugatti Destrier is a 1,578bhp Bolide reimagined as road-going art"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Well, isn\u2019t this just lovely. This is the Bugatti Destrier, the third car to emerge from Bugatti’s ‘Solitaire’ programme (after the Brouillard<\/a> and F.K.P. Hommage<\/a>) and named after \u201cthe strongest type of medieval knight\u2019s horse\u201d that reimagines the mad, bad and mostly bewinged track-only Bugatti Bolide<\/a> into a 1,578bhp work of art.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s right, 1,578bhp. Reports of the W16\u2019s death, therefore, have been greatly exaggerated, because that 8.0-litre powerhaus\u2026 rides<\/em> again. So no need for the… long face. Arf arf.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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And it’s a long, beautiful car. Bugatti itself declares it as one of \u201cthe most significant designs\u201d it has ever done, centred around a simple mission brief along the lines of ‘what if Bolide but no aero’. A philosophy that should be applied to more exotica, tbh.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s the same carbon fibre monocoque underneath, a slightly wider horseshoe grille, and thanks to the base Bolide\u2019s already \u201cextreme\u201d profile, this Destrier sits low and wide, with a lovely uninterrupted line flowing in waves from front to back. Wide here, pinched there, swollen, shrunken, the Destrier wears it all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This particular one-off also wears a one-off colour \u2013 \u2018Sapphire Celeste\u2019, what TopGear.com understands to broadly mean \u2018midnighty purpley-blue-ish\u2019 \u2013 flecked with sparkles and surrounded by polished aluminium and exposed carbon fibre.<\/p>\n

The wheels are bigger here than on the Bolide \u2013 20in\/21in front and rear vs the track car\u2019s measly 18s \u2013 while inside, Bugatti (or rather the car\u2019s owner) has spared no expense in transforming the cabin into something less \u2018where’s my fireproof underwear\u2019 and more \u2018weekend jaunt to the Alps, anyone\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Leather. Nubuck. 3D-knitted textile. Three materials Bugatti focused on, all finished in a delightful warm brown, along with countless other details: the special stitching, hammered brightwork, the tiny French flag.<\/p>\n

\u201cDestrier is not a car you understand with your head, it is a car you feel with your heart,\u201d said Bugatti\u2019s design boss Frank Heyl. \u201cThe Bolide gave us the most extreme proportions we have ever created, and by freeing them from the Bolide\u2019s relentless pursuit of downforce, we let them speak as pure sculpture.\u201d<\/p>\n

He points to ye olde Type 57 chassis that formed the basis of two equally delectable Bugattis: one a Le Mans winner (the Type 57 \u2018Tank\u2019 racer) and the gorgeous Type 57SC Atlantic. Indeed, as a nod to this history of one chassis birthing two very different cars, there\u2019s a laser-engraved (hand<\/em> engraved of course) plate above the windscreen depicting both the 57G and 57SC.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe Destrier will be gracing Concours lawns 50 years from now,\u201d Heyl added. Forget 50 years from now \u2013 it\u2019ll \u00a0star at the Monterey Car Week and Pebble Beach Concours on 16 August. Lovely.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, isn\u2019t this just lovely. This is the Bugatti Destrier, the third car to emerge from Bugatti’s ‘Solitaire’ programme (after the Brouillard and F.K.P. Hommage) and named after \u201cthe strongest type of medieval knight\u2019s horse\u201d that reimagines the mad, bad and mostly bewinged track-only Bugatti Bolide into a 1,578bhp work of art. That\u2019s right, 1,578bhp. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,237],"class_list":["post-2080665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-topgear-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2080665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2080665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2080665\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2080665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2080665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2080665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}