Devel Sixteen Faces Development Issues; Project Put on Hold

Every few months, a new startup arrives on the supercar scene claiming to build a hypercar with stupefying performance. But, none of these projects can match the claims made by Devel, the Dubai-based supercar startup. The company first presented its hypercar, the ‘Sixteen’ as a concept in 2013 and after a few years of silence, it was back at the 2017 Dubai Auto Show. The Sixteen was claimed to feature a quad-turbo, 12.3-liter V16 engine delivering more than 5000 horsepower which would help the car reach speeds in excess of 300 mph.

Now, Road and Track reports that the Devel Sixteen project has been put on a hold owing to issues with engineering and design of the car. The company reportedly has problems finding ways to cool the massive engine for road use. It was originally designed by Steve Morris Racing of America for Drag racing. Moreover, the current design of the Sixteen makes it hard for the car to stay on ground at high speeds. In fact, the source states that the Sixteen is still essentially acting as a large wing. On top of all the bottlenecks, the company’s engineering collaborator MAT (Manufattura Automobili Torino) from Italy has left the project. Owing to all this, the development on the Sixteen has come to a halt.

In a report which appeared earlier this year, Devel claimed to build three variations of the Sixteen. One with a twin-turbo V8 delivering 2000 hp and priced at $1.6 million. The second variant was supposed to arrive with 3000 hp twin-turbo V8 and lastly the aforementioned 5000 hp V16. We hope to learn more about the development status of the V8 variants soon.

Source: RoadandTrack