Devel Sixteen ("5,000HP, TOP SPEED 348MPH")

Bhowe83
Not to mention you'll never find anybody to take this to 350 if it was theoretically possible in any way, because this thing is bound to turn backwards and fall apart, and when a thing that creates downforce at high speed starts going backwards, it creates lift. And that massive rear wing would certainly do that.
Click to expand...
The rear wing is almost completely useless, it is flat. It would need to be curved, like an upside down plane wing, to produce even a small amount of downforce. Just goes to show how terribly this car is deigned :lol:
 
Leggy1
The rear wing is almost completely useless, it is flat. It would need to be curved, like an upside down plane wing, to produce even a small amount of downforce. Just goes to show how terribly this car is deigned :lol:
Click to expand...
Thing is, downforce turns to drag near V-max. And a large amount of downforce would put a large amount of stress on components.

And that is a bad thing as the components are Ludirous claims and False Statements.
 
legacyMACHINE
Thing is, downforce turns to drag near V-max. And a large amount of downforce would put a large amount of stress on components.

And that is a bad thing as the components are Ludirous claims and False Statements.
Click to expand...
That spoiler would produce a lot of drag, it seems like the whole exterior is designed to impress those with more money than sense. Not much function at all, which is worrying for a car that will supposedly do 350mph.

It would be a no-brainer to use active aero on this car, it looks like it will fall apart spectacularly well before it's claimed top speed with all those fixed aero parts.
 
Leggy1
That spoiler would produce a lot of drag, it seems like the whole exterior is designed to impress those with more money than sense. Not much function at all, which is worrying for a car that will supposedly do 350mph.

It would be a no-brainer to use active aero on this car, it looks like it will fall apart spectacularly well before it's claimed top speed with all those fixed aero parts.
Click to expand...

It looks like it's about ready to fall apart even when stationary...
 
Got to hand it to them for actually building the motor. That's probably at least $100,000 worth of cubic inches. How on earth you can transmit nearly 5,000hp to the ground is another story....
 
Still think this is overrated vaporware, but from what I had heard, that Steve Morris mill for this "Car" was a complete clean sheet build. I still doubt they'll build it, but if they are actually serious, they picked a good guy to build the engine since Steve has been building reliable 3,000 plus hp engines for years.
 
Grandea GTR
It's not 5,000. Ranges from 3,000-4,500 HP. Close, but not where it was claimed.
The engine I'll confidently say will be of good quality, but what about the car?
Click to expand...
Apparently the dyno could only hold 4515hp. Either way, it's 4000hp more then I expected.

I agree about the car though. I wouldn't want to be the guy testing the top speed.
 
Tunerguy21
I get the feeling that this is basically two LSs stuck together back-to-front.
Click to expand...
So do I.

xmnraok2e8nskppyevb0.jpg
 
Eunos_Cosmo
Got to hand it to them for actually building the motor. That's probably at least $100,000 worth of cubic inches. How on earth you can transmit nearly 5,000hp to the ground is another story....
Click to expand...

Exactly, fair play they built a motor but moving something at 348 MPH is another story :lol: The chassis and drivetrain is going to be everything and I reckon weight will also be a huge issue. I think if it ever happens it will be lucky to make it to 200.

mustafur
I thought it was supposed to be a Jet engine?
Click to expand...

I think it can be powered by anything they choose depending on which day of the week it is.
 
Last edited:
I'm kinda split on this one. I think the sheer power of the thing will push it to the mid-200s but it might be a terrifying experience, and likely to shake apart or take off. The aero looks really shonky but the POWAH will to some extent make up for that. When the late 70s 6-wheeler Panther Six boasted an unconfirmed 200mph maximum speed, whilst weighing about 2.5 tons, I'm pretty sure this will exceed that, but be a total dog. The makers will ultimately just keep throwing truckloads of money at this, without doing the math, and the result will be a monster nobody really wants.
 
In a World where Car Makers strive to under promise and over deliver, this manages to Over promise without an existence of car beforehand.

Im sure the people behind this just think if they throw enough money at it, it will do as claimed.

Also im surprised they didn't think of going the electric/hybrid route.

Atleast then it might contribute something to the Auto Industry, a 12 plus Litre V16 Pushrod is a joke 20 years ago let alone now.
 
Last edited:
Eunos_Cosmo
Got to hand it to them for actually building the motor. That's probably at least $100,000 worth of cubic inches. How on earth you can transmit nearly 5,000hp to the ground is another story....
Click to expand...
Well it becomes easier the faster you go. At low speed, you can just limit the power.
 
Exorcet
Well it becomes easier the faster you go. At low speed, you can just limit the power.
Click to expand...
Surely if they have an ounce of common sense they will make this AWD, but something tells me RWD will be required to get anywhere near those top speed claims.

