Footage has finally emerged of the Devel Sixteen on the test track and it has received a surprisingly mixed reception for reasons not fully linked to the performance of the vehicle itself.
Back in 2016, Devel Motors unveiled the prototype of its 5,000 horsepower Devel Sixteen, a 12.8-liter V16 engine car that the company claimed would be capable of reaching speeds of over 300 mph (482 km/h).
Devel Motors was founded in the United Arab Emirates in 2006 with the goal of building an audacious hypercar, the Devel Sixteen, fit for the region’s high-end auto market. Fifteen years later, and the batmobile-looking machine is still in the works. We finally have some test footage, though it’s underwhelming, to say the least.
The newly released footage was described as shockingly bad and “super lame” by New Atlas, and “like it was made by someone’s uncle” by The Drive. While the car might look impressive speeding down the test track, those publications took issue with the shaky low-quality test footage released by Devel Motors, a company that aims to sell its Devel Sixteen hypercar for a million dollars a unit.
An audacious 350 mph promise
The finished Devel Sixteen model will eventually run using its four huge 81 mm turbochargers, allowing it to reach a top speed of 350 mph (563 km/h). While the insanely ambitious promises made by Devel Motors have led many to believe the car will never go into production, the company has put a great deal of investment into its development. The motor, for example, has already been developed thanks to Michigan-based custom builder Steve Morris Engines. Devel Motors may want to speed up development though — wait much longer and it will unleash that sheer power into a world in which internal combustion engines are largely obsolete.
In any case, Devel Motor’s latest footage shows a prototype of the vehicle, though without the turbos fitted, according to the video preface. The footage is, indeed, surprisingly low quality, and the person filming struggled to keep the Devel Sixteen in the shot — though not because it’s going too fast, which is presumably what the video editors hoped viewers would think. It might not be the shiny high-end production we’d expect from a luxury hypercar maker, but at least it’s something. Frankly, if the vehicle’s creators somehow deliver on their promise of reaching 350 mph, no one will care if the early test footage was filmed on a potato. Though, that is a very big “if”. Have a look at the test footage below.