What happens when a regular hypercar just doesn’t do it for you? There’s already a Chiron or two in your garage, you’ve dined with the who’s who of hypercar company bosses, and the existing options just aren’t enough. You commission a true one-off, that’s what. This is the Bugatti Brouillard, a bespoke coupe headlining as the last car ever to feature a W16 engine, and it might be the most expensive Bugatti to date.
Yes, like many top-shelf exotic car brands, Bugatti is branching out into the world of one-offs, by way of a new atelier division called Solitaire. Yes, like the card game, it’s the French word for solitary, a rather literal name for a division capable of rather exclusive whimsy, not to mention giving the ultra-wealthy a new place to spend even more money.
You can think of the Brouillard as essentially a Mistral roadster with a fixed roof, a giant pane of glass where open sky once sat, but it goes deeper than that. Every panel is different, and while the roof rails that really emphasize this car’s cab-forward stance and two massive top-side air intakes that recall the iconic Veyron are the most obvious indicators of serious coachbuilding, you notice more as you look closer.
The entire quarter panels are new to accommodate the fixed roof and reshaped side intakes, while new doors mate up cleanly with new side skirts. The hood vents have migrated to the center of the hood, the front air intakes have been reshaped, and new fenders accommodate large winglets aft of the front wheels. The bright green paint makes it all fairly subtle, but the Brouillard really is entirely new on the outside.
Of course, under the skin, the story’s going to be familiar. This may be the last W16-powered car, but we’ve seen this 1,578-horsepower quad-turbocharged W16 before, along with the transaxle and the bones of the chassis itself. We’re looking at the end of the line for an era of hypercar engineering, the one that popularized the whole word “hypercar.” Prior to the Veyron, things topped out at supercar status. Not anymore.
Oh, and if you’re wondering about the name, Brouillard was the name of Ettore Bugatti’s favorite horse. While we’ve seen horse racing lore make it into cars before, Brouillard was a bit special. As the story goes, this thoroughbred could open his stable door on his own using a mechanism Bugatti engineered in his spare time, which explains the horse motifs on the seats and door cards of this car. Save that for the next time your local pub quiz gets automotive.
So the Brouillard is the last W16 Bugatti, the first coachbuilt one of the modern era, and a proper one-off, but how much does it cost? Well, Bugatti’s hesitant to put a firm figure on it, but it’s not hard to make an educated guess. When Autocar asked Bugatti design chief Frank Heyl if the Brouillard was likely to be the most expensive Bugatti yet, Heyl said “Possibly.” Considering the benchmark is the $18.7 million La Voiture Noire, that almost certainly means we’re looking at a price tag at or above $15 million for the Brouillard. Considering the Mistral carried a price tag of around $5 million, we’re talking about a truly earth-shattering premium. Most people won’t earn $10 million in a lifetime, but here it is, being spent to turn a hypercar into something even more special. Then again, perhaps the Bugatti Brouillard will be one of those blue-chip cars. After all, the Bugatti W16 defined the first phase of the hypercar era, and the last car to be fitted with that monstrous engine is something you won’t see another of.
Top graphic image: Bugatti
Support our mission of championing car culture by becoming an Official Autopian Member.
Who says we have a wealth distribution crisis? Not me.
As long as the rich buy these wealth is getting redistributed. That’s how it works.
Well, To more rich people anyway. “That’s how it works.” This hasn’t ever been true, but trickle down economics is a neat way to sell tax breaks for the rich to the masses.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nissan Debuts the Altima Bespoke Luxe™: Big Altima Energy, Now with Hand-Stitched Pretension
Franklin, TN — Move over Bugatti: Nissan is entering the bespoke market. The 2026 Altima Bespoke Luxe™ offers all the pomp of a $15M hypercar—paired with the budget, FICO score, and parking lot swagger of the drivers of America’s most aggressively merged-into sedan.
Highlights include:
• Exterior: Hand-“curated” Whispering Beige paint (mixed from leftover house paint) and Brushed Faux-Platinum™ hubcaps that say, “I own the fast lane… and the left turn lane… at the same time.”
• Interior: Cruelty-Free Leatherette™ in “Executive Black” or “Tan-ish,” with a custom dashboard plaque laser-etched in Comic Sans.