And this is all forgeting about tyres lol.

Tyre companies would have to reinvent the tyre to make it possible to get near those speeds.

Its actually quite hilarious how badly they have over stepped the mark here, considering most of the possibility of getting their claims is completely out of their hands.

I'll assume this wouldn't be road legal.
 
mustafur
Surely if they have an ounce of common sense they will make this AWD, but something tells me RWD will be required to get anywhere near those top speed claims.
Click to expand...

Assuming everything works, the drivetrain shouldn't matter all that much. The car is greatly overpowered for 350 mph speeds. The .56 CD Famine calculated a while back is near the drag value of the Viper ACR, so you could potentially take up to 7500 lbs of downforce with you to 350 mph.

And this is all forgeting about tyres lol.
Click to expand...
Yes, I don't know of any real options for tires on this car at the claimed speed. That said though, I've heard that Top Fuel drag cars make around 800 pounds of thrust with their exhaust. Maybe the Devel sprouts wings, takes off, and flies to top speed on its exhaust power. Clearly those nozzles on the back must have a purpose.

Its actually quite hilarious how badly they have over stepped the mark here, considering most of the possibility of getting their claims is completely out of their hands.
Click to expand...
I think there is some room for them to actually build something ridiculous, but it's likely that it won't turn out to be a carefree vehicle that you just hop into and drive whenever you want.
 
Looking at the photo posted by @Grandea GTR we can see that it is a 90 degree V16. In order to obtain even firing impulses either 45 degree or 135 degree angles are used on V16's. I am guessing that the crankshaft layout is a duplicated V8 which would give even firing with a 90 degree angle if cylinders are fired in pairs.

Further to some earlier comments it does look similar to a GM LS series engine and if it is based on two LS3's and retains the original bore and stroke measurements it would displace 12,324cc.

Regarding the criticism of it using pushrods - from the dyno video we know it produces peak power at rpm which are easily reached by pushrod valvetrains so there is nothing to criticise in that design choice. It also makes complete sense to copy the architecture of an existing GM LS engine.

They have been advertising this car as having 5,000 hp, but on 93 octane (pump) fuel it produced 3,006bhp so it would be more accurate to claim 3,000bhp.

It is an interesting engineering project and like others I would not volunteer to give this vehicle a top speed test run. Normally cars designed for straightline speed feature bodywork optimised for minimum drag, but this car follows the current fashion for sharp edges and very much looks as if it has been "styled" rather than "designed". The amount of power required increases with the cube of the velocity so if the drag coefficient was known it would be possible to calculate the theoretical top speed, however I very much doubt that given the current shape of the car it would be possible to get anywhere near 348mph.

Regarding the tyres - it is difficult to imagine that there are any suitable tyres available for this car - tyres have been produced for much higher speeds for record breaking, but they are designed only to go in a straight line. Unless they get a major tyre company on board as a project partner the project will fall at that hurdle if it hasn't already due to aerodynamic, transmission or other issues.
 
How compounded would the kg of downforce be at 350Mph?

Surely that would have to be in consideration.

Regardless of its power output if its making a certain level of downforce(no idea what that is)I just cant see it making the speed, wouldn't the kg of push compound faster then the power required to go faster?
 
mustafur
How compounded would the kg of downforce be at 350Mph?

Surely that would have to be in consideration.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure what you mean by compounded.

Regardless of its power output if its making a certain level of downforce(no idea what that is)I just cant see it making the speed, wouldn't the kg of push compound faster then the power required to go faster?
Click to expand...
The down part of downforce won't do much to the top speed, also at the claimed speeds the car won't need high CL devices to generate downforce. This could lead to a lower CD.

As for power vs speed, drag power goes up with the cube of velocity. It keeps going up until the drag power equals the wheel power, then the car stops accelerating.
 
Sick Cylinder
Regarding the tyres - it is difficult to imagine that there are any suitable tyres available for this car - tyres have been produced for much higher speeds for record breaking, but they are designed only to go in a straight line. Unless they get a major tyre company on board as a project partner the project will fall at that hurdle if it hasn't already due to aerodynamic, transmission or other issues.
Click to expand...

The thing is that even the tires used for extreme speed in Land Speed Racing are rather iffy even for the short use that they get. For example, Speed Demon, one of the most successful speedliners of recent before it was totaled in a wreck, had shown serious tire wear after a few runs.

I know that the car had been trapped with an exit speed of 462 mph at Bonneville, but the wear required careful monitoring before each run with the car. Hot Rod Magazine had said that the car only runs for a minute, short (3-5 mile) drive at the flats at a time. Granted, it's well over 100 mph faster than they want the Sixteen to go, but the wear will still be a major issue for them. If the tires barely last for a good few runs, they sure as hell won't last on a street car.
 

Latest Posts

Back