Current June issue is featuring the Giocattolo and what is believed to be Mussolini's 6C-2500...
A the little toy...a dream car of mine
I once visited Rob Halstead's showroom and workshop in North Sydney called of all things "The Toy Shop", where they built "the little toy". It was, to this day, the cleanest workshop I have ever seen, much like a professional race team.
Sometimes years ago I would hear the car referred to as the"Chooklotto"!!! That was at Jeff Dutton's showroom during one of his open house nights.There was a yellow one there for sale along with the red 4R. That was a long time ago,probably in the Eighties.....Cheers
I beleive the Giacatollo was built in Queensland somewhere, they were privately purchased in New Zealand and imported into Australia, where the 1700 carby engines, gearboxes, suspensions, brakes, bonnets, gaurds, etc where sold off, for about $3,000 in about 1988, the parts were advertised in the Saturday Age, one of my fellow club members purchased the parts off the cars for his Sprint, i remember he said he felt nervous about sending a cheque for $3,000 to a 80's wheeler dealer from Queensland, and was releived when the parts turned up, but later met the guy behind it, and said he was quite a down to earth bloke with a passion for cars, was his name Paul Halsted?, Colin.
Of course its from Qld right down to the Bundy in the toolkit. Engineering by Barry Lock, which means that mad aero probably works... And it is still called the chook lotto - even by KP (who owns one).
One of these would rock. later models used an ausie V8 (supplied by HSV) which was rear/mid mounted. A boss of mine used to do mountain climbs in a yellow V8 giogattalo.
The cars were aparently well but together by Barry Lock and his crew, so they weren't just show pieces they actually worked. Shame we can't get more of these types of vehicles still being built in Australia.
1750GT
Yes...they are very well engineered and built. Paul Halstead and Barry Lock (F1 designer) constructed an excellent chassis. Unfortunately, Alfa Romeo at the time did not cover themsleves in glory and allegedly reneged on a deal to supply the new 3 litre engine for the car. Consequently, all cars were fitted with Holden sourced V8s. They are tightly held by enthusiasts now and I believe there are 13 left. There are two white cars that I know of in Victoria.
I heard a story, that by the time all the bribes and import duties had taken their toll, the Alfa V-6 was way out of the picture, and there was a similar type of car being made in Italy, the engine parts for the Aussie V-8 would be cheap and readily available, followed one round Phillip Island in damp conditions, about 20 years ago, looked like a real handfull, Colin.
Yes that's right Paul not Rob, it was back in the eighties and many a brain cell has gone to god since ::)
Yes pretty much spot on re what has been said. From memory, they only ever made 13, all had the Holden V8. From memory also I think that Paul Halstead was also somehow associated with Lamborghini, though what exactly I can't recall.
Sportscar World Magazine did a feature on the very first one made, I think it was painted red. Over the years there have been a number of Giacottolo's that have competed in Targa Tas. I am pretty sure I still have a copy of the magazine.
I see to recall that when new they cost around the $100k mark. Pretty expensive given their relatively humble origins but you were paying for serious bang for buck with a lot of special engineering built into them.
Here's a short piece on the giogattalo and the reason the HSV V8 made its way into the car.
If this article is right even the cops owned one, poor form putting a set of flashing lights on top of the car? i wonder what happend to this car?
http://alfasud.alfisti.net/gioe.html
1750GT
As per the image in the first post, there were 15 made.
One crashed in a tragic circumstances at Eastern Creek (http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/19/1082357114220.html) and one is unaccounted for; leaving 13 known Giocattolo's out there.
When the Giacatollo was given to the highway patrol police to 'evaluate', it was filmed by A Current Affair, the publicity it got couldn't have been brought, about 25 years ago ACA wasn't the sludgefest it is now, it used to do 'Current Affairs', i still maintain that i read the reason they were going to use the Alfa V-6, is because there was a similar project in Italy, and the original price for the V-6 was good, but then all the bribes to get the V-6 to happen pushed the price out of reach, has anyone else heard this story?, in the very early days of the Victorian 'Spectacollo', Alfa Club car display day, one actually turned up, not on a trailer, just driven there, except in those days Spectacollo was called the 'Gala' day, Colin.
Hmmm....
The article about Musollini's 6C 2500 looks suspiciously similar to an article that appeared on page 96 of the February 2012 edition of Classic & Sports Car (UK). It's a very elegant machine indeed.
/drool
Dang... It's right hand drive too!