Giocattolo Motori Pty. Ltd

The Giocattolo Motori Pty. Ltd. was an Australian automaker from Caloundra , Queensland , founded in 1986 by sports car enthusiast Paul Halstead and Formula One designer Barry Lock . As a corporate name (company) is the Italian word for toys used by 1989 the company closed .

History

The Giocattolo was originally based on a heavily modified Alfa Romeo Alfasud Sprint with V6 mid-engine . After the 4th prototype, it was discovered that the V6 engine could only be imported and installed in Australia with difficulty and at high cost. Therefore, the company used the Sprint four-cylinder model. The V6 from Alfa Romeo was replaced by a V8 engine from HSV , which was also installed at the rear. In addition to the lower price offered the HSV engine higher performance than the originally planned Alfa Romeo engine. The maximum speed of the V8 Giocattolo was determined to be 257 km / h. It is not known what happened to the four-cylinder engines and transmissions that were upgraded from the imported Italian sprint.

Including the third prototype, which was originally equipped with the Alfa Romeo V6 and after an accident with a police car, where it was almost completely destroyed, was converted to the HSV V8, only 15 Giocattolo were built before the company Had to close its doors in 1989. 13 of these 15 cars are said to still exist today, one is no longer known and one - with the chassis no. 007 - was destroyed in a high-speed accident on the Eastern Creek Raceway in February 2001, killing driver 29-year-old Todd Wilkes .

Engines