SWEETEST SIXTEEN

The new Mistral is Bugatti's stunning swan song for its legendary W16 engine

- NICOLAS STECHER

“This car is the celebration of the 16-cylinder engine, as it’s going to be the last time we build the eight-liter, quad turbo W16 into a road-going car,” Frank Heyl, Bugatti’s Deputy Design Director, announces as I stare slack-jawed at his latest creation, the Bugatti Mistral. It’s well over 100 degrees on this torrid August day on the grass of The Quail:

A Motorsports Gathering during Monterey Car Week, and every posh lad and augmented trophy wife is doing their best to keep the sweat from ruining their couture outfits. For some reason it seems even hotter on this corner of the ritzy golf course.

There are many things, after all, that inspire the Mistral to accelerate heartbeats and raise body temps; the absurd 16 cylinders and cavernous 8-liter engine block, for starters. Throw in four turbos, 10 radiators and six catalytic converters. Or how about its Martian performance metrics? Does 1,600 horsepower warm the cockles of your heart? How about a 261 mph top speed, or a 0-60 mph sprint of just 2.4 seconds (in theory, anyway, as Bugatti announced it will no longer chase speed records to confirm these stats)?