The Devel Sixteen has finally been spotted in the wild, cruising through a Chinese intersection like it wasn’t the automotive equivalent of Bigfoot.
Just one problem: it’s not the mythical beast we were promised.
The Hypercar That Never Was
Remember those outlandish claims from 2013? A 12.3-liter quad-turbocharged V16 producing 5,000 horsepower. A top speed of 348 mph. Dubai-based Defining Extreme Vehicles Car Industry LLC promised the moon, stars, and apparently the ability to break physics.
Twelve years later, we’ve got video evidence of a Devel Sixteen on public roads. The engine note, however, tells the real story.
That’s no V16. That’s a V8.
The car spotted in China packs an estimated 1,500 horsepower – impressive by any standard except the one Devel set for itself. It’s like promising Godzilla and delivering an iguana. A very fast iguana, but still.
Vaporware Made Solid (Sort Of)
The hypercar market thrives on outrageous claims, but Devel took it to another dimension:
- 5,007 hp from a quad-turbo V16 (never delivered)
- 5,090 Nm of torque (theoretical)
- 348 mph top speed (pure fantasy)
Reports confirm at least one car was built for a Japanese collector. But instead of the headline-grabbing V16, it received “merely” a turbocharged V8.
The mythical V16 engine was supposedly under development by Steve Morris Engines in the US. Test bench footage exists. Photos circulated. But no road-legal Devel has ever packed 16 cylinders.
The Hypercar Hustle
The Devel Sixteen story reads like a cautionary tale in automotive excess. Announced before Bugatti even conceived the Tourbillon, it promised to rewrite hypercar history.
Instead, it rewrote the playbook on how to keep a vaporware project alive for over a decade.
The China sighting proves something exists beyond renders and auto show displays. The car looks dramatic. It sounds angry. It moves under its own power.
But it’s not the 5,000-horsepower monster that captured imaginations in 2013.
Devel delivered approximately 30% of its promised power. In the hypercar world, that’s like showing up to a gunfight with a water pistol – a very expensive, very exclusive water pistol that still outguns most production cars, but falls catastrophically short of its own hype.
Sometimes the most impressive engineering feat isn’t the car itself, but the ability to keep people believing in unicorns.
