Giocattolo Motori Pty Ltd was a short-lived

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

n car company, founded in 1986 by sports car enthusiast Paul Halstead and

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

designer Barry Lock. The company's name comes from the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

word for "toy". Giocattolo Group B rear sn 9

The Giocattolo was originally based on a heavily modified Alfa Romeo Sprint body shell with a mid-mounted Alfa V6 engine. By the fourth prototype, the V6 engine had proved to be too difficult and expensive to import and install in the car, so the company replaced the projected V6 by a

Holden V8 engine The Holden V8 engine, also known colloquially as the Iron Lion, is an overhead valve (OHV) V8 engine that was produced by the Australian General Motors subsidiary, Holden (GMH), between 1969 and 2000. The engine was initially fitted to the H ...

built by

Holden Special Vehicles Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) was the officially designated performance vehicle division for Holden. Established in 1987 and based in Clayton, Victoria, the privately owned company modified Holden models such as the standard wheelbase Holden Comm ...

. As well as being cheaper, these engines had more power than the Alfa engines they had originally intended to use; the reported top speed of the V8-powered Giocattolo was . Power was . It is unknown what happened to the factory Sprint engines and gearboxes that were taken from the cars. Including the Alfa-powered third prototype (which was rebuilt and re-fitted with the Holden V8 after an accident with a police car almost destroyed the vehicle), just fifteen Giocattolos were built before the company folded in 1989. Fourteen of the fifteen cars are still in existence. The other - Build No. 007 - was infamously destroyed in a fiery high-speed crash at Eastern Creek Raceway in February 2001, killing the driver, 29-year-old Todd Wilkes. The third prototype appeared on the TV show '' Beyond 2000''.

References

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External links

Giocattolo History Site
Car manufacturers of Australia Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of Australia Sports car manufacturers Hatchbacks Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive vehicles