The Bugatti Bolide Concept Was Designed by a 27-Year-Old Former Intern

Nils Sajonz also had a hand in the Divo, La Voiture Noire, and Centodieci. He's since been promoted to Head of Special Projects at Bugatti Design.
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Prepare to feel bad about your own personal and professional accomplishments all over again, because as it turns out, Bugatti’s ridiculous-looking, lightweight Bolide “technological concept” was mostly designed by 27-year-old Nils Sajonz who started with the company just five years ago as an intern. So, tell me, what have you done lately?

It doesn’t sound like Sajonz had to spend much time going for coffee runs and making photocopies before getting to do some “real work,” because pre-Bolide, the young designer had already cultivated quite the CV, having a hand in the Divo, La Voiture Noire one-off, and Centodieci. Even off-the-clock, Sajonz appears to live and breathe Bugatti, apparently completing his university thesis on a “Bugatti design study for autonomous racing.” What’s more, the Bolide definitely won’t be the last special edition Bugatti he works on either since he was recently promoted to Head of Special Projects at Bugatti Design.

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Bugatti

“Working to design the Bugatti Bolide was a phenomenal experience,” said Sajonz. “The Bolide is an outpouring of expression from our design team. We recognized that a track-focused hyper sports car represents the best next step for Bugatti, and the Bolide embodies an outstanding example for our design guiding principles. It is extreme, it is radical and it is contemporary, everything that Bugatti stands for. Bugatti never stands still and we are always searching for the next rousing goals.”

Weighing just 2,734 pounds, the Bolide is Bugatti’s idea of a lightweight track car—a Bugatti GT3 RS if there were such a thing. Naturally, it’s powered by an 8.0-liter W16 pumping out 1,825 horsepower. A Bugatti Miata, then, this is not. The company says it offers performance “akin to a Formula 1 Car” and will hit a top speed “well above” 310 mph. 

If you’ve got any plans of proving that top speed claim, Bugatti, please make sure to have it properly verified by third parties and have video evidence and GPS data that add up mathematically. That said, if the people tasked with arranging all of that is as tenacious and on-point as the young professional who designed the Bolide itself, we don’t think it’ll be a problem.

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