• Performance: A legendary* 182-hp engine (*legendary among Altima drivers who redline leaving the Walgreens parking lot). CVT transmission delivers the same sound at any speed—luxury is consistency.
Starting at $29,995 before dealer “Bespoke Experience” markups, the Altima Bespoke Luxe™ is proof you don’t need a seven-figure price tag to feel untouchable—you just need a credit rating lower than a 0-60 time and a willingness to merge at 45 over the limit.
Aside from being COTD fodder… this appears to be an actual press release sent out by Nissan.
So who gets the credit Nissan or Jesus?
Is it really an Altima if it doesn’t have temp plates?
And at least one temp spare tire?
What is the upcharge for mismatched body panels and tires, sir?
If you really want to to impress/ annoy the neighbors, you could spend that much on 4000 Yugos, and street park them.
Pfft. Why do that when you could build an entire parking structure to park them all, staff it, and then charge yourself by the day to keep them parked.
Go big or go home, I say.
Is this some sort of tax loophole?
As far as over the top, gaudy, tasteless monuments to conspicuous consumption built for repulsive inhuman freaks go this is a comparatively elegant one. But the fact that a market for it even exists at all is a massive societal failure.
Anteater?
I don’t understand the scale of the price. Can you give me a quote in Corvette ZR1X’s?
well played sir
no, but I can in Jack in the Box tacos.
This costs the same as 30 million Jack in the Box tacos.
https://frinkiac.com/video/S07E15/iFevKbKLzP9eDGePmIU3OIyIEDI=.gif
I DO think of it this way, unfortunately. The big picture elements like the front and rear graphics just don’t distinguish this car enough from the Mistral to read as anything more.
Come on. Do better rich people.
“Last car ever to feature a W16”….. until someone drops $20M on the next “Last car ever to feature a W16….”
Hey, it’s been working for the Hellcat for the past few years.
and most aging rock bands for decades. Final Final Final Really We’re Serious This Time Unless We Need More Money Final Tour
I posted before I saw your comment. But you were right on my friend.
Said Motley Crue and Kiss
Ferrari identifies with their prancing horse logo. Bugatti one-ups this with a special stable door opening horse motif.
No me of the crystal horses IN THE STEERING YOKE!
*Note the…
Another car that’s going to disappear into some storage building and never be driven.
“A fool and his money are soon parted”
Its just the same Bugatti they have been making for like 20 years now, but with a nice green color? I get that “every panel is unique” but Porsche says that about every gen of the 911 and we all know its still the 911 that looks the same (not bashing the 911 as I really like its style). This is a veyron/Chiron, I can’t see beyond that. Gaudy, oddly proportioned, not particularly great sounding engine, but very fast, same as always for them. I respect the engineering from like 25 years ago when they first built this car, thats about it.
“every panel is unique”
That pretty much describes my mom’s Prius by the time she stopped driving.
ROFL – my mother’s too, though it was my nephew who finished off the poor thing.
I guess the color is really good but other than that these one-of-one hypercars that will never get over 2k miles on them just aren’t that interesting anymore. Maybe it’s because they are being built and purchased as investment art pieces or maybe it’s just because they have become an exponentially higher level of unattainable but I can’t even get upset about them they are just sort of meh.
Cars aren’t art, Uncle Adrian already had a primer on this. Is it even an investment?
Adrian might believe that – and you and I might agree with him for the most part. However, what else do you call a 1 of 1 car that will sit in a fully climate controlled space with custom lighting to accentuate it’s visual appeal for the owner and for visitors who may occasionally be invited listen as the engine is started and revved for their delight?
I say this as someone with similar training to Adrian but in architecture not automotive design – the real “design” for this car was done on the Chiron – this is a mixed media interactive sculpture.
I would love to be proved wrong with photos showing up of this car getting hooned around the Nurburgring occasionally or some tech-bro dailying it in Silicon Valley but I am not holding my breath.
If it’s not a car, and it’s not art, then it’s a tchotchke. A really expensive tchotchke.
Love it – and to the wrong audience many tchotchkes are viewed as tacky or of questionable taste, so…
Oh yeah. It certainly is
I just could not care less about another billionaire’s wheeled codpiece. Boring.
