Wild 1,600-HP Carbon Fiber Go-Kart Is Actually A Bugatti Bolide

Bugatti has revealed more details about its track-only Bolide hypercar, this time revealing the engineering excellence behind the vehicle's chassis. While it might have seemed perfectly acceptable for Bugatti to simply repackage or repurpose the chassis from a Chiron for the Bolide, that's not the culture that founder Ettore instilled; "If comparable, it is no longer Bugatti," he famously said.

While other brands will modify existing setups to create cars that are claimed to be all-new, the Bolide's carbon fiber monocoque really is a clean-sheet design, and it was developed to the same requirements that FIA LMH and LMDh racecars are, using the highest quality carbon fiber composites "normally only used in Formula 1 and Le Mans racecars."

An example of the car took to the Le Mans circuit this year, and all those who saw and heard it said it belonged there. It's a stretch, but we'd like to think Bugatti could one day use this car's development to fast-track an entry to the World Endurance Championship.

Why go to all this trouble? Because Bugatti wants the Bolide to be genuinely brilliant, and to do that, it has to change the way it feels compared to a somewhat less agile Chiron. Part of achieving this goal is wrapping the Bolide around the 1,578-horsepower 8.0-liter W16 engine as tightly as possible, and with its sleek catamaran-like design, the hulking engine is almost 2.4 inches further forward than in the Chiron.

As you'd expect, the monocoque is also stiffer and stronger than that of the Chiron, and this will have benefits not only in performance but also in safety. That's very important when the people piloting the quad-turbocharged machine are luxury-focused millionaires rather than experienced professional racing drivers.

Should the worst happen, occupants will be safe, even in a rollover.

As we mentioned, this chassis is developed to FIA safety standards, and that means that the car must withstand the application of a 7.5-ton load to its A-pillar with no more than 50 mm of deflection at the point where the load is applied. In addition, no failure within 100 mm of that point is permitted. In basic English, these rules mean that if there are small, localized cracks within the area that the load was applied to, the car will pass. But even here, Bugatti excelled, with the Bolide showing no cracks whatsoever.

Even a second rollover test with 12 tons applied to the B-pillar and a third with six tons of longitudinal load applied to the monocoque (to simulate a rollover that ends with a rear impact against a barrier) were both passed with flying colors.

A crash is bad, but it's not the only thing that can go wrong on track, which is why the Bolide gets an automatic military-grade fire extinguisher system. This system is said to be a "major safety upgrade in every respect" compared to the units in conventional racecars. Should one still need to escape the car quickly, the wraparound headrests have an outer section that is attached to the dihedral doors. These are designed to GT3 regulations with an X-shaped structural bracket made of 3D-printed aluminum. This weighs just 300 grams (10.58 ounces) yet can withstand over 700 kilograms/1,543 pounds.

Each occupant also gets an FIA-approved six-point harness, and there is provision for a HANS (Head And Neck Support) device.

Basically, Bugatti is not mucking about. This is a serious racecar, not just a toy for the rich, and although most will never fully exploit its potential, we're glad that Bugatti is making the Bolide just as fantastic as its looks suggest.