The Bugatti Bolide is perhaps the most aggro land-based vehicle ever produced for civilian purchase. Yes, the French marque’s 8.0-liter quad-turbo W16 is extreme, but the street-illegal hypercar’s power unit was largely unchanged from its spec in the Chiron. The thing that made the Bolide so radical was its adaptive aero kit, headlined by a roof-mounted intake featuring 60 dimples that morphed to reduce drag and lift as speed increased. The front splitter, front diffuser, and adjustable rear wing all helped the 2,374-pound, 1,825-horsepower beast maximize the Bolide’s unparalleled power-to-weight ratio of .67 hp per pound.
As Bugatti’s Director of Design Achim Anscheidt told Maxim in 2021: “The Bugatti Bolide is an absolute rebel. It is clear to see that its only aim is to convey the pure power of the W16 engine in a visually and technically unadulterated form—reduced, raw, and authentic.” In other words, it was designed from the ground up to maximize performance potential free from any and all restrictions imposed by typical production vehicle design.
With all 40 Bolides sold for $4.7 million each, Bugatti designers were faced with another burning question: What would it look like without wings, vents and other “aerodynamic addenda?” Enter the Destrier, which, as the third creation from Bugatti Programme Solitaire, is limited to exactly one car.
“Destrier is not a car you understand with your head, it is a car you feel with your heart,” explains Bugatti design director Frank Heyl. “The Bolide gave us the most extreme proportions we have ever created, and by freeing them from the Bolide’s relentless pursuit of downforce, we let them speak as pure sculpture.
Named after the finest, and strongest type of medieval knight’s horse, the Destrier features Bugatti’s famed C-line, but because it shares the Bolide’s incredibly low-set carbon monocoque, it stands just 1 meter tall. Behind the doors, the bodywork dances into a dramatic waist before swelling over the rear wheels into a powerful wing shape. The almost liquid-like bodywork is dressed in Sapphire Celeste, a bespoke, multi-layered exterior blue created exclusively for this car that’s accented by brushed aluminum brightwork. Its wheels — 20-inch at the front and 21 at the rear, a significant step up from the Bolide’s 18-inch items—appear even larger on such a svelte body.
Inside, Destrier trades the bare-bones cockpit of a track-focused weapon for the aesthetics of a fine grand tourer. Three materials are featured: a leather and a nubuck, both in “Ambre Voyageur” brown and an advanced 3D-knitted textile that “forms seamless, three-dimensional surfaces” not dissimilar to snakeskin. Copper yarn is woven into a circular “halo-line” pattern that flows around the cabin. The hammered brightwork finish from the exterior returns inside across four further touchpoints: the door opener, air vents, steering wheel hub, and entry plate. And in a nod to the origins of the marque, a small French flag sits at the heart of the cabin.
While the Destrier’s Bolide-originated design is destined to remain unprecedented, Bugatti does point out that the practice of chassis-sharing between race and road car dates back all the way to the legendary Type 57, the underpinnings of which spawned the Le Mans-winning Type 57G and Type 57C as well as the Type 57SC Atlantic, the legendary one-of-three coach car that’s been hailed as the “Mona Lisa” of automobiles.
“Just as the Type 57 chassis gave the world both a Le Mans winner and the Atlantic, one platform has now produced two entirely different masterpieces,” added Heyl. “I believe Destrier will be gracing Concours lawns 50 years from now.” Perhaps it will even come to be called the car world’s “Starry Night.”