Bugatti W16 Mistral, Blue Carbon

The W16 Mistral took its cue from a Bugatti built 88 years before it: the 1934 Type 57 Roadster Grand Raid, an open two-seater marked out by a cut-down, V-shaped windscreen and twin aerodynamic headrests that flowed back into the bodywork. That car, in two-tone black and yellow, is now in the Louwman Museum in The Hague. On the Mistral the same ideas return as a curved windscreen that wraps round into the side glass like a visor and two air scoops rising behind the seats, built from a carbon structure strong enough to carry the whole weight of the car in a roll-over. Ninety-nine were made, the last series-production Bugattis with the W16.

This car is finished in exposed carbon tinted a deep blue, the weave catching the light across the bonnet and the long rear deck, with a thin orange-copper pinstripe running down the centre. Inside, orange upholstery glows through the windscreen; at the corners, yellow brake calipers sit behind two-tone silver-and-black wheels. The X-shaped tail lamps, the BUGATTI lettering across the rear grille and the raised wing on its polished supports are all crisply rendered. The roadster rests on a black suede-finish base with white contrast stitching and a nameplate bearing the Bugatti macaron, the Mistral script and a piece number from an edition of 30. H&H builds it at 1:18.