Top Gear Pushes the 1,600HP Bugatti Bolide Hypercar to the Limit at Paul Ricard Circuit

Top Gear’s Ollie Marriage and Bugatti’s chief test driver Andy Wallace teamed up to push the Bugatti Bolide hypercar to its limit at France’s Paul Ricard circuit. The design embodies Bugatti’s “Form Follows Performance” philosophy, starting with its aggressive, minimalist aesthetic design that draws inspiration from Le Mans Prototype (LMP1) race cars and historic aviation X-planes.

Power comes from a quad-turbocharged 8.0L W16 engine making 1,600 horsepower and 1,180 lb-ft of torque on 98 RON fuel, mated to a 7-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox. What separates this track-only hypercar apart from the street-legal Chiron Super Sport is that the former generates nearly 5,800 lb of downforce at 200 mph, thanks to an advanced aerodynamic package, including a prominent front diffuser, air curtains, as well as a carefully designed underfloor, all of which create a suction effect while minimizing drag.

What always shocks me about any car from Bugatti is how stable they are, even at 400kph it doesn’t drift even an inch off course, the car goes exactly where you want it to go. There’s plenty of cars exceeding 1000bhp, but they’re almost impossible to control. Even the R34 with all its bells and whistles struggles to stay on a drag strip and don’t get me started on Koenigseeg,” said one commenter.