The Devel Sixteen was absolutely one of the standout cars from this year’s Canadian International Auto Show. If you’re unfamiliar, it’s a new hypercar from Dubai. Its engine has sixteen cylinders, four turbochargers, and makes a reported 5007 horsepower. The engine exists, this much we know. The rest of the car I’m not so sure about.

In person the Sixteen looked like a cartoon car. It was the kind of thing a 12 year old would draw; a road missile and fighter jet mixed together. The body panels seemed flimsy and didn’t quite line up with each other. It certainly didn’t look like something that could harness the power output of three Abrams tanks.

Seen It All Before

There have been countless headline-grabbing oh-yeah-we’re-gonna-build-it cars that turn out to be nothing but hot air. This bat shit-crazy rocket is sillier than most of them. I just don’t see how a 5000 horsepower engine could work in a road car. There are race engines that make that kind of power but they run on pure alcohol, not pump gas. They also run for minutes at a time to prevent the motors grenading themselves. What they don’t do is sit in traffic, idle nicely, or follow emissions rules at all.

And

Then there’s the issue of tires. The Bugatti Chiron is restricted from hitting its true top speed because nobody makes tires that can handle those forces and still do normal tire things like stop and grip in the corners. And that’s just in a straight line! God forbid you take a turn at 250 mph in your Devel Sixteen. It’s a stupid car and all it cares about is horsepower cock-measuring. Prove me wrong Devel!

So, to put it mildly I’m extremely skeptical that there will ever be more than a couple of Sixteens in the world. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see it because I’m an engineering nerd and a child. It’s a 5000 horsepower car!! Thankfully, on the engineering front, the amazing engine already exists in prototype. Come by on Friday and read all about it! Here’s the Sixteen doing an acceleration test “with low boost and only 20% throttle.”