With the final Mistral built, Bugatti's W16 is out of production after two decades, replaced by a naturally aspirated 8.3-liter V16 co-developed with Cosworth.The Tourbillon's engine makes 1,000 horsepower and revs to 9,000 rpm, and every sound the driver hears is mechanical, with no synthesized enhancement through the speakers.Bugatti deliberately preserved a rawer character while meeting a 72-decibel homologation limit that measures the entire car, not just the exhaust. The W16 is gone. After two decades of hauling Molsheim's most outrageous machinery down the world's straightest roads, the engine that began with the Veyron and continued through the Chiron has built its last example, a Mistral completed a couple of months ago. That should, by every rule of modern automotive logic, have been the end of the story. Instead, Bugatti replaced a 16-cylinder engine with another 16-cylinder engine. In 2026. While everyone else was busy fitting three-cylinder range extenders and apologizing for existing.The Tourbillon's naturally aspirated 8.3-liter V16, developed alongside Cosworth, produces 1,000 horsepower and spins all the way to 9,000 rpm. There is no turbocharging to muffle it, no hybrid system humming over it, and crucially, no artificial audio piped through the stereo to help it along. What you hear is what the engine is actually doing. Getting a 9,000 rpm V16 Past the Noise Police Building the thing was the easy part. Making it sound correct while satisfying modern noise regulations was the genuine engineering challenge, and a new video from Bugatti shows just how much work went into it. The team did not simply bolt on an obnoxious exhaust, though it does wear up to eight tips. Thousands of simulations were run across the intake and exhaust systems, hunting for the balance between outright performance, everyday refinement and the mechanical honesty Bugatti wanted. The car has to behave civilly when the V16 is loafing along. Then, when the driver commits, it has to tell him precisely what is happening inside the engine. The result is not the cleanest-sounding engine in the world, and that was entirely deliberate. Bugatti's own view is that its engines have never sounded clean, that there has always been something slightly dirty and raw in the character, and the company decided that trait was worth protecting rather than sanding away. Protecting it while passing homologation is the tricky bit. The relevant test allows a maximum of 72 decibels, and the microphones do not politely isolate the engine. They record the entire car. Tires contribute. Bodywork contributes. Aerodynamic components contribute, which matters enormously on a Tourbillon fitted with active aero capable of generating serious noise all by itself. Even the weather is a factor, with temperature and wind speed required to stay within limits, and a single unhelpful gust enough to invalidate an entire run. That Bugatti went through all of it, rather than taking the easy route through a speaker, tells you exactly who this car is for. With order books sold out until 2029, the bet appears to have paid off already.
