Bugatti is producing only 40 units of the Bolide, each designed exclusively for track use, but someone has been brave enough to call upon Lanzante to transform this beast into a road-legal weapon.
Lanzante is responsible for many road-legal conversions in including the latest Porsche 935 and even the highly sought-after Lamborghini Sesto Elemento.
Speaking with CarBuzz at the Goodwood Festival of Speed last month, CEO Dean Lanzante explained what’s next. Alongside showing interest in the upcoming Red Bull RB17, he confirmed the Bolide shares enough DNA with other Bugatti models to make a road conversion viable.
Turning a race-bred car into one that meets road regulations isn’t straightforward. Some machines simply can’t be converted, no matter the expertise. As Lanzante put it, track cars used to begin life as road cars modified for racing, but today many are purpose-built race machines with quirks like preheating requirements, bump-start systems, and batteries that drain after only a few attempts. When a car comes into their workshop, they evaluate whether it’s feasible, and sometimes the answer is no.
Even in cases where a conversion is possible, drivability becomes the challenge. Cars that are fragile or too extreme are not worth putting on the road. Still, Lanzante pointed out that regulations leave plenty of room to manoeuvre. You need to pass emissions and meet pedestrian safety standards, but there’s no law on ride height, suspension stiffness, or cabin heat. These are comforts, not legal requirements, which give them flexibility to create cars that remain usable in daily life.
That’s where the Bolide fits perfectly. Despite being one of the wildest creations ever built by Bugatti, it’s unusually well-suited for a Lanzante project. The W16 engine can pass emissions, the gearbox is intuitive, and the overall build quality is high.
Under the skin, the Bolide carries Bugatti’s 8.0-litre quad-turbocharged W16 engine from the Chiron, paired with a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. The engine has larger turbo blades, pushing output to 1,578 hp (1,177 kW).
The future road-legal Bolide will most definitely need more appropriate tyres as they currently cost $8,000 each and last only about 60 km, which won’t quite cut it.