Any idiot can make a massively fast car for $15M a shot. It takes a genius to make a good car that the average person can afford. I have a LOT more respect for Alec Issigonis than Enzo Ferrari, as one example.
The sad part is, this is probably going to spend its life in somebody’s garage next to a bevy of other ridiculously expensive automobiles, and rarely (if ever) see sunlight.
Or it will go to some mid-east oil money spawn who will get bored with it in a couple months and abandon it somewhere when he gets his next multi-million dollar toy.
As a friend of mine once said:
Bad taste doesn’t necessarily cost less.
Goddamn is the horse shit in the interior cheesy as hell. That door card looks like something my wife’s grandmother would put above her kitchen sink. So yeah, congrats to the rich person with absolutely zero taste who will be storing this wherever.
I do like the greens being used here though.
Most of the horse motifs are kinda meh, but that perfectly parametrized taxidermy-pose horse head in the shifter is downright hilarious. If a horse’s head could T-pose, that’s it right there.
The shifter is the tackiest of it all, but I didn’t have a decent joke for it.
You did though, lol.
I thought there was a flying insect embedded in there at first.
The horse shifter is the glue that ties the whole interior together.
That interior is… something. The desperation to make it “$15 million special” has managed to produce strong Etsy “gifts for horse lovers” vibes.
Damn, I’m old. To me a million dollar car is a Ferrari GTO, an Atlantic SC, Deusenburg SSJ…. Irreplaceable hand built machines.
I wouldn’t say irreplaceable:
“GTO Engineering is one of the most reputable and recognized Ferrari specialists in the world, with a long history of restorations behind him. They also rebuild parts, and even complete engines made from scratch.
With the Revival GTO the word “replica never” had such an unfair meaning, in fact, we cannot consider it as a replica, but as a revival, a tribute or a continuation. GTO Engineering 250 SWB Revival uses an original classic Ferrari as a donor and is manufactured to the exact specifications as the original, with high precision. In fact, they’re considered as FIA Continuation Series cars, so they’re eligible for historic racing.
It will be a low production car of which only 40 units will be produced. The car has been designed based on original sketches and plans. Both the tubular chassis and the aluminum body are fully handcrafted. The 324hp 3.5 V12 engine with double-barrel Weber Carburetors is fully rebuilt, a task that requires more than 300 hours of work. There is currently a Ferrari GTO “Replica” for sale for $ 1,390,000, and it’s estimated that no unit is below a million dollars, although, we should call them Revival since it exceeds the sense of the word “replica”.”
https://www.drivingyourdream.com/articles/five-ferraris-recreations-you-should-know-about
I’d like to see China and India start cranking out their own high quality exact replicas too except offer theirs for the price of a used rusty Altima
Almosts sounds of the stack of 1965 Cobra chasis Shelby claimed he had stashed behind his backyard shed for 30 years and forgot about. Provenance has a place.
Ah good point:
“What options do you have if the “Cobra” you want to buy is not an original?
U.S. Department of Transportation and Environmental Protection Agency regulations for new cars require things like crash-testing and smogging the engine for emissions—far too expensive for low-production vehicles like Shelby American Cobras and Cobra replicas. That’s why it’s impossible to buy a new turnkey Cobra for street use. However, Cobra parts are unregulated. When those parts just happen to be put together but fall short of a complete car, they are called an “assemblage of motor vehicle parts,” and they are still unregulated. That’s why most manufacturers, Shelby American included, produce a partially assembled car. Many are what is called a “rolling chassis”—the body attached to a frame with the wheels on. Most are missing an engine and transmission, and they come unpainted. The partially assembled Cobra is then completed to a customer’s specifications by an independent shop or dealer”
https://cobra-authority.com/shelby-cobra-a-buyers-guide-to-originals-kits-replicas-tributes-continuation-cars/
Come on China, what are you waiting for? Start cranking out those “Mexican” made*, minimal assembly required Ferrari(sh) GTO “kits” that when properly screwed together are indistinguishable from an original factory made Ferrari GTO screwed together all those decades ago by a crack team of drunk, disgruntled Italian communists.
*Just Mexican enough to technically avoid tariffs.
Pretty sure that’s a Lambo dude.
I award you zero low-flying pelicans and may God have mercy on your soul.
Um thanks?
Gross.
