by Stephen Rivers
- Lanzante confirmed it is making at least one Bugatti Bolide road legal.
- The 1,825-hp W16 hypercar already has the right components for conversion.
- Mods will include new road tires while keeping the Bolide’s nature intact.
The Bugatti Bolide was built as a purebred track machine, a car that seemed destined never to leave the circuit. With 1,825 horsepower, a carbon-fiber body light enough to feel almost fragile, and racing tires that struggle to last even 40 miles, it was designed to chase records, not sit in a line of commuters.
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Now, against all odds, one of these rare monsters is being prepared for the public road. The effort comes courtesy of British specialists Lanzante, who have made a reputation out of taming the untamable. For the Bolide, that means swapping curbing and pit lanes for speed bumps and roundabouts.
If anyone can pull this kind of trick off, it’s Lanzante. The company made its name by giving racing legends a second life on public roads. From the McLaren F1 GTR to the modern Porsche 935, there are plenty of examples of Lanzante’s expertise. Their latest project, revealed at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, might be the craziest yet.
A Familiar Challenge
Speaking to CarBuzz, company boss Dean Lanzante confirmed that the Bolide has the right DNA for a conversion and that it’s working on one. “We are currently doing Bugatti Bolide, which has some carryover with road cars. The engine will pass emissions. We’ve got a really easy, user-friendly gearbox and a high-quality level of build,” Lanzante said. “There are a lot of good things on that car.”
Saying that a Bugatti has a lot of “good things” might sound silly, but Lanzante isn’t talking about carbon fiber or Alcantara materials. He was talking about the underlying engineering, the parts that determine whether a car can be driven to the shops without feeling like a small-scale endurance race.
When Race Cars Go Too Far
As Lanzante put it, earlier generations of track cars were often modified versions of road cars. “Track cars used to be road cars, heavily modified for track use,” said Lanzante/ “Now, a lot of these track cars are racing cars. [Some cars] need preheating, [others have] a bump start mechanism where you can only get about three starts before you get a flat battery. We get them in our workshop, have a look, and go ‘yes’ or ‘no’ [on doing a conversion].”
In other words, some cars are so track-focused that a conversion is nearly impossible from a practical standpoint. Nobody wants to bump start their $3-million Bugatti in traffic and have to explain “no, no, it’s not broken… this is how it’s supposed to work,” only for everyone else around them to snicker at their seemingly poor life choices.
There’s no set timeline for when Lanzante’s road-legal Bolide will emerge, but when it does, it will stand apart even in the rarified company of Bugatti’s most radical creations. Turning one of the wildest cars on earth into something you can legally park outside a café is no small feat, and Lanzante seems determined to prove it can be done.
