The W-16-powered roadster is 21 mph faster than originally thought.
Bugatti can add another top-speed record to its list of accomplishments. The French marque announced Thursday that the Mistral had achieved its goal of becoming the world’s fastest open-top road car. The Chiron-based model didn’t barely beat the old record, either—it demolished it.
When Bugatti pulled back the curtain on the Mistral in the summer of 2022, it made clear the car was going to be important. Not only would the first Chiron-era roadster be the final model to feature the company’s trademark W-16, but it was also built with the explicit goal of being crowned the world’s open-top road car. And now, a little over two years later, the company has delivered on that promise.
The record was set November 9 at the ATP Automotive Testing Papenburg track in Germany. It was there that a one-off Mistral piloted by Bugatti test driver and former 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Andy Wallace managed to reach a top speed of 453.91 km/h, or 282 mph, while circling the 7.6-mile circuit. That speed was 16.4 mph faster than the 265.6 mph top speed posted by the previous record holder, the Hennessey Venom GT Spyder, in 2016. The Mistral’s top speed is also 21 mph faster than the conservative estimate of 261 mph that was announced at the model’s unveiling.
It shouldn’t be that surprising that the Mistral was able to break the top speed record for an open-top car. Bugatti’s W-16 has come to be viewed as a legendary engine since it debuted in the first Veyron in 2005. The 1-of-99 roadster’s 8.0-liter mill is mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and pumps out a staggering 1,578 horses and 1,180 ft lbs of twist. The potent roadster isn’t just fast, either, it’s also quick, able to rocket from zero to 62 mph in just 2.5 seconds.’
The Mistral is the fourth Bugatti to achieve a major top speed record. In 2019, a Chiron Super Sport 300+ also driven by Wallace became the fastest production car of all time when it reached 304.77 mph, an official mark that still stands today. Previous speed records have been held by the Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse World Record Edition and before that by the Veyron 16.4 Super Sport World Record Edition.