After 40 years of running the monetary printing presses — the last 5 years in overdrive — it’s really fascinating to see all the creative ways the market is coming up with to set that cash on fire after it’s trickled up and accumulated to basically unusable, borderline unspendable levels at the top. How about a $15M car? Honestly, why not just charge $30M? or 50?
Gorgeous car though. And the color is chef’s kiss.
While I certainly agree with you, the silver lining is that maybe, possibly, in some small way, this money will trickle back into the economy instead of being stashed in a Scrooge McDuck-style vault.
Narrator: it did not trickle back
It never has ever trickled back
These *super-ultra-mega-turbo-hyper* cars get so obscure that most normies have no idea what they even are. As one of the normies, I’d shrug, say “Cool veyron, I guess,” and keep walking. I could not possibly be compelled to be less interested in some One of One named after the owner’s favorite doberman.
Full disclosure from a car enthusiast:
About 15 years ago, I stopped being able to tell almost all Ferraris, Lambos, and McLarens apart. They’re all just variations on the same theme to me. I can tell the brands apart, but they might as well just make one model each.
Same, but Lamborghini has somehow been spared, probably because the Huracan is 11 years old and the Aventador at least has a different engine. If Lamborghini made a third car (I’m positive they don’t. Please let me dream) I’d probably not be bothered to remember it anymore.
And hopefully one day there will be a “less desirable of the two,” probably because of something about the taillights being the wrong shape, that will hopefully make them 1/4 of the price of the other 🙂
Lamborghini is at least still engineering cool and unique shit. The Revuelto and Temerario are both PHEVs that rev to 9,500+ and I think they both look interesting by modern supercar standards. Lamborghini will also paint their cars whatever the hell you want, they’ll let anyone with the money buy them rather than play stupid games like Ferrari, they’ll sell you a ridiculous rally variant, etc.
For these reasons I respect them more than really any other supercar or hypercar marquee. There’s a sense of whimsy at Lamborghini that I appreciate. That being said the Urus is a crime against humanity….
Lamborghini also seems less into the one-of-one “models” or 1 of 124 editions to match the HP rating of Ferruccio’s favorite tractor or something stupid.
Much like more mainstream manufacturer’s they seem to more or less make and sell as many cars as there are buyers but at a much higher performance/price point.
I fully agree, Lamborghini are the only ones trying to sell a proper supercar experience. Porsche will sell you a super version of a sports car (911 or 718 GT-something), Ferrari will sell you a Ferrari, and McLaren will sell you a race car that doesn’t race.
If McLaren want their ancient twin-turbo V8 to be taken seriously, they need to do more high-profile motorsport with it, and they need to start winning. Same goes for the Elva’s V6. That leaves Lamborghini as the only supercar outfit that isn’t a commercialized racing team or a pretentious gentlemen’s club.
Lamborghini really didn’t need to be in racing, but they are anyway, and that’s pretty neat. Another thing I love is that they know AWD is faster, but they’ll sell you a RWD version of their car, because they know some people want that. I certainly do.
Maybe some day I can consider an Urraco in my life. Hopefully.
Those seats are certainly something.
Great color choice though.
I would really like to see more of the interior and the horse motif. I currently can’t really tell how bad it really is. With what I can see I am intrigued, but not yet disgusted or convinced.
The top gear page has more pictures you can scroll through. I did a quick Google search as wanted to see more of the interior
Not going to lie, the car is actually shockingly well done, and I do not usually care much for Bugatti as a whole. Having said that, I still absolutely hate that stuff like this exists. There are literally millions of better ways to spend that $10M that would benefit the world. “Normal” Bugatti levels of excess bother me, but I get it. This is just too much.
I’m grumpy. I might need more coffee.
My hope is always that the artisans who build these insane one off multi million dollar cars are getting paid blindingly offensively well for building blindingly offensively expensive cars really well.
I agree with you about all. Regarding the car stylistically, I like what they’ve done. Proportions of the swoops and scoops feels better than anything since we first saw they Veyron. I especially like the crease from the front bumper that becomes the side scoop, and how that tapers back to reveal/allow the winglettes front and rear of the front wheel. Intakes at the center clean up the front end, too.
I’m so glad the gilded age is back! /S
We actually are currently facing wealth inequality that’s worse than the gilded age
Its like 1880s all over again!