Carmaker Bugatti has unveiled the Mistral Blanc Éternal, a sports car covered with unusual porcelain accents including speaker grilles and armrests.

The Mistral Blanc Éternal was informed by a white vase created for the manufacturer by the Italian modernist designer Enzo Mari in the 1990s, finished with flowing royal blue lines.

"The vase's continuous royal-blue strokes inspired our designers to consider how a similarly pure graphic language could be translated onto the complex, sculptural volumes of a hyper sports car," said Bugatti.

It is an updated version of Bugatti's Mistral, also known as the W16 Mistral, a 2022 mid-engine two-seater sports car.

For the special edition, Bugatti collaborated with Berlin porcelain expert Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur (KPM) to clad both the exterior and interior of the car with pieces of black and white china arranged in a striking decorative formation.

The individual porcelain pieces were affixed to the vehicle's exterior body, which was developed using an entirely digital design process that did not require the clay models traditionally used to sculpt the shape of a car.

Also on the outside of the vehicle, porcelain covers the Bugatti EB emblems as well as the fuel cap and engine inlays.

On the car's interior, various components were made from the same china, including speaker grilles, casing for the gear stick and two kneepad inlays.

The armrests and the window-lifter buttons were also crafted from porcelain.

White leather was chosen for the seating upholstery, painted with the same black lines as the porcelain components.

"Rather than confining porcelain to purely decorative inserts, Bugatti and KPM have made it a functional and tangible part of the W16 Mistral experience," said the car brand.

The Mistral Blanc Éternal is not the first porcelain-clad car developed by the duo. In 2011, Bugatti and KPM designed L'Or Blanc, a porcelain-accented version of the car brand's Veyron Grand Sport model.

In 2019, Bugatti designed a one-off supercar made from carbon fibre for an anonymous enthusiast for the price of  €11 million. At the time, it was reported to be the "world's most expensive car".

Three years ago, the luxury brand made its first foray into residential real estate with designs for a 42-storey skyscraper in Dubai that will have two garage-to-penthouse car lifts.

The photography is courtesy of Bugatti.