Production-Ready 5,000-HP Devel Sixteen Coming This Year

Feb. 21, 2019 9:50 AM ET by Jay Traugott Scoop / 10 Comments

Devel tells us 2019 is the year.

Earlier this week we found out that the 5,000-hp Devel Sixteen hypercar currently has a two-year long customer wait list. That's pretty impressive considering a production-ready car has yet to happen. Up until now, we've only seen concepts in varying degrees of development. We reached out to the Dubai-based company and asked when production will get underway and received the following response:

"The production of Devel Sixteen is currently at full speed. Our goal is to reveal the production version of the car by year end. However, we have yet to decide the destination to unveil this ultimate hypercar to the world. We will keep you posted at a later date."

There you have it. This is the year. We hope. Of course, there could be unforeseen delays, which is common for any automaker, big or small. Just look at the upcoming mid-engined C8 Chevrolet Corvette. Its launch was supposedly delayed due to a last-minute problem with its electrical system. Devel, founded by the Al Attar brothers in 2006, also experienced some setbacks. Most notably was when its development and engineering partner, Manifattura Automobili Torino (MAT), left the project not long ago. But apparently, there's been progress since then.

Power is set to come from a 12.3-liter quad-turbo V16 engine with a claimed 5,007 hp, and a V8 version is also said to be in the works. The base price for the street-legal version is $1.6 million. Devel declined to say how many examples it has planned or an exact customer count, but we can be sure both are very limited. The goal is to have a top speed of around 310 mph, which would make the Devel Sixteen faster than the current world record holder, the Koenigsegg Agera RS and its expected challenger, the Hennessey Venom F5.

Despite the many setbacks, we remain hopeful 2019 will be the year we'll look back on when over 5,000 hp came blazing out of the Dubai sands.