The Devel Sixteen is beyond anything we have ever seen. Sure, the Aston Martin V12 Speedster is wild, and the Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport is bananas, but those cars still live on this planet. The Devel sixteen does not. For one, it has 5,000 horsepower… For two, its first promotional video seems to lack the quality and precision one might expect from a hypercar builder. For something so monumental to be showcased in such a way is a bit perplexing. However, if the car performs half as well as it looks and its fire-breathing powerplant should, then who cares about the goofy video? 

The Devel Sixteen was made for the UAE

As most of us know at this point, the UAE and Dubai, in particular, is the world’s capital for overabundance and shockingly opulent spending. So, it would stand to reason that hungry capitalists would flock to this market and make the most over-the-top versions of anything they could. 

It’s no secret that the car scene in the UAE is bonkers. In 2006, when Devel Motors was founded, the bonkers car scene fell deeper into its lunacy. Devel Motors was founded on the goal of taking the entirety of the flashiest car market in the universe, the UAE and distilling that market into one brand that would make everything else irrelevant. 

However, this official promotional video doesn’t exactly exude lavishness and luxury. The film is backed by a generic rock backing track that feels more like an arcade game score than a super-powered hypercar. The sound issues don’t stop there. The sound recording for the promotional video is echo-y and seemingly unmixed.

If the poor sound mixing weren’t enough, the man on screen delivers his lines with a lukewarm, unenthused diction that doesn’t exactly create much excitement. For such a ground-breaking and exciting car, the promotional video feels more like someone talking about a washing machine.

Meet the Devel Sixteen

The Devel Sixteen was meant to take the newly introduced Bugatti Veyron and make it look silly. It was meant to be a hellish mixture of a part jet fighter, and one part unspeakable fell beast. It would conjure these visions of terror by showcasing an unseemly amount of horsepower of which our world has never seen. 

Well, it’s been fifteen years, and the legendary super-hypercar has still yet to be built. However, Devel has made some progress in the engine building department. 

Although the company is promising three versions – the top of which is the track-only 5,000-hp version – all three are well beyond anything most drivers have ever experienced. According to New Atlas, the 5,000-hp Devel is the top trim and would not be street legal. The slightly less insane car sports the same custom-built 12.3-liter V16 engine running four massive 81mm turbochargers but only gets 3,000 horses. Lastly, a 2,000-hp V8 version will bring up the rear. 

Test video shows the beating heart that makes the Devel so powerful

First, we have to assume Devel can pull off such a feat. However, if they can, we are then forced to ask, “why?” 

We recently watched the 2020 SSC Tuatara crush the fastest production car world record. This has many hypercar makers getting sweaty. Hypercars are nothing if not the most ridiculous. Devel is clearly trying to grab the most powerful and fastest production car record. 

This is what hypercar customers are after. This fact is doubly true for the UAE car market. If it isn’t the most expensive or most powerful, or rarest, then it might as well not exist in this market. Devel clearly understands that market pressure and seems to be trying its best to get there. 

Is 5,000 hp too much? Probably. But as technology and capabilities progress, so too will our desire for more, more, more. However, this desire for more, more, more clearly doesn’t apply to Devel’s video production. I guess if the car is good enough, maybe no one will care about this lackluster video promotion.