Behold the Bugatti Mistral ‘La Perle Rare’

This is the W16 Mistral La Perle Rare and yes, that designation can be found both under the spoiler and in the script inside. It is described as nothing less than a “deeply personal work of art”, first conceived by customer and Bugatti’s head of Sur Mesure Joseph Straub after a meeting at Pebble Beach in 2023. The aim, they say, was to “curate the extraordinary”, to take the Mistral and “enrich its character with a sculptural, fluid aesthetic that has become a signature statement for a select, mesmerizing Bugatti vehicles in the brand’s recent history”. When you get a Sur Mesure commission, Bugatti goes for the complete Bugatti.

The result of that ambition is two colors never before seen on anything made in Molsheim and tailor-made for La Perle Rare. In concrete terms, they are a ‘golden color scheme with warm highlights’ and a ‘refined warm white’. What started as a ‘silver concept’ evolved into what you see here after collaboration with a broader team and the customer. To call it two-tone would certainly seriously undermine the skill and effort required to make a car look that way, but the Mistral is predominantly white on the bottom and mainly gold on top. Why? To ‘create a beautiful separation between the upper and lower parts of the car, echoing the interplay between ground and sky.’

Plus, spending hundreds of hours on paint might as well be celebrated to the fullest. So the wheels are not gold and white, but a ‘specially formulated paint mixture’ that aims to combine the best of both. Again, it’s unlike almost anything else we’ve ever seen from Bugatti. And a parking attendant’s worst nightmare.

Speaking of which, the interior – should it ever be used to drive anything – almost looks purpose-built to get dirty. It is of course not the case that the ‘ode to elegance was continued in the composition of the interior’, but whitening all the carbon components, using white leather everywhere and white stitching using gold skin looks like a dirt disaster. Hopefully La Perle Rare will come with matching driving gloves. And the dancing elephant, if you were also wondering: is the work of Rembrandt Bugatti. Perhaps not an interior vision that everyone is satisfied with, but that is the essence of customization: it is personal down to the last square centimeter. And to make something that actually looks different after 20 years of unique Chirons, Veyrons and whatnot is quite an achievement.

Where La Perle Rare Mistral is going, who bought it and what on earth they paid to get this incredible level of customization has obviously not been made public. But it will never be mistaken for another Bugatti, or even another Mistral, so it will certainly go down as another Sur Mesure success in that respect. Straub said of this Bugatti: “The Mistral ‘La Perle Rare’ is an extraordinary example of what becomes possible when a customer’s imagination meets the full creative and technical possibilities of our Sur Mesure offering… It is both an honor and a privilege to contribute my own design signature to a creation that celebrates Bugatti’s inimitable design style and rich heritage, while embodying the individuality that makes this Sur Mesure commission so special.” Then don’t be surprised if there are more to come soon, as well as additional projects from the Solitaire offshoot of truly extraordinary one-offs. Because why would you, as a billionaire, only have a Bugatti, when you could have a Bugatti like no one else’s?