Bugatti Reveals World-First Aero Technology On New Bolide Hypercar

TheBugatti Bolidedebuted back in October as the company's fastest, lightest, andmost extreme track-weapon. Hopefully, some of the Bolide's engineering innovations will be applied to future production cars. One of these innovations is what Bugatti is calling a Dimple Airscoop. Since the start of 2020, young engineer Nils Ballerstein has been preparing a doctoral thesis project to develop a special morphable outer skin for Bugatti's New Technologies department, which was used for the first time in the Bolide.

Ballerstein first came up with a simple idea in 2019 during his master's degree thesis. He discovered Bugatti's new3D-printed brake calipersmade of titanium that cooled as water flowed through it. To improve the heat transfer and disperse heat more selectively, he added a dimple pattern inside the channels. This simple solution mixed the fluid in the channels more effectively and reduced the temperature of the brake calipers. Impressed with the result, he then wondered if the same effect can be achieved with airflow.

Bugatti likens this unique aerodynamic design to a golf ball, where dimples on the surface minimize air drag enabling the ball to travel twice as far with the same impact force compared to an identical golf ball with no dimples. After completing his master's thesis, he stayed at Bugatti to apply his idea to the Bolide.

In a world-first, the intake scoop features a morphable outer skin to optimize the active airflow. When the car is driven at slow speeds, the surface stays smooth, but at high speed a series of 60 dimples bulge out and extend variably by up to 0.3 inches. At speeds above 74 mph, the dimples effectively reduce air resistance, improving the car's aerodynamics. Like the active rear wing on the Veyron andChiron, they can also extend and retract within tenths of a second to respond to changes in speed.