AUTONEWS

Bugatti Bolide rules the Nürburgring

The Bugatti Bolide, a hypercar specialized for racetracks, was produced in only 40 copies, which cost $4 million each.

This is a car that you expect to spend time in an air-conditioned garage, waiting for the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in 4-5 decades.

Fortunately, not all Bolides have the same fate. In a new video from the Nürburgring, it is the main protagonist. As a reminder, it has the same power as its homologated equivalent for everyday traffic – 1,600 horses from a W16 engine. However, its mass is only 1,450 kilograms, compared to the Chiron’s 1,950. The way Bugatti approaches the cars present is simply fascinating.

Even Porsche 911s and other high-performance cars on the Nordschleife act as a hindrance to the Bugatti driver. The McLaren Senna is just a speck of dust that the Bolide is overtaking…

The racing version has a lower top speed than the Chiron – 380 km/h compared to 420 km/h. Despite its explosive acceleration, the Bolide doesn’t even come close to its top speed, which it achieved at 300 km/h, which is exceptional for the Nürburgring.

Bugatti originally showed a prototype of the Bolide in 2020, with a theoretical 1,850 hp and a top speed of over 300 mph (483 km/h). Three years later, the production model was unveiled, with another year of testing before deliveries began. The result is impressive, and it’s a great pleasure to see it on the track.

Although in the prototype phase it was presented as being capable of extracting 1840 hp from the imposing 8.0 W16 quad-turbo engine, with racing gasoline, the Bolide ended up providing “only” 1600 hp, but with commercial 98 octane gasoline. But if the power did not increase decisively (the “normal” version of the W16 provides 1500 hp, and there are other versions of the Bugatti Chiron with 1600 hp), the weight of the Bolide was considerably reduced. 

And, in a sports car, cutting weight is even more important than increasing power. Now if the Chiron weighs 1950 kg, in the Bolide the needle on the scale points to only 1451 kg. The video below shows the Bolide on the Nürburgring track, not on the North Ring, the well-known Nordschleife, built in 1920 (and considered too dangerous to host F1), but on the F1 Grand Prix circuit opened in 1984. 

And it is important to keep in mind that the Bolide has a lower top speed than the Bugatti Chiron, due to the greater support it benefits from to brake later, accelerate earlier and corner faster, with the Chiron reaching up to 420 km/h and the Bolide reaching 380 km/h. 

It is worth remembering that, when the Bolide prototype was presented in 2020, it was supposed to have 1,850 hp and be capable of reaching 480 km/h, but the brand opted for a less ambitious standard. Watch the Bolide embarrassing the competition at the Nürburgring GP, and its rivals at the time were, among others, the McLaren Senna.

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