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The Destrier is the third project from the Solitaire team, following the Brouillard and the F.K.P. Hommage, and it's formed around the same carbon-fiber monocoque as the Bolide. But the Bolide's extreme styling, with huge intakes carved into the front end, dramatic X-shaped LED headlights, and a ginormous rear wing, has been smoothed out and replaced by bodywork that would look more at home in front of a chalet along the French Riviera than screaming around Circuit Paul Ricard.

Named for a type of horse that carried medieval knights into battle, the Destrier is a breathtaking machine. The roof stands less than 40 inches above the ground, and the sleek body looks shrink-wrapped around the mechanical elements. While the overall shape is reminiscent of its track-bred sibling, the Destrier has more ornate decoration. The signature Bugatti C-line is more pronounced and outlined in chrome trim, and it wraps around to the front end, where it meets a wider horseshoe grille than on the Bolide.

The grille gets its own chrome border, with another chrome line forming a spine that runs up the hood and over the roof. The X-shaped headlights have been replaced by ovoid units housing a series of horizontal dashes, and the aerodynamic appendages behind the front wheels have been simplified from a series of gill-like slashes to a single fin. While the Bolide used 18-inch wheels, the Destrier swaps in 20-inch wheels up front and 21-inch wheels, giving it a more purposeful stance.

At the rear, the towering wing and shark fin have been ditched in favor of a lower wing that flows unbroken from the powerful rear haunches and carries a vertical brake light. The taillights have also been reduced to a pair of thin lines, although when viewed from above, they reveal a dazzling array of tiny LEDs. While the Destrier is meant to be more elegant than the Bolide, it still features a sizable rear diffuser beneath the quad exhaust outlets.

Structurally, the cabin is nearly identical to that of the Bolide, but there are drastic changes to the materials. Brown leather covers the seats and center console; the latter is also adorned with a pinstripe design. The dashboard, door panels, and shoulder pads for the seats, meanwhile, are covered in a 3-D-knitted textile, which Bugatti says is inspired by performance sportswear. Copper yarns are woven through the textile in a circular "halo-line" pattern and create a sparkle effect as light hits it.

Important functions are handled via a panel of buttons that sits inside a brushed metal housing, itself set atop a carbon-fiber base that flows up and onto the dashboard. The Destrier also features a unique metal finish that looks as if it has been hammered repeatedly, a nod to medieval armor, which appears on the door handle, air vents, steering wheel, and sill plate.

Underneath the fresh bodywork is the same powertrain as the Bolide, a quad-turbocharged 8.0-liter W-16 that sends 1578 horsepower to all four wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox. There's no word on how much this one-off Bugatti costs, but given that the company built 40 examples of the Bolide at around $4.8 million a pop, we would expect the unique Destrier to cost at least a couple of million more. The Destrier will make its public debut during Monterey Car Week, appearing at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance on August 16, 2026.

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Caleb Miller began blogging about cars at 13 years old, and he realized his dream of writing for a car magazine after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University and joining the Car and Driver team. He loves quirky and obscure autos, aiming to one day own something bizarre like a Nissan S-Cargo, and is an avid motorsports fan.