Back in 2013, an unknown Middle Eastern supercar maker revealed the Devel Sixteen at the Dubai Motor Show. With a claimed 5000 hp on tap, the entirety of the automotive world scoffed and dismissed those rather ridiculous claims.
Well fast forward to the end of 2015 and incredibly, the Sixteen’s bespoke V16 engine has almost hit that 5000 hp mark, recording an insane 4,515 hp on an engine dyno.
The engine of the Devel Sixteen has been created by Steve Morris Engines and displaces 12.3-litres and includes four huge 81 mm turbochargers. Additionally, the completely bespoke engine includes a billet block and camshaft as well as titanium valves.
When strapped onto a dyno, the engine recorded 4515 hp at 6900 rpm while running on 36 psi of boost. Torque was an equally insane 3519 lb-ft at 6600 rpm also running at 36 psi of boost. When the boost levels were dropped to 20 psi, the massive engine still managed to deliver 3006 hp, more than three times the power of the Bugatti Veyron’s quad-turbo 8.0-litre W16 engine. As if that wasn’t enough, it is claimed that the dyno being used couldn’t withstand over 4515 hp and that the engine itself actually has over 5000 hp on tap.
For a production car, anything above 1500 hp is unprecedented and even the most insanely-tuned road cars rarely deliver over 2000 hp. Internal combustion engines themselves however, can pump out over 10,000 hp, most notably when used in top fuel dragsters.
So while putting out near-5000 hp on an engine dyno is impressive, it doesn’t mean the Devel Sixteen is any closer to becoming a road-going reality. After all, the transmission needed to deal with such power could be totally unusable on the street. What’s more, creating a road car that provides enough power to cool the engine is another issue entirely.