Bugatti Destrier Top Speed
Bugatti has not published a top speed for the Destrier, and on a site about top speeds that is worth saying plainly rather than filling the gap with a guess. What we do know is what it is built on. The Destrier uses the Bolide's carbon fibre monocoque and its 1,600 PS quad-turbo W16, and the Bolide is rated at 380 km/h (236 mph). The Destrier runs bigger wheels and none of the Bolide's aerodynamic bodywork, so its real number would not be the same. Until Bugatti gives one, we are not going to invent one.
Full specifications
| Engine | 8.0L quad-turbo W16 |
|---|---|
| Power | 1,600 PS (1,578 hp) |
| Chassis | Bolide carbon fibre monocoque |
| Wheels | 20-inch front, 21-inch rear |
| Brakes | 390 mm carbon-carbon discs |
| Height | Approximately 1 metre |
| Ground clearance | 68 mm nose, 88 mm tail |
| Paint | Sapphire Celeste, multi-layer |
| Design director | Frank Heyl |
| Programme | Solitaire, third commission |
| Production run | One of one |
| Revealed | 16 August 2026, Pebble Beach |
| Road legal | Not confirmed by Bugatti |
| Price | Undisclosed |
About the Destrier
The Destrier is a single car built for a single customer. It came out of Programme Solitaire, which is Bugatti's coachbuilding arm and is capped at two one-off cars a year. The Destrier is the third one, after the Brouillard and the F.K.P. Hommage. It was shown on 16 August 2026 at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance during Monterey Car Week.
Underneath it is a Bolide. Same carbon monocoque, same 8.0-litre quad-turbo W16 making 1,600 PS. What changed is everything you can see. Frank Heyl and his team took off the Bolide's wings, fins and ducts and reshaped the body into something smooth, and the result stands about a metre tall, which makes it the lowest car Bugatti has ever built. The wheels went up from the Bolide's 18-inch racing set to 20-inch at the front and 21 at the rear, the brakes are 390 mm carbon-carbon discs, and the paint is a bespoke multi-layer finish called Sapphire Celeste.
The honest question is whether you can drive it anywhere. Bugatti has not said. The Destrier does not appear in the fuel-consumption compliance listing that Bugatti publishes for its road cars, and the Bolide platform it sits on has no permit for public roads at all. Several outlets have called it road-going. Bugatti itself has not confirmed that, so for now the safe reading is that this is a car that arrives at events on a truck.
A destrier was the warhorse a medieval knight rode into battle, which is the sort of name you give a car when the point is presence rather than lap times. Bugatti called it a sculpture of speed, and given that no speed has actually been published, the sculpture half is doing most of the work.
Details from Bugatti's official press release, 16 August 2026. No top speed figure has been published by the manufacturer.